A secondary school wants to research how bullying behaviour develops in the playground. Imagine you are a psychologist brought in from the local education authority to oversee the project; the school have decided that the research should involve secret cameras and microphones in order to ensure ecological validity. Normal staff cover will be provided. You have been asked to prepare a briefing paper for the school governors addressing the following points: What, if anything, should children, parents and staff involved be told? How might this affect the practice of obtaining informed consent? What are the reliability issues which could arise if everyone is told everything about the study beforehand? If only giving partial information to some participants can be justified, how should the risks of doing this be assessed? Confidentiality - what will be done with the filmed research material when the study is complete? What information will be passed to the school governors about individual behaviour? How will bullying be defined for the purpose of the study? What would happen if bullying of a very serious nature was uncovered by the research without staff realising it was occurring?