What role does ethics play in social science research? What are some examples of research that presented ethical dilemmas for the researcher?

In considering this question, it is important to first consider the types of research commonly used in social science research: qualitative and quantitative research.

Qualitative research is exploratory. It investigates the reasons that things happen, the interactions between forces, the motivations between actors, and similar phenomena in order to develop hypotheses regarding the problems in society and possible solutions. Quantitative, on the other hand, relies on statistics and data to make determinations about these issues.

As these research methods require different research processes, they evoke unique ethical issues: qualitative research deals with the ethical treatment of subjects while quantitative research raises issues of the ethical treatment of data. I have briefly outlined the issues and provided sources for further information below:

In qualitative research, researchers have direct contact with human subjects and their stories. This raises issues of confidentiality as well as the manner in which the researcher interacts with the subjects. For more information, please refer to Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods by Michael Patton. For a more in depth analysis of the ethics of qualitative research, particularly the lines to draw in immersing oneself in their research and related issues, please refer to Every Twelve Seconds by Timothy Pachairat.

In quantitative research, researchers handle raw data in order to make determinations about the subject. In doing so, they frequently have the opportunity to mislead using seemingly concrete data. The researcher has a responsibility to only use data to illustrate the truth. For more information, refer to The Handbook of Social Research Ethics by Donna Mertens and Pauline Ginsberg.

For more information about ethics impacting both qualitative and quantitative research ethics including the ethical design of studies, please refer to Research Design by John Creswell.

Why is Duncan so happy with Macbeth and so unhappy with Macdonwald?

In Act I, Scene 2, Duncan learns from his son Malcolm and a wounded sergeant that Macbeth has performed loyally and courageously in battle. In hand-to-hand combat, Macbeth fought his way to Macdonwald, leader of rebel forces, and slashed him to death. Just after this battle, the King of Norway sent fresh troops against them, but Macbeth (and Banquo) fought valiantly through another battle and prevailed. As King of Scotland, Duncan is deeply displeased that some of his own thanes (including Macdonwald) joined a rebellion. His satisfaction over the death of the traitorous Macdonwald is tempered by the news that Ross delivers: the Thane of Cawdor, too, has turned against Scotland and allied himself with the King of Norway. Duncan orders the Thane of Cawdor's execution and gives that title to Macbeth.

What is the significance of the opening of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451?

In the opening scene of Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to Montag as he carries out his duties as a fireman. This scene provides an essential introduction to Montag's world, a dark and brutal place in which books are banned and burned by the firemen. Bradbury uses words like "blackened," "venomous" and "charcoal" to support this idea and to evoke an image in the reader's mind of a dark and dystopian society.

In addition, the opening is significant because it provides an example of situational irony. Through this description of Montag, for instance, we expect that the story will develop along the same lines: that Montag will continue to find "pleasure" in burning and will continue to wear the "fiery smile" of all firemen. Ironically, however, Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of Montag's transformation from contented fireman to free-thinker.

Why does the crowd kill Cinna the Poet in Act III of Julius Caesar? What is Shakespeare saying about the Roman public?

The crowd mistakes Cinna the poet for Cinna the conspirator, which shows the Romans are whipped into a frenzy and not really paying attention to details at that point.

There was a conspirator named Cinna. Unfortunately, poor Cinna the poet is mistaken for this other Cinna after Mark Antony turns the Roman citizens into an angry mob with his funeral speech. He stirs up anger and resentment toward the conspirators. By calling Brutus and the conspirators honorable men in one breath and calling them murderers in another, Antony tells the crowd he does not want mutiny while basically telling them to mutiny.

Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny (Act III, Scene 2).

After the speech, a group accosts Cinna the poet on the street and begins to interrogate him. He is confused because he was just innocently walking along. They ask him his name and where he is going. Although he tells them he is not a conspirator, they decide to kill him anyway.

CINNA THE POET

Truly, my name is Cinna.

First Citizen

Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator.

CINNA THE POET

I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.

Fourth Citizen

Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses (Act III, Scene 3).

They want to kill Cinna when they think he is a conspirator. When they find out he is not, they want to kill him anyway; they are in such a frenzy that they just want an excuse to kill anyone. There is no reason to kill a poet for bad poetry. This crowd probably hasn’t even read his poetry. They are just out for blood.

Shakespeare's point about the people of Ancient Rome is that they are so stirred up by this point that they are bloodthirsty. This is why they kill an innocent man. They are a weapon and Antony loaded and pointed them. He understands that the people of Ancient Rome are a little wild sometimes.

How have low oil prices affected the Malaysian economy?

Not well. Unlike most other countries in Asia, Malaysia has for a long time been a net oil exporter. Actually, it very recently became a net oil importer like most countries, and if that persists it will help Malaysia bear the shock.

Oil is a relatively inelastic good in the short run, which means that a 1% drop in oil prices leads to less than a 1% increase in demand, and so as prices fall, total revenues from oil fall. (This is not true of all goods; apples are relatively elastic, for example, so a fall in apple prices could actually bring more revenue to apple producers.)

Thus, when the price of oil drops, Malaysia's export revenues fall. With lower export revenues comes a higher trade deficit and a weaker currency. Unless the weaker currency brings in enough more export revenue to compensate, this will mean a lower standard of living for people in Malaysia, as their imported goods are now more expensive. (Imported oil will also be cheaper, however, which could offset this effect.)

Malaysia's government also directly uses oil revenue as part of its funding (a policy that is very much a mixed bag; it works well in Norway but not so much in Venezuela), so the loss in oil revenue means a loss in government revenue and therefore a higher budget deficit. Malaysia is a medium-sized country, so they are not so small that they have no power to control the value of their own currency; but they don't have nearly as much as a very large country like the US or China. While for the US a high budget deficit is practically just an accounting mechanism (nobody is worried about the stability of the US dollar; indeed, people are accepting negative interest rates to use it), in Malaysia it could become a real problem, and they might be forced to raise taxes or cut spending.

Yet, as we know from macroeconomics, such a policy would be contractionary---it would hurt the rest of the economy, and could push Malaysia into recession. Their best bet is to find ways of reducing the budget deficit that don't involve cutting useful spending or raising taxes; one thing that might help would be to cut subsidies to oil companies, which would raise the price of oil for Malaysian customers, but not any higher than it was before the global price plummet. Expansionary monetary policy is also a good idea; inflation shouldn't be a big problem since oil is such a big part of most prices (actually deflation might be, and printing money would fix that), and the potential for weakening the currency would hopefully be offset by the restored economic stability.

In the long run, Malaysia should diversify; it's never a good idea for a country to base its whole economy around a single commodity. They should invest in new industries so that in the future, bad news for one industry doesn't mean bad news for the country as a whole.

In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, how old are Juliet's parents, Capulet and Lady Capulet?

No specific mention is made of how old Juliet's parents are in Romeo and Juliet.  However, when Juliet and Lady Capulet are talking in Act I, Scene III, Lady Capulet does say "By my count / I was your mother much upon these years / That you are now a maid," meaning that Lady Capulet had already given birth to Juliet at age thirteen, the age that Juliet currently is (77-79).  This would make Lady Capulet roughly twenty-six years old.

Figuring out Capulet's age is a little more difficult.  It is clear that he is considerably older than his wife, but as with Lady Capulet, there is no specific mention of his exact age.  The best scene to use in trying to figure out his age is Act I, Scene V.  As the family prepares for the masquerade party, Capulet says "I have seen the day / That I have worn a visor and could tell / A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, / Such as would please.  'Tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone," meaning that he is no longer of the age to flirt with or court the young ladies at the party (25-28).  Shortly afterward, he tells his cousin that they should sit, stating "[f]or you and I are past our dancing days" (36).  Immediately following, he asks his cousin how long it has been since they wore masks at a party, and his cousin replies that it has been "thirty years" (39).  This shocks Capulet, and they argue about it.  Capulet claims they both wore masks at Lucentio's wedding, which was twenty-five years before, but his cousin replies that Lucentio's son is already thirty years old (41, 45).  In other words, it has been at least thirty years.  If the normal age for wearing masks/courting is late teens through late twenties, as is the case with Romeo and Paris, then this would make Capulet between about forty-eight and fifty-eight.  

How are the loss of innocence and growing older reflected and developed in the story "Two kinds" by Amy Tan?

As the story "Two Kinds" opens, the narrator, Jing-mei, recalls herself as a very young child at the mercy of her mother's desires for her to become a child prodigy. At first, Jing-mei, in her innocence, complies with her mother's aspirations for her and even believes in them herself. The Peter Pan haircut she gets actually makes her "look forward to [her] future fame." She was even more excited than her mother envisioning the type of prodigy she might be, whether a ballerina or Cinderella. With the naive confidence of a child, she believed she would become "perfect" as she grew older. 

However, as Jing-mei grew older and her fame and perfection did not arrive, and as her mother demanded more effort from her to become a prodigy, Jing-mei began to lose her innocent compliance and belief in her potential. When she is unable to display a photographic type memory, seeing her mother's disappointment, "something inside of [her] began to die." That something was her innocence--her blind trust in her mother's plans for her. She cries and scratches at herself looking into the mirror, and she sees an "angry, powerful" girl staring back at her. That girl is no longer an innocent little girl, but she is a willful girl who is growing up to know what she wants for herself. At that point, she promises herself she won't be what she is not. 

From then on, Jing-mei grows more and more defiant and even rebellious toward her mother, culminating in the day she refuses to practice piano anymore and lashes out at her mother with hurtful words. Growing up and asserting her own will seems to her "like worms and toads and slimy things crawling out of [her] chest," reflecting her awareness that she is no longer an innocent child. Yet there is something that feels good about it--she is growing up into her own person. As Jing-mei went through high school and college, she continued to disappoint her mother, but she was being true to herself, and she did not regret her choices.

In "Two Kinds," Amy Tan portrays growing up as a necessary loss of innocence. Jing-mei could never have become herself if she stayed naively bound to her mother's aspirations. Although she didn't choose the kindest way to assert her independence, if she was to grow to be her own person, she had to be willing to defy her mother's standards, losing her innocence.