View/Open - Scholarly Commons Home

Chapter Three – Research methods and their use - Page 89
Some background to the study - how ethics committee
approval and participant consent were established
I began this study prior to registration for a higher degree, and in particular prior to
registration for the degree of PhD at AUT. However, I was clear privately and also in
discussion with my co-participants (see information sheet – Appendix 1) that I intended
to direct this work towards the completion of degree requirements. In particular, I
wanted to carry out the research as I did because of the opportunity that was available to
link my interests in clinical practice, training and research. I was aware that the
opportunity to carry out the research might not present itself again for some time. I
teach infrequently. The particular course that I eventually studied has run infrequently
(i.e. on only three occasions in the nine years since I undertook the study). I therefore
decided to proceed in order to take the available opportunity.
I recognised immediately from my professional backgrounds (as a psychologist and
psychotherapist) and from the various ethical codes of those disciplines to which I am
subject (for example, the British Psychological Society, the New Zealand Psychological
Society, the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists) that I needed ethical
approval to carry out the research. Initially, I obtained that ethical approval from the
committee responsible for research ethics in the agency where the fieldwork took place.
I was clear that I wanted Associate Professor Steve Appel, as it happens a clinical and
training colleague in the agency at the time, to supervise my research. We met, and I got
Steve’s agreement to do this, although we were unclear whether that supervision would
take place with me being registered at a UK institution with Steve providing local
supervision as an agent of that institution, or at the institution where Steve was currently
a staff member, or through some other arrangement. In the event, and after I had begun
my research with ethical approval from the agency, Steve took up his post at AUT, and
drew my attention to the opportunities there for doctoral level scholarship. I then