Ethical Dilemmas in Research

When first faced with the question "Did you encounter any ethical dilemmas during the course of your research?", I was confused as to how ethical dilemmas could arise in the level of research being conducted. Soon though, some circumstances arose in which I could see ethical challenges occurring. For example, my husband works for a Ford dealership. Would my research be skewed by asking him to participate in the survey as three of the five models are Fords? I quickly decided it would not as he is somewhat of a "gearhead" and is capable of looking at vehicles objectively. I was actually excited to compare his results to the results of others based on his increased knowledge and familiarity with cars. Ethical crisis dealt with and averted.

In two circumstances, my survey participants missed a question on the survey. Grrrrrr! Could I just guess what they might have said based on other responses? But again, the "ethical" question popped to mind. No, I couldn't, shouldn't, I should clarify with my participants to ensure accuracy in my research. While additional work and frustration, I am confident and comfortable with the accuracy of my research based on the information provided by those I surveyed.   

Brand Perception

I asked a number of co-workers and friends to help me with my this project with no rhyme or reason to who I asked. Interestingly enough, eight of the nine people who agreed to help me were female. I couldn't help but wonder if gender in general had any bearing on the perception of the brand. Answering this is for another research project though I suppose.