How Can Faculty Researchers Avoid Undue Influence Of Student Subjects?

Many faculty researchers in the natural and social sciences are not fully aware of the undue pressures that they can put on their student subjects. There are many steps that researchers can take to avoid this, including ensuring that all subjects are adequately compensated, securing written consent, and providing clear information about why the research is being conducted.

Suggestions To Avoid Undue Influence

1) Researchers should refrain from doing everything

Many faculty researchers believe that they need to stay as involved as possible with their research subjects, and can’t just step back and let them do their own thing. This is a major mistake; it’s important for faculty members to not influence the results of any study. When an outside party is observing the research process, the subjects are more likely to be truthful and open about their responses.

2) Researchers should be aware of the potential pitfalls of research

A lot of researchers fail to realize the potential dangers of their research. This can lead to the subjects being manipulated and their responses being influenced by the researcher. This can be done in a number of ways such as by offering a reward or a punishment for the subject’s response.

3) Researchers should engage in open discussions with their research participants

The purpose of the aforementioned article is to explore how faculty researchers can avoid undue influence on student subjects and to offer steps and procedures that will help them to do so. The article discusses the potential unintended effects of research on participants, such as when what they are told in a study contradicts what they believe, which may result in their ignoring the researcher’s message in future encounters with similar situations. The article offers suggestions for avoiding this potential undesired effect in order to maintain transparency during research projects.

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Conclusion

The article concludes with suggestions of ways that researchers can avoid undue influence of the student subjects. This includes avoiding giving attention or having contact outside of the classroom with individual students, not sharing personal information with the students, and not giving gifts to the students.

As a researcher, I think that you can give your students a gift, but you should be reasonable and avoid giving gifts that are too expensive.