Study # (06139)
INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTH BEND
STUDY INFORMATION SHEET
Religion, Coping, God, and Evil
If you are 18 years of age or older, you are invited to participate in a research study. The purpose of this study is to collect data related to how people pray, how their faith informs their coping with problems, how they think about God, and how they think about evil in the world in order to increase basic knowledge in the psychology of religion.
INFORMATION
If you agree to participate, you will be one of approximately 300 people who will complete the task. If you decide to participate, you will fill out several standard questionnaires that ask you to indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with statements about prayer (e.g., I think about happiness while praying.), God (e.g., God is loving.), evil in the world (e.g., Evil doesn't really exist.) and forgiveness (e.g., I forgive him/her for what he/she did to me.).
There are approximately 190 questions to complete. Pre-testing suggests that most people require 30 – 40 minutes to finish.
BENEFITS
While there are no direct benefits to you from participating in this study, we hope to increase understanding of how people think about religiously related topics.
RISKS
As part of this study, you will be asked to recall and reflect on an incident where someone has seriously wronged you. You will also be asked to respond to a series of questions about this incident and your reactions to it at the time when it occurred and your feelings about the incident at the current time.
CONFIDENTIALITY
All of your responses will be anonymous. Analysis will focus only on group responses and no attempt will be made to link any specific person to her or his individual data. Be advised though that we can’t guarantee confidentiality while your data are being transferred across the internet.
CONTACT
If you have questions at any time about the study or the procedures, you may contact the researcher, Kevin L. Ladd, Ph.D via mail: 1700 Mishawaka Avenue, P.O. Box 7111, South Bend, Indiana, 46634-7111, via telephone: 574-520-5505, or via e-mail: kladd@iusb.edu
If you feel you have not been treated according to the descriptions in this form, or your rights as a participant in research have not been honored during the course of this project, you may contact the Indiana University South Bend Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Research Subjects, 1700 Mishawaka Avenue, A247, South Bend, IN, 46634, 574-520-4181, by e-mail at sbirb@iusb.edu
PARTICIPATION
Your participation in this study is voluntary; you may refuse to participate without penalty. If you decide to participate, you may withdraw from the study at any time. You are not required to answer every question in order to submit the survey.
Study Information Sheet date: 14 August 2008