Informed consent

• should always be gained, participants should be fully aware of all aspects of the study so they can make an informed decision if they wish to take part
• participation voluntary, right to withdraw at any point, under 16 need parent consent (gatekeeper consent)
• participants must be told exactly what is going on so they can make informed decision, if participant deceived, they cannot give valid fully formed consent.
• Issues for researcher


  telling participant true aims of research and what will happen throughout. may lead participants to guess aims of research (demand characteristics)
• Presumptive consent


  method dealing with valid consent or deception is to ask group of people who are similar to participants if they would take part in the research and tell them that deception will be used. if they agree they would give voluntary consent knowing the true aim of the investigation, then we may presume that they represent the views of the rest of their population group.
• Prior general consent


  potential participants are informed that sometime participants are misinformed about the true purpose of a study and asked to give consent without knowing if study will involve deception. if participants still happy, they can be in future investigations