An online study of people’s impressions (e)

LETTER OF INFORMATION
Title of Project: An online study of people’s impressions on psychological findings and other people

We are inviting you to participate in a research study conducted by Chester Kam and Dr. Jim Olson of the Department of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario.

Our research focuses on people’s comprehension of written passages and their impression of other people. It consists of three short studies that are unrelated to each other. In the first study you will read two written passages. We are interested in your comprehension of these two written passages and your impressions with regard to their content. In the second study, you will read about a true event. You will express your view of the event. In the final part of the study, you will provide ratings of your own attitudes. The study should take around 55 minutes to complete, and you will be given one course credit.

It is important for you to know that all information that you provide will be confidential. All of the data will be summarized, and no individual will be identifiable from these summarized results. Because your participation is voluntary, you may withdraw at any time during the study without loss of the promised research credit. Similarly, you may leave unanswered any question that you prefer not to answer. All data collected will be used for research purposes only, stored in a secure location, and viewed only by authorized researchers. All possible measures will be taken to protect the confidentiality of your responses.

There is no known risk from participating in this study. You will receive written information about the purpose of the study when you complete the questionnaire. If you have any questions about the research or want to obtain information about results, feel free to contact either Chester Kam (Email: [email protected]), or Dr. Jim Olson (Phone 661-2111 Ext. 84637, Email: [email protected], Office SSC 6332). Finally, we would like to assure you that this study has been reviewed and approved by the Psychology Department’s Research Ethics Board. However, the final decision about participation is yours. If you have any comments or concerns resulting from your participation in this study, please feel free to contact the Director of the Office of Research Ethics, at (519) 661-3036 or by email at [email protected].

In order to ensure accuracy of the survey information we need you to be in a quiet place and to complete the survey individually. Should you be in a quiet place and want to participate in this study now, please click ‘Continue.’

LETTER OF CONSENT
Title of Project: An online study of people’s impressions on psychological findings and other people
Principal Investigators:
Chester Kam & Dr. Jim Olson

Before you start, please note these important instructions:

• You cannot restart the survey once you have started, so please only do so now if you are able to complete the survey individually and have approximately 55 minutes free.

• You also cannot return to a page once you hit "Continue" (you will see a continue button at the bottom of each page), so please be sure that you are ready to proceed to the next page whenever you hit "Continue."

• Please do not interrupt the survey to do other things, such as check your email or access the web, if at all possible.

• You need to maximize this window so that you can read the questionnaire easily.
Please provide us with the following information before continuing:

* SONA id (a 5-digit id, e.g., 91234):

(Do not put in your e-mail address or your student id. We can only give you a course credit if we have your SONA id)

By clicking "Continue," I confirm that I have read the letter of information,
understood its contents, and agree to participate.

Notice that there are questions in this survey to check whether you have been reading it properly and carefully.

Once you are ready, click "Continue" below to complete the three short, unrelated studies.

STUDY 1

READING COMPREHENSION AND IMPRESSION

The purpose of the present study is to gain an understanding of how people process different types of written psychological passages. In addition, we would like to obtain your view with regard to the content in these passages. In this questionnaire, you are presented with two passages. For each passage, your task is to read the passage and then answer questions related to the passage.

As you will see, you are asked two different types of questions for each passage:

(A) CONTENT QUESTION
This type of question asks you to summarize or restate facts or ideas presented in the passage. Content questions are rather straightforward.

(B) EXPLANATION QUESTION
This type of question asks you to give a plausible explanation to facts or ideas presented in the passage. Unlike content questions, answers to explanation questions may not be stated directly in the passage. IN GIVING EXPLANATIONS, PLEASE MAKE USE OF YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE, COMMON SENSE, AND / OR IMAGINATION.

Please read the article below carefully. You will then answer some questions related to the article. Please note that once you click to the next page, you will be unable to return back to the article.

Below is an article published in the newspaper the Scottish Sunday Express.

PLEASE WAIT A FEW SECONDS FOR THE ARTICLE TO LOAD BELOW

Does the article load properly above?

Yes

The following multiple choice question is being asked to check whether the article you have just read is easily understandable to the majority of the participants. Please answer the following question as best as you can.

CONTENT QUESTION

According to the article, why can good manners bad?

A. Politeness sacrifices clarity.

B. Politeness creates distance between people.

C. Politeness should not be used in situations where politeness is not the norm.

D. Politeness is unnecessary in some situations.

EXPLANATION QUESTION

Provide a possible explanation for why good manners can sometimes be bad for you.

Below is an article published in the APA Science Observer – An American Psychological Association Publication.

PLEASE WAIT FOR A FEW SECONDS FOR THE ARTICLE TO LOAD PROPERLY BELOW

Does the article load properly above?

Yes

The following multiple choice questions are being asked to check whether the article you have just read is easily understandable to the majority of the participants. Please answer the following questions as best as you can.

CONTENT QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following people did the article mention?

A. Napoleon Bonaparte

B. Mother Teresa

C. Albert Einstein

D. Martin Luther King

2. The article mentioned that people’s basic abilities appear to consolidate before a certain age range and do not change much after this. What is this age?

A. Before the age of 4 or 5

B. Before the age of 20 to 25

C. Before the age of 60 to 65

D. Before the age of 80 to 85

3. What can environment change?

A. Basic personality

B. Basic behavior patterns

C. Fundamental characters

D. Temporary attitudes

EXPLANATION QUESTIONS

Provide a possible explanation why people’s own basic abilities or characteristics are not changeable.

At the beginning of the article, it describes Mary’s story. The initial problem that Mary experienced during her childhood extends to her adulthood. In the space below, please briefly describe someone that you know of that has a similar story.

STUDY 2

OPINIONS AND JUDGMENTS

This is a second study that is unrelated to the first study that you have just participated in. Please read the story on the next page carefully. Once you hit the “Continue” button at the bottom of the screen you will not be able to come back and read the story again.

True Story for Chris*

Chris, who was raised in an extremely poor family, was one of the brightest students in his high school in terms of academic performance. He went on to university and ultimately graduated with a Master’s degree in statistics with an average GPA of 3.7 (equivalent to an A- average). Before graduation, he expected to have a bright future. However, life has repeatedly disappointed him.

Being Fired Within Two Months Twice

Chris does not have problems in thinking clearly or with expressing himself, and he does not suffer from any mental issues. However, he never looks at people when speaking to them, and he does not have any friends. In 2008 he was hired by a chemical firm, and in 2009 he was hired as a sales representative for an insurance company. In each of these jobs he was fired within two months because of his poor communication skills.

Chris claims that he has tried very hard to find a job. He has been invited for an average of 10 job interviews each month, but he has not been successful in any of them.

Interview Performance

A news reporter gave Chris a practice job interview with a senior human resources professional. During the entire interview Chris never once made eye contact with the interviewer. In addition, he continually misunderstood the interviewer’s questions and thus failed to provide relevant answers.

Chris’ difficulty in understanding other people was also apparent in another situation. Before the practice interview, an office assistant asked Chris whether he wanted anything to drink.

“Do you have orange juice?” Chris asked.

The assistant replied that they did not have any juice, only tea and water.

“Do you have apple juice?” Chris responded. The assistant was speechless.

* For privacy reasons, the individual’s name has been changed.

1. According to the article, Chris has trouble in which of the following areas?

A. Physical health

B. Political Orientation

C. Academic performance

D. Communication

2. What was the family background that Chris comes from?

A. A rich family

B. A family with divorced parents

C. A poor family

D. None of the above

3. What drink did Chris ask before the practice interview?

A. Tea

B. Coffee

C. Juice

D. Water

Please read each statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with the statement.

What do you think Chris’ problem(s) is/are? Please briefly write your opinion below:

Which of the following will help Chris in the long run?

Please read each statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with the statement.

STUDY 3

SOCIAL JUDGEMENT TASK

In this final study, we are interested in knowing your general attitudes.

Please read each statement and decide whether you agree or disagree with the statement.

I see myself as someone who...

Your Gender

Male

Female

Your Age:

Your Ethnicity:

Your Academic Major:

Your Academic Minor (if any):

Your Birth Place:

What is your native (first) language?

Can you guess the purpose of the current three studies?

Do you have any questions about your experience today? While you were completing the studies today, did you ever question anything? Please give details:

(Notice that we are not asking what you think now, but rather what you thought while completing the three studies.)

While you were completing Study I, Study II, and Study III, did you ever question that there was a connection between or among them? Please give details.

(Notice that we are not asking what you think now, but rather what you thought while completing the three studies.)

	Yes	No
I questioned that there is a connection between or among the studies.

Please give details:

While you were completing Study I and Study II, did you ever question that one of the articles or stories in these studies may not be real?

(Notice that we are not asking what you think now, but rather what you thought while completing Study I and II)

Please give details:

Do you have any further questions or comments?

Your course credit has to be given manually. It will be given to you within 2 business days (weekends and holidays excluded). If you do not see your course credit after 2 business days, please e-mail Chester ([email protected]). Thank you for your participation!

POST-STUDY DEBRIEFING INFORMATION
Title of Project: An online study of people’s impressions on psychological findings and other people

Thank you for participating in our study. You have helped our research on justice and, more broadly, have contributed to knowledge in the field of social psychology. This letter is intended to give you more information about the purpose of our research.

At the beginning of the study, participants are randomly assigned into reading one of the two articles: a psychological article that states social competence is trainable (trainable condition), or a psychological article that states social competence is not trainable (untrainable condition). The purpose of these research articles was to manipulate participants’ perception of whether social skills can be improved. We will compare participants’ responses between the conditions.

Afterwards, all participants read a story about Chris who experienced great difficulties in procuring a job after graduating with a Master’s degree. The purpose of this exercise was to examine whether perception of social skills affects participants’ perception about whether Chris is in control of his fate, and thus examines participants’ tendency to blame or help Chris.

In the final part of the study, participants were asked about their own opinion regarding the malleability of human attributes. We asked these questions because we would like to examine whether people’s attitudes towards Chris is affected by this opinion.

We want you to know that the second article you read about the trainability of social competence is not real. However, the first article you read about assertiveness is real. In addition, you have been told that all three studies are unrelated to each other. In fact, they are related to each other. Nevertheless, Chris’ story is based on a true story that happened in Hong Kong. Details of the story have been slightly amended so that it fits the context of the Canadian culture.

We hope that you understand that deception is sometimes needed in psychology to elicit genuine responses from the participants. We hope that you have had an interesting learning experience concerning psychological research.

Again, thanks for participating in this study. If you want to learn more about the research underlying this experiment, you could read the articles listed below. Also, you should feel free to telephone, e-mail, or drop by our offices if you want to discuss the research.

Sincerely,
Chester Kam, MA
SSC 8434
[email protected]
519-615-5885

Dr. Jim Olson
SSC 6332
[email protected]
519-661-2111 ext. 84637

Suggested Readings:
Haslam, N., Bastian, B., Bain, P., & Kashima, Y. (2006). Psychological essentialism, implicit theories, and intergroup relations. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 9, 63-76.
Haynes, G. A., & Olson, J. M. (2006). Coping with threats to just-world beliefs: Derogate, blame, or help? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 664-682.

Please note: If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, you should contact the Director of the Office of Research Ethics at [email protected] or 661-3036.