Re: Question about ethics issue in researching abuse

["Julia H. Littell" <jlittell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Our IRB would not allow this research to proceed, since the potential risks
to subjects appear to be more than "minimal" and seem to outweigh any
benefits. Even if it was possible to limit access to a dissertation (which
I doubt), attempts to do so could compromise the quality of the research
(by eliminating "member checking") and--more importantly in this
context--violate the ethical pricipal of participants' access to aggregate
results. Because of questions about the validity of "MBP" and the inability
to identify "effects" of anything in a sample of N=2 heterogeneous
subjects, the benefits of this study (in terms of knowledge production) are
not apparent. If research is a systematic search for knowledge, I'm not
even sure the proposed project qualifies. I wouldn't accept it as a
dissertation proposal.


>--- Dan Taube <dtaube@alliant.edu> wrote:
>> Dear List members,
>>  
>> I am an IRB chair, and have come up against an
>> interesting question that I thought some of you
>> might have had occasion to have previously
>> addressed. We have a student interested in
>> conducting qualitative research with two adults who
>> were identified as being victims of Munchausens by
>> Proxy.  Her research would involve using
>> standardized psychological tests and interviews with
>>  these adults--one of whom has apparently been
>> significantly affected by his/her experience, and
>> the other of whom has experienced less signifanct
>> effects. One of the study's aims is to clarify which
>> areas of functioning are most affected. Aside from
>> the issue of the utility and design of this study,
>> the committee members (as well as the student) are
>> concerned about one risk in particular. That is,  is
>> there a way to prevent family members (or the
>> participants, for that matter) from obtaining the
>> full published dissertation, with its description of
>> the testing data and potential for misinterpretation
>> or mi!
>> suse? We've recommended that, at a minimum, at
>> Certificate of Confidentiality be obtained by the
>> student to protect the raw, identifiable data, and
>> that she, of course disguise the participants as
>> much as possible. And with our typical request that
>> researchers offer a summary of results to
>> participants upon the completion of the study, we
>> believe it possible to provide results in a manner
>> respectful of participants sensitivities. 
>> Nonetheless, it would be relatively easy to identify
>> the study and obtain a copy of the dissertation--as
>> the student must inform participants about her
>> status as a student at our school, and dissertations
>> are available in our library (not to mention DAI). 
>>  
>> If you have any suggestions about how we might
>> address this risk so the student could adequately
>> protect these participants, it would be appreciated.
>> 
>>  
>> Dan Taube
>> AIU-California School of Professional Psychology
>> 1005 Atlantic Ave.
>> Alameda, CA 94501
>> 510-523-2300 ext. 128
>> dtaube@alliant.edu
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> 
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! News - Today's headlines
>http://news.yahoo.com
>
>