Request for participants in research on forgiveness
My name is Heather Pearce and I am a Psychology PhD student at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. My PhD research is looking at barriers to forgiveness people may experience following hurtful events, and I was wondering if you could possibly help me. I am looking for participants to take part in my online survey on reasons people don't forgive. My research is the first work on why people don't forgive following hurtful events, and involves the development of a scale to measure barriers to forgiveness. For my research to contribute as effectively as possible to psychological research, it is crucial that I get responses from people who have experienced a range of hurtful events and who are of various age groups and backgrounds. As you are an online support group for individuals who may have experienced some hurtful things in their lives, I was wondering if you would possibly permit me to advertise my study on your discussion board?
The study involves participants thinking of something hurtful that someone has done to them at some point in their life that they haven't forgiven, and then answering questions about the hurtful event and why they haven't forgiven this person. The survey is available online and only takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. It is completely private and confidential (any identification information will be kept separately to survey responses and will be deleted in January, following data collection), and participants are free to withdraw at any time. The study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of they School of Psychology, University of Adelaide. As incentive to participate, I am offering Australian participants entry into a draw to win a $100 Westfield voucher (this voucher is only valid in Australia, which is why I'm only offering it to Australian participants).
Results from the study will contribute significantly to research in the area of forgiveness and to clinical and counselling interventions. All responses will be used for RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY and will not be seen by anyone but myself.
If you would like to have a read of my information sheet for further details on my study, go to:
If you'd like to see the types of questions involved in the study, you can access the three pages of the survey by adding a 1, 2, or 3 to the end of 'barriers' in the address above (eg. to access page 2 of the survey, go to www.psychology.adelaide.edu.au/expts/barriers2.html)
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like any further information.
Kind regards,
Heather Pearce
