Research Participation Program

Each semester first year psychology students are required to accumulate 3 hours of participation in research projects. Access to research projects is offered through the departmental Research Participation Program. Towards the end of each semester first-year students submit a record of their research participation. Access for researchers is restricted to teaching staff and their honours/graduate students. All projects must be officially endorsed by the RPP Convenor before projects are eligible to be offered to students.

To establish fair access for researchers, each Honours and Postgraduate Diploma student wishing to access this resource in first semester will have a limit of 80 hours. Postgraduate students and staff who are collecting data over a more extended period of time will be able to apply for 100 hours per semester. Decisions on these applications will be based on availability of participation hours. Proposed projects will be divided into Q (substantially questionnaires/surveys) and NQ (not questionnaires). Students will do at least one hour from each in each semester.

Procedures

It is important to note that prior to applying for the Research Participation Program (RPP), you must have been granted ethics approval from the HREC (or DHEAG where appropriate).

To make an application, you must:

1. Complete an application form ( ) and an advertisement sheet ( ). The advertisement should include a short description of the study to allow students to make an informed choice between studies. The description should appear in the highlighted box. All details on the form must be completed. Any extra information can be fitted around (but should not obscure) these essential details.
2. Attach a debriefing statement on University letterhead. The debriefing statement should include information about the aims, research questions and the design of the study, and must be given to each student after they have completed their participation.
3. Attach the official ethics approval letter received from the HREC or DHEAG and any further information on ethics approval.
4. Submit the hard copy of all the paperwork to the Psychology Office.
5. Submit the electronic version of the advertisement sheet only (as an attachment via email) to Marianela Delgado-Henriquez

SPECIAL NOTE: A noticeboard for ALL sign-up sheets has been placed on the 10th floor, outside room 1008. ALL SIGN-UP SHEETS ARE TO BE POSTED ON THIS NOTICEBOARD.

Approval will not be granted until the hard copy and the electronic advertisement have both been received. Once approval has been granted, your project will be allocated an RPP number. The electronic copy of the advertisement sheet will be posted on the first year in the Learning Managment site (LMS) site and a hard copy on the first year noticeboard.

Note that advertising of experiments should not occur in first level psychology lectures or laboratory classes. Students will be regularly encouraged to peruse the noticeboard and LMS. Payment or other incentives cannot be used for studies advertised as part of the research participation program.

The advertisement will be removed once the approval date has expired unless the Psychology Office is notified that data collection has been completed or that an extension is required.

Your responsibilities once you are permitted access to the RPP

At the end of each experimental session, you or an authorised research assistant must sign the student's participation slip - noting project title, name of the chief investigator, category (Q or NQ) and number of hours of participation. This slip is the student's property which is submitted at the end of each semester as official verification of satisfactory completion of 3 hours research participation. Any alternative piece of paper which is signed must include an original signature.

Keep all signed consent forms in a secure place.

Full debriefing is obligatory. 'Debriefing' means that subjects are provided with an account of why the research is being conducted, and what hypotheses or theories are being tested. How this information is provided may vary depending on the nature of the project. Researchers may provide each subject with a verbal debriefing immediately after their participation and/or they may provide a written information sheet when the project as a whole is complete. Note that appropriate debriefing is particularly important when accessing the research participation program. A condition of the operation of this program is that the experience it provides educational benefit to the participants. This condition cannot be met if adequate debriefing information is not provided. Failure to give such debriefing is therefore regarded as a serious violation of research ethics.

You should use no more hours than those allocated to you by the RPP Convenor. Additional hours may be approved upon application to the RPP Convenor. Those who exceed their allocation may not be offered access to the research participation program in future.

After analysis has been completed, or at the end of the semester if all analysis has not been completed, a short written report (1-2 pages) of the findings of the study is to be made available to all participants . Again this is an important aspect of RPP and supports the educational objectives of the program. The report should provide participants with enough information for them to have a good sense of what the research was about and the main findings. For some studies these will only be 'preliminary' findings. It is expected that this report would include some material on the background to the research, the specific aims and hypotheses, a brief overview of the materials and procedures, some findings, and an indication of the interpretation or conclusions you are making from these findings. Before sending off your report check that it includes the project title, RPP number, and name of the chief investigator. Send the report electronically to Marianela Delgado-Henriquez so that it can be posted on the first year LMS site. Honours students should consult their supervisor if in doubt about how to write this report.