Ethics
All studies and projects carried out within the School of Psychological Sciences must conform to British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines, therefore the School ethics committee must approve all studies prior to their commencement.
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Getting ethical approval
Forms and guidance notes are available on the School intranet and students must work with their supervisor on this prior to submission. If research involves work with neuroimaging techniques, NHS clients, children or other vulnerable groups, then ethical clearance via external authorities may also be necessary. Even for straightforward projects, this type of clearance can take up to three months to secure and so considered planning is essential.
Planning
As well as allowing plenty of time for ethical application, students must always plan contingency studies with analogue samples should ethical clearance become particularly problematic. For example, when working on clinically relevant topics in non-clinical samples (eg anxiety or depression traits in student populations), students must consider how they might provide information about support groups in an unobtrusive way, should they be needed by participants.
