Discussion Question
Suppose one of your instructors asks you to be a participant in a research project but does not tell you the purpose of the research. Would you ask for information on the purpose before deciding whether to participate? Would you feel pressured to participate because the researcher is your instructor?
Participation Qualifications
It is without question that I would insist on more information on the purpose of the research project before I make a decision to become an active participant. To begin I would desire to know if it is even a topic of research that I have any interest in. I am the type of personality that would only make valuable contribution to any form of research only if I take an active interest in the subject matter. That primary question answered, I would delve deeper into the questions of the benefits of this research and could it cause any risk of harm to any and all persons involved. Should I determine at any point in my questioning that I have a moral objection to the topic at hand, or any of the proposed research associated with the topic, I would immediately resend my participation from the project without any hesitation.
Compelled to Participate
It has been asked if I would feel pressured to participate in the project because the researcher is my instructor. The answer is absolutely ‘no’. I am at an age in my life where I do not feel compelled to ‘play along’ out of fear of reprisal to my class grade. I refer back to the first part of this blog post and I stand by my defined convictions regardless the facilitator of the research project.
I agree that learning about my role in a study would be necessary before deciding to participate. The discussion question also makes me wonder if the professor has a reason for withholding the purpose of the study. Maybe it’s necessary to keep that information from participants in order to get the best results. I guess it would all depend on the specific situation. I’m also with you in not feeling pressured to join just because a professor asks me to. I think if I had a good relationship with that teacher and trusted him/her I would be more willing to freely participate without knowing the purpose at the beginning. I would hope that they would to let me know what it was and the end of the study though.
I changed my mind. You were right- informed consent is absolutely necessary. Not sure what I was thinking before…
Hi!
I agree that knowing more about the topic and potential consequences for the participants is definitely important before agreeing to participate. The discussion question seems to imply that the participants will be studied for the research, but this could also apply to asking classes of students to fill out a survey for the research.
I think a lot more people would be okay with completing a survey because it is less time-consuming.
A difficulty, as a researcher, is deciding the best level of informed consent. My graduate school research examined how media might affect prejudice. I used the Modern Racism Scale, or MRS (McConahay, Hardee, & Batts, 1981), and the Implicit Association Test, or IAT (Project Implicit, 2011a).
Because MRS is an explicit measure of racism, it is generally used without full disclosure. The survey might be called a survey to measure attitudes, but its measurement of racial attitudes may not be disclosed until a debriefing once the survey is completed. Researchers want to do their best to ensure participants are providing natural answers instead of working to avoid “being a racist.”
This is not as much of an issue with the IAT, because it measures the speed of your response and not how you respond. Project Implicit also doesn’t say it’s examining prejudice, but it does imply that more than research utilizing a Modern Racism Scale would (Project Implicit, 2011b).
References
McConahay, J., Hardee, B., & Batts, V. (1981). Has racism declined in America? It depends on who is asking and what is asked. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 25(4), 563-579.
Project Implicit. (2011a). Overview. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html
Project Implicit. (2011b). About the IAT. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/iatdetails.html
The McConahay article should be available at Forsyth, but I also have a pdf I could send anyone interested in measurements of prejudice.