Question

Becca is gathering participants for her research study. She has given each potential participant a detailed view of what will happen during the study, how long the study will take, and the potential risks or benefits. She has explained that although there is no monetary benefit, participants should know that the findings of the study will benefit others in the future. Becca is conducting the study in a small town and assumes the potential participants understand the possibility that their anonymous quotes may be recognizable to others in the close-knit community, so she doesn’t mention this while discussing confidentiality. Has Becca truly obtained informed consent?

Answer 1

Answer:

No

Explanation:

Informed consent refers to the process of getting permission before conducting a study.

Informed consent has 3 main components:

• Disclosure: which means that the researcher needs to give all the information necessary in order for the subjects to make an autonomous decision and to ensure they understand the information.
• Capacity: it means that the subjects have to have the ability to understand the information provided to form a judgement based on the potential consequences of their decision (being part of the study)
• Voluntariness: it means that the subject's are free to decide whether to participate or not in the study without external pressure.

Becca gave a detailed view of what will happen during the study, the time it will take and the potential risks or benefits. However, she omitted the fact that their anonymous quotes may be recognizable to others and this can have potential consequences in their decisions, therefore, this confidentiality issue was not discussed and what Becca did can't really be called a fully truly informed consent.