There are a variety of ethical situations that qualitative communication researchers must navigate. This point is especially true when the research involves close personal contacts, such as friends and family members. In order to problematize the ethical frameworks that guide qualitative inquiry and illuminate the complexities of relational ethics, we—the authors—reflected on our past experiences engaging in research with close personal contacts. Specifically, we took a collaborative autoethnographic approach that involved sharing personal stories, drafting autoethnographic narratives, and engaging in individual and collaborative sensemaking. In doing so, we highlight the following three quandaries specific to conducting research with close personal contacts: (1) challenging/affirming identity anchors, (2) challenging/affirming power relations, and (3) challenging/affirming ownership. We explicate each of these themes using autoethnographic vignettes and conclude by offering five lessons learned of relational ethics, which are organized using the phases of qualitative research: conceptualization and design, data collection, and representation.

定性传播研究人员必须应对各种道德情况。当研究涉及亲密的个人接触者（例如朋友和家人）时，这一点尤其正确。为了对指导定性调查和阐明关系伦理复杂性的伦理框架进行问题化，我们——作者——回顾了我们过去与密切的个人接触进行研究的经验。具体来说，我们采取了一种协作的自主民族志方法，包括分享个人故事、起草自主民族志叙事以及参与个人和协作的意义建构。在这样做时，我们强调了以下三个特定于与亲密的个人接触进行研究的困境：（1）挑战/肯定身份锚，（2）挑战/肯定权力关系，(3) 挑战/肯定所有权。我们使用自人民族志小插曲来解释这些主题中的每一个，并通过提供从关系伦理学中学到的五个经验教训得出结论，这些经验教训使用定性研究的各个阶段进行组织：概念化和设计、数据收集和表示。