Help needed!

Somebody coming onto the November BNIM 5-day training course and about to do
an undergraduate counselling psycho-therapy/psychology dissertation has
asked me some questions which may be of broader interest. She also has
questions re an ethics committee in the field of psychology/counselling, and
consent forms. I have no experience here, so if anybody else has any helpful
contribution, please send it to the list generally or to me privately (and I
will forward it). 

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Lots of very good questions to which I may be less fitted than some to
provide answers. Some exceptions:

> To progress with my undergraduate dissertation application I must tell them
'how many people I plan to BNIM-interview' (low-N, but how low-N!),

 Why not say '6' from which you would choose the most appropriate 1 or 2 to
analyse and interpret in depth. For an undergraduate dissertation, more
would seem impossible. How many hours work is the dissertation supposed to
represent?

> and what are 'trigger-questions' (this was Kathryn's term).

I would think about giving her the standard SQUIN -- see 'Short Guide' p.68
-- modified to read "Can you please tell me the story of your childhood and
early years, all those events and experiences which were important for you
and how it all developed? Begin wherever you like, etc." Note that 'early
years' in this draft is ambiguous so that it could be read as 'early years
after childhood' but allows for any pre-childhood material (from parental
hearsay, for example) as well.

> She also said I should give
> a questionnaire to screen for clinical problems, since I gather I must work
> on a 'normal population' sample!

It is not clear what level of 'screening questionnaire' she wants nor why it
is important to work on a 'normal population' sample (whatever that is). Is
this latter point arguable? Is it worth arguing?

> But she may have said that because the
> area I was thinking of concentrating on was 'early infant memories' as
> discussed by Fogel (Alan Fogel (2002) 'Remembering Infancy:  Accessing our
> Earliest Experiences').    I feel very unhappy about first giving someone a
> 'screening questionnaire' before inviting a BNIM interview;  don't you
> agree?   It starts 'on the wrong foot' to me, but then I've apparently got
> to get this project approved by an ethics committee.   It may be if I change
> the focus away from early memories, this wouldn't be necessary,

This would then call for removing the words 'early years' from my draft
SQUIN. Or even replacing 'childhood' by a phrase like 'young person' or 'up
to adulthood'. You could then in fact narrow down your follow-up questions
for subsession 2 to the ones most likely to evoke early (infant) memories --
providing the interviewee refers to such memories in subsession 1.
 
> but of
> course I know that 'in depth' interviews can evoke traumatic material per
> se.    Do you cover yourselves by getting forms signed, etc. in advance?

Other people have experience of handling ethics committees and generating
CONSENT FORMS which I certainly don't have. Anybody got any they've used?


> I explained that I'd know more when I've done the course, but I'm due to see
> her again on 7th November, and I would much appreciate if you would briefly
> respond to the issues above so I can answer her better.
> 
> Personally I would prefer to interview more than one person, even if depth
> is sacrificed.   I certainly only want to make my contact minimal and
> time-limited.   I'm aware from the field of counselling/psychotherapy that
> this (contact time) is a critical issue and I'm sure something you discuss
> on the course.
> 
> But for the moment, my purpose is to get an undergrad. project achieved!   I
> want to use the best methods I can access, and do it as well as I can within
> the constraints of undergrad work.
> 
> This is partly a courtesy email to let you know I've passed on info. to
> supervisor, and partly to ask you if you would let me know briefly how to
> address the upfront questions needed for ethics approval.

All thoughts and materials re the above very gratefully received. Tom