CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN MARCOS
Application for Course & Instructional IRB Review
To determine if you need a Course & Instructional IRB review, see the Guidelines
Instructor: Roger Morrissette / Date: 2/10/2012Course title: Psyc 230: Research Methods in Psychology / Semester(s)/year(s): Spring 2012 and Fall 2012
Phone: 760 300 8960 / E-mail: / College/dept: Psychology
Facilities where course research will be carried out: SBSB 3227;SBSB 3225
Faculty Verification on student research projects:
By submitting this form, you hereby assure the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the Protection of Human Subjects that the material submitted with this statement accurately describes the methods to be used in the course you are teaching and that you will inform the IRB of any changes in the procedures as they may occur. Furthermore, that when students design their own projects, you will review each protocol before students begin recruiting participants and ensure that the topic and breadth of the protocol remain within the scope of the course.
If in any instance students propose a project that is not consistent with the procedures/methods described herein due to sensitivity of the research topic or vulnerability of the population, you agree to either not allow the project to proceed or to require that the student(s) submit an individual protocol to the IRB for review. Any presentation of the student’s research outside the classroom will clearly state that it is a course assignment or project.
Submission Instructions
Electronic Submission –This document may be submitted by email by faculty only. Students must submit the document to their faculty sponsor for review and forwarding to the IRB. Send to . CITI Training Certification must be attached.
Receipt via email from the faculty member’s email account will serve as their signature verifying that they have reviewed this proposal for completeness and that it is in compliance with IRB regulations.
If you have any questions, please refer to the IRB website or contact the IRB staff at (760)750-4029 or .
Effective 8/1/2009, certification of training on Human Subjects Protection is required. Faculty must complete the CITI online training. Completion satisfies the training requirement for three years.
Instructions: Please address each of the following points.
At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to: read and critique primary psychological research papers,conduct a scientific literature search and generate a psychological research hypothesis based on that search, design and conduct a psychological research experiment to test that hypothesis, analyze their collected data using both descriptive and inferential statistics via Excel and SPSS software, and generate all aspects of a publication quality, APA formatted, research paper.
2. Subject population. Describe the characteristics of the proposed population and how they will be selected. Be sure to explain the rationale for using special subjects such as minors (under age 18) and the mentally disabled or other subjects whose ability to give voluntary informed consent may be in question.
All participants will be limited to CSUSM undergraduate and graduate students, 18 years and older.
3. Project protocols. Describe in detail the kinds of research in which students in the course will engage. In cases where students will be asked to design their own projects, you may focus your description on the types and classes of research. However, please provide some examples of the kinds of projects you will allow students to carry out and some examples of the kinds of projects you will not approve for the guidance of the committee. Verbatim instructions, copies of questionnaires, etc., should be included as appropriate.
All of the self-designed student research projects will use anonymous questionnaires. The surveys may include questions about: gender, ethnicity, age, academic progress, parenting, marriage and family, relationships, mental health, physical health, fitness, and nutrition, or other education, social, or health psychology related questions. For example, a typical project might investigate parental discipline techniques across different ethnicities, or subtle forms of test anxiety on academic performance. If projects are generated that ask controversial or sensitive material (e.g., immigration, sexual behavior, alcohol or drug related behavior) all questions will be limited to the subjects perceptions about the topic in question. No potentially incriminating questions will be asked.
4. If applicable, describe how students will debrief the participants (e.g., specifically what will students be trained to say when debriefing subjects). In cases where students will be asked to design their own projects, for which kinds of projects will you require that students debrief participants and what kind of training/supervision will you provide to help students develop an appropriate debriefing?
All student research projects will require the debriefing of all participants involved. A formal lecture on data collection which includes proper debriefing techniques is given prior to that start of data collection. Either prior to data collection or immediately following data collection, each respondent will be told the hypothesis of the experiment. A student experimenter may say something like: “Thank you for filling out our survey. The data collected in our survey will help to support or refute our hypothesis, which is... If you would like to find out about the outcome of our experiment you may contact Dr. Morrissette in the Psychology Department at... Do you have any questions or concerns about the survey or our experiment? Thank you for participating.”
5. Describe and assess any potential risks to the human subjects (physical, psychological, social, legal, or other). If methods of research create potential risks, describe other methods, if any, that were considered and why they will not be used.
As with any psychological survey, it is always possible that a respondent might find out something about themselves that may be uncomfortable or distressing. All survey questions will be designed to minimize this potential risk.
6. Describe the safeguards (including confidentiality safeguards) you will use to protect against or minimize the risks discussed above.
I will give final approval of all surveys before they are given to any participants. This safeguard prevents any inappropriate or distressing questions from being asked. Also, the students are trained to respect confidentiality during the data collection process and, as mentioned earlier, use anonymous surveys. Both of these processes should minimize any potential breach in confidentiality.
7. Assess the potential benefits to be gained by the students participating in the course as well as the individual subjects and society in general, if there are any.
Society may indeed gain by the data collected, but the main goal is to familiarize the students with the empirical process. This course takes them a step beyond conducting a simple research paper and instead makes them active participants in experimental design, data collection, and analysis. The students’ empirical training is the ultimate goal of this process.
8. Briefly assess your evaluation of the risk-benefit ratio.
I believe the risks to the respondents are minimal and the benefits to the student experimenters are great. The empirical research experience that they gain from this course can go on to shape the direction of the rest of their academic careers.
9. Describe your experience as the instructor as related to this review. Include such information as the number of times you have taught this course and the degree to which students will be supervised.
I have taught 11 sections of Psyc 230 Research Methods for Psychology over the last 7 years at CSUSM. I have also taught greater than 50 sections of statistics over the last 11 years at Palomar College. In addition, over a dozen of my research methods students have presented the results of their 230 research projects at the CSUSM Psychology Research Fair over the last 5 years. Students will be supervised during all aspects of their research project with the exception of some of their data collection and data analysis.
10. Informed consent. Describe how informed consent will be obtained and who will obtain it. Please submit samples of written or oral material to be used when obtaining informed consent. If students will be obtaining consent orally, submit a detailed description of what students will say when recruiting and obtaining consent for participation from potential participants.
Since all of the surveys are anonymous, no participants will be asked to sign an informed consent form. Oral consent to participate will be requested of each survey respondent. The students in the Psyc 230: Research Methods in Psychology course will be given a formal lecture on how to approach a potential respondent and how to attain oral consent. The majority of the surveys will be “honest” surveys. In these cases, the student experimenters will state the exact nature of the survey, give the specific time needed to complete the survey, explain how the survey will be collected and placed in a box or envelope to assure the respondents anonymity, and then the respondents will begiven my contact information (the supervising professor) if they choose to inquire more about the study. A few surveys may require subtle deception techniques like filler items on the survey. In these cases, the respondents will be treated in the same way as stated above but will be given a more general overview of the survey goals and will be debriefed immediately following completion of the survey about any deceptive techniques that may have taken place on the survey.
11. Student training in research ethics. Describe how you will train students with regard to research ethics and the ethical treatment of human participants.
An entire lecture and laboratory will be dedicated to research ethics. The students will be actively trained in maintaining the highest standards of research ethics throughout all aspects of their research projects.
12. Attach a copy of your Human Subjects Protection training certification.
Rev 01/2011