An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

signed to their awareness and approval of such a study being supervised by the then Schoolof Social Sciences (subsequently transferred to the School of Humanities.) Perhaps theyshould have taken note of the comment of Hammersley and Atkinson (2007:226) that„Regulations of biomedical research are not appropriate for social research. Ethical codesare cultural phenomena and reflect what constitutes appropriate conduct and appropriateresearch‟.The question of safety for the respondent became an issue under the auspices of medicalethics as the word „healing‟ implied administering treatment and maybe some invasivetherapy such as drug therapy. The risk assessment had to convince the ethics committeethat the subjects and the researcher were not at risk of harm under the Health and Safetylegislation as well as their psychological and spiritual safety. Their psychological andspiritual safety was address by providing access to an external counselling service as wellas the service of the church minister following interviews. Risks from hazardoussubstances and from activities that could cause injuries were not an issue as the subjectswere not expected to participate in any activity other than talng. The researcher‟s safetywas addressed by her having access to the church ministers and supervisors from theUniversity. Getting approval from the church ministers was relatively easy. Once theproposal was explained, everyone was very interested and the ministers took the proposalto the relevant church committees and the relevant church meetings for membershipapproval. A letter of approval was received from the Pentecostal church and I was presentat the church meeting when the URC gave their approval. The ethics form and letter fromCOGIC are given in an appendix.82