Do you have measures in place to protect student participants?
Do you have measures in place to protect student participants?
IRBs should monitor psych student subject pools
It’s a staple of undergraduate psychology studies — the research requirement, in which students agree to sign up for surveys and other low-risk psychology research activities in exchange for academic credit.
Because such credit is often required to pass introductory psychology courses, IRBs should take a special interest in how the student subject pool is run, says Bradley Waite, PhD, assistant chair in the psychology department at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in New Britain. Waite also is chairman of the university’s human studies committee.
One of an IRB’s chief concerns should be that students have a reasonable alternative to participation in studies to avoid any potential coercion, say Waite and Laura Bowman, PhD, a professor of psychology at CCSU and also a member of the committee.
The American Psychological Association’s code of ethics states that "when research participation is a course requirement or an opportunity for extra credit, the prospective participant is given the choice of equitable alternative activities."
"Here at Central, they have the option of being a participant in a study of some sort, or they have another option such as writing a paper," Bowman says. "Some other universities have other sorts of requirements — their students can view a film or go on a field trip. As long as they have options so that they’re not coerced into being participants."
Participation provides benefits
Waite and Bowman have authored studies looking at the benefits students derive from participating in psychology studies. They say students, particularly those who go on to be psychology majors, reported learning a lot from the process of being involved in psychology research.
When the student subject pool at CCSU was first discussed about a decade ago, Waite says the human studies committee asked its developers to give the committee a proposal for how it would be run.
They first dealt with the critical issue of ensuring there would be adequate alternatives to actually volunteering for studies.
"If the psychology students were required to earn research credit, they need a decent alternative to do that was equally demanding — not more demanding and not less demanding, but something that would be reasonably attractive as an alternate for those people who didn’t want to participate in the research studies," he says.
Bowman says students currently must earn four units of research credit, which translates into about two hours of research participation. Typically, it requires a combination of different studies or research activities.
"Some studies only require 10 minutes of time and others require a little bit more," Bowman says. "They get more credit for those that require more time. Most of our studies are about one to two credits, so that means about half an hour or less [total time]."
Accordingly, students who choose instead to read about a study and write a paper are told that they should put about an hour’s worth of effort into the process, in order to earn two credits. Waite says students are told the finished product doesn’t have to be a final, polished term paper.
"I’ve gone to some IRB conferences where I hear stories of universities requiring these 20-page papers, which clearly lends itself to being problematic in terms of coercing students in the direction of participating in the studies," he says. "We do give a lot of thought to the equivalency, and we think what we’re doing is fine with respect to that."
Students who do choose to participate in studies receive credit as long as they show up at the appointed time and place. When they see the study itself, they can decide at that point to withdraw and still receive research credit, Bowman says.
As with other research, the investigator must inform the students about the study, how long it will take to complete and any risks associated with participating, and get their consent, Bowman says.
Students must be told that they can withdraw without penalty and be informed of any benefits, including rewards or incentives.
Bowman says those rewards are typically few and small, so undue compensation for participation is rarely an issue.
"Most of our research here is being conducted by advanced undergraduate or graduate students," she says. "They just can’t afford to pay them. Sometimes they have an incentive — a free pencil or something."
Underage students
Another important issue for the human studies committee has been the potential for 17-year-old students to be involved in the student subject pool, particularly during the fall semester, when some incoming freshman haven’t yet turned 18, Waite and Bowman say.
Waite says the psychology department provides a letter to parents of those students describing the nature of the studies being conducted. Parents are asked to give permission for the student to participate, either on a study-by-study basis, or blanket permission for any studies while the student is in the pool.
Bowman says students under 18 must show the parental permission form to the researcher to verify that he or she is allowed to participate. "We try to make sure that any study that would go under the blanket permission was an absolutely no-risk study," Waite says. "It’s not that hard to do, as long as people are willing to cooperate."
After participating in a psychology study, Bowman says students are debriefed, especially if any sort of deception was employed in the research. Researchers must protect students’ confidentiality by securing records.
"Most of the studies we conduct are anonymous — researchers don’t even record student names or numbers," Bowman says. "There are a few, of course, where you have to track them. But in those cases we make sure the researchers are using procedures to maintain confidentiality. They have to make sure the records are kept in a locked drawer in a locked office or something like that."
Waite says an IRB reviewing studies that involve the student pool should definitely look at those student subjects differently than the general population when it comes to risk and benefit.
"On one of our forms, we ask for the possible benefits, and we look at whether there are some educational benefits that students get out of it," he says. "If you’re requiring that people participate in some sort of research-related activity — whether it’s reading about studies and writing about them or participating in them — one of the goals that would come out of that is that we hope students who participate get some educational benefit out of it."
Its a staple of undergraduate psychology studies the research requirement, in which students agree to sign up for surveys and other low-risk psychology research activities in exchange for academic credit.Subscribe Now for Access
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