Module 5 Assignment 1

The Internal Review Board

Some of you may be familiar with the Milgram obedience study of the 1960s. In this well-known study, the social researcher Milgram led participants to believe that they were delivering to an actual person shocks so severe as to incapacitate the person. Many of the participants experienced undue stress as a result of thinking that their actions had inflicted severe pain on someone. Their distress was exacerbated by the fact that Milgram would not allow them to stop participation even when participants pleaded with him to end the study. He kept reciting the line, "The experiment must go on." He was studying obedience in a post–World War II America, and the results that he obtained were as shocking as his methods. Many of the participants continued delivering electric shocks up to and beyond the point where the perceived victim was completely unresponsive.

The Milgram obedience study was a significant inspiration for the inception of the internal review board (IRB). The IRB (sometimes also referred to as the institutional review board) is an internal agency that every institution (public or private) must have if it conducts any type of research involving participants or animals. Places that typically have IRBs are hospitals and universities. Currently, no one in this country can conduct a research study without proper IRB approval. The role of the IRB is to protect potential research participants to ensure that they are treated humanely and respectfully throughout the research process so that they are not subject to stressful experiences unnecessarily. The IRB is not concerned with assisting researchers in pursuing research. Their only concern is ensuring rights and safety of the participants. Researchers must also take that into account when designing their studies because IRB approval is essential. Without the IRB's approval, the research study cannot take place.

The IRB requires that every research participant provide what is termed "informed consent." The informed consent process provides participants with clear information about all expectations related to their participation. They need to be given clear information about what they are being asked to do so that they can make an informed decision on whether or not to participate. Most importantly, the informed consent process must let participants know that they can withdraw from participation at any time for any reason, without penalty. Often, the IRB requires researchers who offer compensation to participants to compensate participants fully even if they withdraw early. Participants must also be informed that their results will be reported in aggregate (group) form, meaning that participants will be kept anonymous and that their responses will not be singled out.

Access the Institutional Review Board Handbook. (I will email this to you) Specifically look at the Criteria for IRB Certification of Research Project (pp. 16–20).