Question

According to the federal regulations, which of the following studies meets the definition of research with human subjects? A university designs an in-house study to improve the mentoring of women students in its engineering department with the proposed outcome consisting of a report of recommendations for the department. A researcher receives anonymized data for secondary analysis from a survey about gender-related differences in stress levels conducted by a colleague at another university. An organization for women academics in engineering asks a federal agency to provide the number of women investigators funded by that agency to include in a report for its membership. An experiment is proposed on the relationship between gender-related stereotypes in math and the subsequent performance by males and females on math tests.

Answer 1

The correct answers are the following:

• A researcher receives anonymized data for secondary analysis from a survey about gender-related differences in stress levels conducted by a colleague at another university
• An experiment is proposed on the relationship between gender-related stereotypes in math and the subsequent performance by males and females on math tests.

A human subject research is defined as a scientific study, either experimental or observational, in which the subjects of interest are human beings. Data is gathered and analyzed in order to answer an specific question that can be related, for example, to biological specimens, epidemiological or behavioral studies or medical chart review researchs.

The studies selected do involve data treatment for subsequent analysis of human behaviour, more specifically, in order to assess behavioural differences in terms of gender.

The first option involves qualitative assessment about the functioning of a deparment while the third one simply demands a specific figure about women researchers to be included in a report. Therefore, in any  of these two cases there is data being used as the argument to claim in favour or against a specific hypothesis. Hence,these two examples have not been chosen as they do not meet the definition of human subject researchs.

Answer 2

The correct answer is D. An experiment is proposed on the relationship between gender-related stereotypes in math and the subsequent performance by males and females on math tests.

Explanation:

The Code of  Federal Regulations refers to the parameters and codes proposed by the Federal Government fo the U.S. regarding different areas and subjects this includes areas such as domestic security, energy, banks, labor, education, and research. In research, the federal regulation proposed different parameters especially in relation to research with human subjects that the Federal Regulations defines as the type of research studies that imply researchers interact or use human subjects to get data, including using private information gathered from subjects.

Considering this, the study that fits with this definition is "An experiment is proposed on the relationship between gender-related stereotypes in math and the subsequent performance by males and females on math tests", because in this study the focus is gender-related stereotypes which is directly related to human interaction and also, information for this study can only be gathered by directly interacting or observing human subjects.