About the lecture

In this lecture, we take some of the key considerations from lecture two and bring them into the wider context of research, focusing in particular on: (i) the concept of consent; (ii) a core principle of research ethics being autonomy, theoretically requiring a participant to be fully informed about a study they are about to participate in; (iii) why this might not be possible and the resulting alternative definition that has been developed – valid consent; (iv) the four key methods by which a researcher might ascertain consent being an information sheet, a verbal presentation, a pictorial representation or video, and an open dialogue.

About the lecturer

John Oates is emeritus professor of developmental psychology at the Open University. His special field of research is child development, specifically perinatal mental health and early child development. Professor Oates is the lead for the British Psychological Society code of human research ethics and has a position in Brussels working for the European Research Council reviewing research bids. Some of Professor Oates’ recent publications include ‘Social constructions of mental health among Romani in Ukraine’ (2021) and ‘Mothers’ perceptions of their infants’ (2019).