Lisa van Seters - 43191503 – Journal Entry Three

Informed Consent with First Year Students

A majority of honours students at UQ use a participant pool primarily reliant on the first-
year psychology student pool of the university. This poses, in my opinion, a number of
issues. The Australian government department of innovation and science defines informed
consent and expresses that:
 participants cannot be entered into a trial if they don't want to be
 If they are asked to take part they can leave at any time without consequence
 there should be no pressure on a participant to enter a trial.
The last point is of concern when looked at in perspective of the university culture.
Students have the option to submit a rather long and tedious essay on a boring topic, or to
attend 6 quick studies and participate in gathering knowledge for the science community. I
think that it is fair to say that more students instantly opt into the research option. This
already demonstrates an ‘unfair dichotomy of choice’ as students will most likely choose this
research not because of free choice but because it is an easier option than a tedious essay, and
they want to get good grades. This is especially predominant considering the high GPA cut
off for psychology students (90% for a 7 GPA), which means that if they do not get the 6%
for research it would then become impossible to get a high distinction. Therefore, there is a
lot of pressure on students to attend these trials to get a good grade.
Furthermore, there is a prevalent social pressure within these trials. First years are quite
easily intimidated by the presence of researchers and may feel obligated to continue with the
study even when they are uncomfortable due to a social pressure. I certainly would not of left
the room if I was uncomfortable in any study as a first year and I guarantee many others
would agree. Therefore, not only is there pressure to attend to gain marks, there is also a
social pressure to continue the study (even in the knowledge that you can leave without
consequence).
Finally, the premise that ‘participants cannot be entered into a trial if they don’t want to
be’ is also annulled in context of first years. Most of them don’t necessarily want to be a part
of research trials. They only want to retain the 6% course credit.
It seems that informed consent with the use of first years is certainly morally ambiguous,
and yet, we continue to use them in many research settings because they are so easy to obtain
and readily available.