Hi

On Tue, 15 Oct 2002, David B. Daniel, Ph.D. wrote:

> I think this has been discussed before but:  What is the
> optimal membership make-up of a human subjects review board?
> We have a proposal to include a community member, an
> administrator and several faculty.  Just wondering.

The "optimal" membership for psych would probably be
psychologists, or perhaps social scientists.  But that may not be
the sense of "optimal" you had in mind.  The recently-posted link
to the new APA ethics guidelines suggests that APA may be
liberating somewhat psychological research from the medical
model, lawyers, and professional ethicists.  Here's the section
on Dispensing with Informed Consent.

8.05 Dispensing With Informed Consent for Research
Psychologists may dispense with informed consent only (1) where
research would not reasonably be assumed to create distress or
harm and involves (a) the study of normal educational practices,
curricula, or classroom management methods conducted in
educational settings; (b) only anonymous questionnaires,
naturalistic observations, or archival research for which
disclosure of responses would not place participants at risk of
criminal or civil liability or damage their financial standing,
employability, or reputation, and confidentiality is
protected; or (c) the study of factors related to job or
organization effectiveness conducted in organizational settings
for which there is no risk to participants' employability, and
confidentiality is protected or (2) where otherwise permitted by
law or federal or institutional regulations.

I'm less familiar with the situation in the US, but here in
Canada my impression is that the pressure (from granting
agencies) to have one set of ethics guidelines to cover
everything from the most invasive medical procedures to the most
inocuous questionnaires puts up unnecessary barriers to
psychological research.

Best wishes
Jim

============================================================================
James M. Clark                          (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology                (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg                  4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3B 2E9             [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA                                  http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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