Friday, January 24, 2014

IRB application, q. 17-19


This time we are continuing an examination of the IRB application with q. 17-19 

q. 17 asks you to explain how you will protect your participants from the identified risks in q. 16. A few common protections are anonymity (you do not know who provided the data; possible in surveys but not in interviews), strict confidentiality (no one other than the researcher will know their identity), reminding them that they can stop at any time, and providing breaks for interviews. To reduce the chance of coercion you need a way for people to volunteer without having to tell you personally if they want to do it – using flyers or ads are a common way around this. 

q. 18 asks that you describe any benefits for participants. Typically, there are few real benefits for the participants other than the opportunity to participate in a psychological study. Don’t over-sale this, the IRB knows that there probably are not any. 

q. 19 asks you describe the benefits for society. Typically, it is just providing an insight into a small area of research. This is fine; you are not going to change the world. J 

Next time we will continue examining the IRB application, with q. 20-31. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

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