Student Perception of Coercion to Participate in Psychological Research

A common setting for psychological research is a university campus, with college students serving as the participants. Ethical issues have been raised about how coercive recruitment procedures or course requirements could appear to be to the students participating. A survey was given to 60 students recruited from a Midwestern university. Results showed that although students thought that some research recruitment procedures were coercive, such as receiving extra credit and monetary compensation as well as fulfilling a course requirement, they generally did not object to the procedures. Students also tended to perceive other students as being more coerced into participating in research than themselves. Studying the perception of coercion is important for establishing ethical procedures for conducting research in universities. ********** Psychological research is often conducted on a university campus, with college students serving as the participants (Menges, 1973). This is because they are the most available and the easiest sample to use. Typically, students are recruited from introductory psychology courses and participate to receive some type of class credit (Sieber & Saks, 1989). In order to conduct research involving participation from human subjects, such as college students, researchers must follow certain guidelines (APA, 2002) so that their research will not be harmful to the participants. Participation must be voluntary with respect to the person's autonomy or freedom to choose. Discontinuing participation should not result in any penalty or loss of benefits. This is particularly important when the research involves some form of relationship between the researcher and the participant (e.g., teacher and student). However, some research requirement methods and compensation rewards may include coercive inducements for study completion. It is important to note that almost everything in education involves some element of coercion for the students as well as the professors. In the present paper, we focus on perceptions of coercion in the research process. Informed consent should involve a precise statement of the purposes, procedures, risks, and benefits of the research project, as well as the obligations and commitments of both the participants and the researchers (Fischman, 2000). Fulfillment of informed consent should be based on the ethical principle of autonomy, meaning that researchers do not disrupt participants' right to choose whether or not to participate. If the participants perceive that they are being coerced to participate, then autonomy has been lost. Since the typical setting involved in psychological research is a university campus, often this means that many faculty members are involved in the conduct of research. Non-coercive participation and freedom to withdraw are especially essential in the faculty-student research environment. Students may feel unable to decline to participate or withdraw from a study if the faculty member is their teacher. It can be difficult, in situations of uneven power and authority, for professors to communicate to students that they may say no. Faculty need to recognize the power they have over their students and maintain the responsibility for preserving ethical relationships with those students (Biaggio, Paget, & Chenoweth, 1997). Students may feel a risk of having their grades lowered because of their participation. Therefore, they may possibly offer what they think are the correct answers in order to receive all of their credit (Fisher & Fyberg, 1994). One way to deal with this type of coercion in research with faculty members is to use research assistants. When research assistants collect the data, rather than the professor, the students may feel less pressure to participate. Participants are also more likely to participate if they are accustomed to the research assistant (Blanck, Bellack, Rosnow, Rotheram-Borus, & Schooler, 1992). …