Mock IRB Application Exercise

THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT 1

 

The Stanford Prison Experiment

MOCK IRB Application

Instructions: Type your information in the shaded boxes and insert an “X” in the applicable checkboxes. Incomplete forms will delay the IRB review process and may be returned.

 

SECTION A: Investigators & Research Team

 

 

A1. Principal Investigator (P.I.):

 

Name:	John Finley	Degree(s):	Bachelor’s Degree
Title/Position:	Student	Program:	Regular
Contact Numbers:	+850 55667744333	Physical Address:	P.O.Box 3445-665, Philippines
MyCampus Email:	Johnfinley@yahoo.com

 

 

 

SECTION B: Research Information

 

 

B1: Title

THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

 

 

 

B2: Introduction

Please provide a brief (350-500 word) summary of your research project, including background and rationale for your study. Be sure to include in your description what kinds of data you are planning to collect as part of your research (e.g., surveys, interviews, observations, etc.).

 

The current situation in prisons call for a study to identify how to mitigate the challenges that prisoners face. Some proponents have embraced many dispositional hypotheses to blame the evil activities in the prisons. There has also been a study that investigate how individuals express evil acts as a result of poor treatment from the staff. The result of these actions is riots, recidivism, and corruption. These activities make the prisons not to be what they should be. The attention is also driven away from complex matrix of social, economic, and political factors that can join to result in a positive change. Rioting prisoners are identified transferred to maximum prison institutions or sometimes shot, without the consultation of the relevant individuals. The issues are continuing unchanged and its basic structure unexamined (Retish, 2017). It is essential to investigate the issue and find out possible remedies that will help in reducing the constant aggressions that has been experienced in prisons. Moreover, it is important to identify the weaknesses that exist in the prison institution to prevent prisoners from escaping the institution.   However, the hypothesis on the dispositional is difficult to critically evaluate directly through observation of the exiting prison setting. It is because the realistic observations muddle the acute impact of the surrounding with chronic features of the prisoners and the guarding staff. To identify the cause of these effects it is necessary to implement a research strategy which will involve a new inmate from a different social-psychological milieu to the existing system of prison. The prisons from the institution with normal conditions will act as the control group for the research.   This research will mainly investigate the major challenges that the prisoners face during their sentences period. it will also focus on the investigation of the harsh experiences that the prisoners encounter that may lead to their aggression. To achieve accurate result this research will apply survey of individuals from defend prisons and compare the results for analysis. The data will be collected through conducting interviews, filling questionnaires, and making direct observation on the behaviors of inmates at different interval (Axinn & Pearce, n.d.). The results will be analyzed according to the responses. Mock IRB Application Exercise

 

 

 

 

SECTION C: Review Type

 

 

C1. Does the study involve greater than minimal risk? (Minimal risk means that the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests. More than minimal risk will require Full Committee Review.)

 

Place an “X” next to the appropriate response.

 

[_X_] Low/Minimal Risk [__] Greater Than Minimal Risk

 

C2. Which level of review do you believe best matches your research (Exempt, Expedited, or Full)? For more information, view the categories on the APUS IRB Website.

 

[__] a. Exempt

 

[_X_] b. Expedited

 

[__] c. Full Board Review

 

 

SECTION D: Project Purpose/ Research Question/ Objectives

In non-technical language, address the following: 1) Topic and scope of the study. 2) Research questions or hypothesis. 3) How this study will contribute to knowledge in the field.

1) The research topic is on the investigation of challenges that prisoners face during their prison sentence. This study has its scope from the previous experience of aggressions that inmates have shown in the past.   2) The hypotheses include:   i) Inmates face challenges in during their prison sentence and has led to their rebellion ii) The aggressions and riots experienced in prisons is as a result of problems facing prisoners.   3) The knowledge will help the concerned staff to come up with effective approaches to rescue the situation before it worsens further. Furthermore, it will help in improvising ways of handling inmates to make them be more productive to the society. Mock IRB Application Exercise

 

 

SECTION E: Participant Population and Recruitment

E1. In non-technical language, address the following: 1) Who will the participants be? How many participants? What ages will the participants be? 2) What is the inclusion/exclusion criteria for participants? 3) Where and how participants will be recruited?

1) The participants will be inmates in two different institutions. the study will pick 75 inmates to answer the questionnaires. The recommended age of individuals that will be legible for the study will be 28 years.   2) The inclusion criteria of the participants will be in instances where an individual with higher age, more information and experience in the prison can provide data.   3) The recruitment of the participants will take place in the prison institution and it will take place on the basis of willingness to give accurate information.

 

 

E2. This study will involve participants with the following characteristics (place an “X” next to all that apply):

[__] a. Not Applicable (e.g., de-identified datasets)

OR

[__] Individuals who cannot read/speak English

[__] Individuals living outside of the United States

[__] Students of PI or Research Team Members

[__] Students to be recruited in their educational setting (i.e. in class or at school)

[__] Staff, Faculty, or Students

[__] Minors/Children

[_X_] Prisoners

[__] Individuals with diagnosable psychological disorders

[__] Individuals who are institutionalized

[__] Individuals who are poor/uninsured

[__] Pregnant women

[__] Fetuses

[__] Nursing home residents recruited in the nursing home

[__] Individuals who are cognitively impaired

[__] Individuals who are psychiatrically impaired

[__] Limited or non-readers

[__] Wards of the state (e.g., foster children)

[__] Individuals who are terminally ill

[_X_] Others vulnerable to coercion (Specify below):

[__] Other (Specify below):

 

SECTION F: Research Design

In non-technical language, address the following: 1) State the study activities in chronological order. Describe both the activities conducted by members of the research team and the activities of research participants. (e.g., screening, survey, taking a test, answering questions in an interview, completing a specific task, tasks on a computer, running on a treadmill, debriefing, etc.) If videotaping, photographs, or audio-taping will take place, explain how and why recording will occur. 2) Explain how the data will be analyzed or studied; that is, indicate the quantitative or qualitative data analysis methods you will use. 3) Explain how the data will be reported in order to maintain the confidentiality or anonymity of participants (i.e. aggregated, anonymously, names used with consent, participants only identified by professional role, etc.).

1) The chronological order of the study will include conducting survey on the individuals to answer the questionnaires by the research team, distributing questionnaires to the participants to answer, asking the participants interview question, and finally analysis of data by the research team.   2) The analysis of the data will be through statistical analysis of frequencies and percentages. Finding the mean and standard deviation will also help to analyze the data. Raw data will be coded, evaluated and tabulated to identify the causes of aggression in the prison.   3) The data will be protected through giving serial number to the participants to protect their privacy.

 

 

 

 

SECTION G: Data Collection

 

 

This study involves the following types of data collection (place an “X” next to all that apply)…

[__] Email Questionnaire(s)

[X] In-person Interview(s)

[__] Phone Interview(s)

[__] Video Interview(s) (e.g. Skype, FaceTime, etc.)

[X] Paper Survey(s)

[__] Online Survey(s) (e.g. Survey Monkey, Kwik Surveys, etc.)

[__]Audio-recording

[__]Video-recording

[X_] Photography

[__] Existing datasets

[X_] Focus Groups

[_X_] Internet research, (e.g. collecting data via the internet or researching individuals’ behavior on the internet)

[_X_] Observations

[_X] Questions that might result in identifying criminal activities

[__] Questions that might result in identifying child or elder abuse

[_X_] Review of academic records

[__] Review of medical records

[__] Exposure to psychological stress

[__] Use of physiological sensors (e.g. heart rate, skin conductance, BP)

[__] Physical exercise

[__] Collection of blood or biological specimens

[__] Genetic Material

[__] Diagnostic imaging (e.g., MRI, fMRI, X-Rays, etc.)

References

Axinn, W. G., & Pearce, L. D. (n.d.). Preface. Mixed Method Data Collection Strategies, xiii-xiv. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511617898.001

Retish, A. B. (2017). Breaking free from the prison walls: penal reforms and prison life in revolutionary Russia. Historical Research, 90(247), 134-150. doi:10.1111/1468-2281.12171

Mock IRB Application-Part 2

MOCK IRB APPLICATION EXERCISE-PT. 2

Psychological experiments that are conducted on human or animal subjects must go through a review by an administrative body known as an Institutional Review Board (IRB).  Approval must be gained by an IRB before a study can be funded or conducted.  Researchers, whether they are faculty, students, or other affiliated personnel, must complete a detailed application that is presented to the IRB for its review.

APUS has an IRB, much like that of any research-producing university or institution.  Attached you will find an amended version of the actual application that researchers must submit to the IRB in advance of conducting psychological research. ***This is a mock version of the application.  You are not actually submitting anything to the real APUS IRB while conducting this exercise. Mock IRB Application Exercise

For Part 2 of this exercise, you will use the completed application attached completed earlier in the semester.  These are experiments that have already been conducted and published.  Several are “classic” experiments in social psychology of which you should already be aware.  You will read the published article carefully and then you will take the knowledge gleaned from the article to complete the IRB application AS IF you were the Principal Investigator applying for approval to conduct the study.

For some of the questions included on the application, you may need to “stretch” your knowledge a bit.  For example, the published article may say that college students were given extra credit for participation, but may not go into a lot of detail regarding the process used to recruit those students.  In such a situation, you may need to use your imagination to fill in some blanks.

In addition, please remember that the goal here is to put yourself in the principal investigator’s shoes at the time that he/she conducted the experiment.  If the experiment was conducted in the 1970s, for example, remember that the standards for human experimentation were different back then.  Answer the questions as the investigator WOULD have answered them (based upon what you read about the experiment), not as they SHOULD have answered them based upon today’s ethical standards.

Assignment Instructions (Please complete both #1 and #2 below)

1. After carefully reading your article (remember, use the same article attached), please complete the attached document.  The attached document is editable, so please place your responses directly into the document.  Be sure to save the document on your hard drive and then upload it into the slot for the assignment. Mock IRB Application Exercise

2. After completing the Mock IRB Assignment-Part 2, please answer the following questions in a 3-page Word Document (.docx format) and upload as an attachment to the slot for the assignment.

a. What was the most challenging section of the Mock IRB Application-Part 2 to complete?  Why was it challenging?

b. Were there any sections of the Mock IRB Application-Part 2 that you felt the authors of your article did not adequately address (either in terms of not doing it or not addressing it in their write-up of their Method/Procedure)?

c.  If you were actually the Principal Investigator of this study, what might you do differently in order to adequately address all the questions asked on Part 2 of this Mock IRB Application?

d. How do you think ethical standards have changed (if at all) since the Principal Investigator of your chosen study filled out his/her own IRB Application?

SECTION H: Consent/Assent

Describe the following: 1) How will consent/assent be obtained place. (e.g., signing a consent form in person, online consent form as front page for online survey, etc.) 2) If applicable, what procedures are in place to reduce coercion (e.g., if extra credit is offered, what non-research alternatives are available to students who do not wish to participate in research). 3) If participants are vulnerable populations, explain how you will follow research ethics guidelines for obtaining consent. (If applicable). 4) If a request for a waiver of consent or waiver of documentation of consent is being sought for this proposal, describe here how the request comports with Federal guidelines as outlined in 45CFR46-listed criteria for a waiver found at: http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html#46.116 .

1)   2)   3)   4)

 

 

SECTION I: Risks to Subjects

IRBs must evaluate the risk-benefit ratio of proposed human subject research. In approving a protocol, IRBs must determine that the benefits outweigh the risks and that risks to subjects are minimized. Research risk is the probability of harm occurring as a result of participation in research. In non-technical language, address the following: 1) The types of risks (e.g., physical, psychological, social, economic, legal, etc.) the subject may reasonably encounter. Include any likelihood that questions may be sensitive or stressful to the participants. 2) Estimate the frequency/likelihood and magnitude of those risks (cite relevant literature, if available). 3) Describe the procedures/process which will be used to reduce or minimize risks: a. How the data will be safeguarded (e.g., data is anonymous, assigning pseudonyms, aggregate reporting, etc.). b. How will subjects be explicitly informed if data will NOT be anonymous (Put “N/A” if using anonymous data) c. What actions would you take if a participant gets hurt or upset?

1)   2)   3)   a.)   b.)   c.)

 

 

 

SECTION J: Deception/Incomplete Disclosure

If you cannot adequately state the true purpose of the study to the subject in the informed consent, deception/ incomplete disclosure is involved. 1) Describe the deception/incomplete disclosure of information to the subjects. 2) Explain why such deception/incomplete disclosure is necessary. 3) Explain the debriefing process, or explain why there will not be a debriefing process.

1)   2)   3)

SECTION K: Benefits

Describe any direct benefits participants could potentially receive (excluding compensation for participation). If there are no direct benefits, explain what other potential benefits are gained from the research (benefits to society). This cannot be left blank.

 

 

 

SECTION L: Subject Incentives/Compensations

 

 

L1. Does this study involve incentives or compensation to the subjects? For example cash, class extra credit, gift cards, or items. [__] Yes [__] No

 

L2. If yes, provide details about the nature of the payment (e.g. type, amount, when it will be provided to subjects, contingencies for payment, payment schedule, etc.), what records will be retained regarding payment and who will these records be provided to (e.g. signed payment receipt, names and social security numbers provided to accounts payable for check payments, etc.):

 

 

SECTION M: Additional Information

 

 

Use this area to add any additional information that you believe is relevant to the IRB’s review of your study.

 

 

 

 

SECTION N: Investigator Assurances

As a PI or Co-PI, I certify the following: · I have reviewed this protocol submission and acknowledge my responsibilities as Principal Investigator. · The information in this submission accurately reflects the proposed research. · I will not initiate this study until I receive written approval from the IRB. · I will promptly report to the IRB any unanticipated problems and adverse events, as well as any findings during the course of the study that may affect the risks and benefits to the subjects. · I will obtain prior written approval for modifications (amendments) to this protocol including, but not limited to, changes in procedures and/or changes in personnel. · I have completed the CITI Social and Behavioral Investigator Training Module and have read the Belmont Report. · All research personnel involved in the study have been appropriately trained in human subjects’ protection. I accept responsibility for assuring adherence to applicable Federal and State research regulations and APUS polices relative to the protection of the rights and welfare of the subjects enrolled in this study. · I have obtained, or will obtain, all necessary permissions from study sites. · Unless given Exempt Status, I understand that this study is subject to continuing review and approval by the IRB which will occur at least yearly.

 

 

 

________________________________ ________________________ ________________

Principal Investigator (PRINT NAME) (SIGNATURE) DATE

 

 

________________________________ ________________________ ________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

APUS IRB Application for Students Version 1.2 Revised 2/2016