Group Testing Program

Introductory Psychology (PSY1411)

Students enrolled in Introductory Psychology are required to participate in a group testing session in which they complete a series of self-report questionnaires. The session is scheduled for the latter half of the semester. Faculty and students are invited to contribute questionnaires for the session. This document outlines the guidelines and procedures for participation in the Group Testing Session.

Who may contribute instruments

• Psychology Faculty
• Psychology Graduate students performing dissertations and theses
• Psychology Undergraduates performing supervised research and theses
• Faculty in other departments who contribute participants to the pool

Selection of Instruments

Instruments will be included on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Instruments: Characteristics and Requirements

1. The program is designed for self-report instruments of any kind, with exceptions noted here
2. Instruments such as clinical assessment scales that require individual debriefing with respondents may not be used.
3. The instrument must require no more than 20 minutes to complete. The program administrators will determine if an instrument is too long. Open ended items take longer to complete and should be figured into the time.
4. All instruments are subject to ethical rules and IRB procedures. The IRB approval form must be submitted along with the instrument.
5. The questionnaires will be administered online. The online software accommodates all of the normal self-report scale types and formats.
6. Demographic information must not be collected unless it is unique to your study. Instead, it will be collected separately and distributed to participating researchers.
7. Researchers whose studies require follow-up contact with respondent should collect contact information (name, phone number, email address, etc.) in their own questionnaires (to maintain an overall sense of anonymity). Their questionnaires must assure respondents that this information will not be shared with other researchers.

Preparation of materials

The Group Testing will be conducted online.  You must submit your questionnaires in an Excel spreadsheet with one row per question.  At the top of the spreadsheet, include a row with instructions.  If all the items use the same response scale, include the response scale in a row at the bottom.  If items use different response scales, please contact Dr. Gabrenya for more detailed instructions.  The online survey software accommodates all common response formats. Your spreadsheet will be used to create a web page.

Please include a printed or electronic copy that shows how the questionnaire would look if administered on paper. This will help us format it for the web.

To save time, demographic information will be collected only once. If your questionnaire requires demographics besides the items listed below, please contact Dr. Gabrenya.

Demographics to be collected:

• Sex
• Age
• Major
• Year in school
• Legal nationality
• First language
• Nation attended high school
• Race/ethnic group
• Social class
• Employment status/history
• Contributing researchers should suggest additional demographics and background measures

Ownership of data

Researchers who submit questionnaires will retain sole ownership of their data. However, a list of administered questionnaires will be made available to facilitate sharing data.

Informed consent forms

A single informed consent form will be created to apply to all the questionnaires in the set. However, questionnaires that obtain sensitive data, such as those subject to full review by the IRB, should have their own consent forms. Contributors in such cases must provide consent forms along with their IRB approval forms.The consent forms will be collected and held separately from the data.

Responsibility of Instrument Contributors

Contributors will be asked, subject to time restrictions, to present their theory or research hypotheses to an Introductory Psychology class or other classes that contribute respondents during the semester in which the testing took place.

Credit Slips

The Group Testing Session administrators will provide credit slips to participants.

How to submit a questionnaire

Submit the questionnaire (Excel file), IRB approval form, and informed consent form (if necessary) to the Group Testing Session administrator by the announced deadline. Include a cover sheet that includes:

1. Project name, researcher name(s)
2. How much time the questionnaire has been shown to require in pretests
3. Additional demographics needed
4. Who will make a presentation to an Introductory Psychology class

Schedule - Spring 2008

Psychology Research Site Home Page

Psychology Web Site

Introductory Psychology Subject Pool