University of Hawai I at Hilo

Revised: October 8, 2007

For questions regarding the Human Subjects Pool, please contact Dr. Brian Uldall at or 808-974-7402.

University of Hawai’i at Hilo

Department of Psychology

Human Subjects Pool

Goal: To develop a human subjects pool (HSP) consisting of students enrolled in PSY100 (N = approximately 300 students).

Benefits: (1) Faculty and graduate students in the department will have access to a reliable source of participants for their research projects.

(a) The availability of a stable source of participants could enhance the research culture of the departments. Studies that may not have been conducted in the past due to problems securing participants will now be feasible.

(b) Pilot studies for larger research project can be done easily using the HSP.

(2) Students in PSY100 will have opportunities to gain research experiences as participants.

(3) If there are more students in the HSP than needed by the research studies, the HSP will be opened to students enrolled in research methodology courses (PSY214 and PSY602). This will be determined at the beginning of each semester by the Department.

Exemption: A very small number of students (perhaps 4 or 5) who are enrolled in the Fall sections of PSY100 are not yet 18-years-old and cannot give legal consent to participate in research studies that are posted on the Human Subjects Pool website to earn the necessary research credits. Because there are strict institutional restrictions on conducting research with minors, the Department has decided to EXEMPT these students from the research requirement. HOWEVER, this exemption will apply only to students whose 18th birthday occurs after September 30. If a student qualifies for this exemption, s/he needs to bring a valid identification containing the birth date to Dr. Brian Uldall at UCB 261 for documentation.

Mechanism: (1) Before the end of each semester, a call for “Call for Research Participants” will be sent to the Department’s faculty and graduate students. Researchers who would like to utilize the HSP will then submit the following information.

(a) a title and a brief description of the study

(b) name(s) of researcher(s) and contact information (telephone and email)

(c) a statement that the study has been approved by the university’s IRB (except for studies conducted as part of PSY214, Research Methodology)

(d) amount of time required and number of credits

(e) location of administration

(f) Data collection start date

(g) any population parameters (e.g., sex, ethnicity) that are required from the participants (optional)

(h) a list of administration dates/times (optional); alternatively, researchers can ask the participants to contact them to make appointments

(2) Each Call for Research Participants will be posted on a Department webpage (HSP Webpage) so that students in the HSP can view and select the studies they would like to participate.

(3) Since some studies may not begin until later in the semester, the Call for Research Participants will be accepted throughout the semester. However, for ease of planning, all researchers are encouraged to submit the Call for Research Participants during the end of the previous semester; this does not mean that data collection needs to begin at the start of the semester.

(4) Each student will be required to complete 3 research credits as part of the HSP. Each credit will be equal to 1 hour of participation time or less.

(a) A study that requires a fraction of an hour still will be worth 1 credit.

(b) A study that requires more than one hour but less two will be worth 2 credits.

(5) Alternative for Students Not Wishing to Participate in Research: For each research credit, students may choose to review a journal article in the field of psychology and write a one-page summary rather than participating in research.

(6) If a student does not complete 3 research credits by the end of the semester, the student will be given an “Incomplete,” regardless of the actual grade earned through the coursework. The student can have the “Incomplete” grade replaced with the actual grade by completing the research credits during the incomplete completion period in the subsequent semester.

(7) Records of research credits (or journal article review) for all students enrolled in PSY100 will be maintained by a Graduate Assistant hired by the Department. At the end of the semester, the GA will provide each PSY100 instructor with a list of students who should be given an “Incomplete” because they did not complete the research credits. During the subsequent semester, the GA will inform the instructors the names of students who subsequently completed the research requirement and should be given their actual course grade. Hence, the instructor in PSY100 will not be burdened in any way with the establishment of the HSP other than possibility giving an “Incomplete” grade and changing it to the actual earned grade during the subsequent semester.

(8) At the end of each research administration, the researcher will send (email) the names of participants, the PSYC 100 section in which they are enrolled, and the number of earned credits to the GA. The GA will then enter the credit(s) to the students’ records.

(9) As a safeguard, the researcher also will give a signed Research Credit Completion Form (see below) indicating the number of completed credits to the students so that they can keep it as their proof of participation.

(10) Given the variability in the number of available research studies each semester, the Department may decrease the number of required research credits at the beginning of each semester. This will be done only if the methodology courses will not be able to utilize the entire HSP.

Evaluation: At the end of each semester, the Department will evaluate the mechanism of HSP and make improvements.

University of Hawai’i at Hilo

Department of Psychology

Research Credit Completion Form

Name of Students: ______

Name of Researcher: ______

Signature of Researcher: ______

Number of Earned Research Credits: ______

Date of Participation: ______