INFORMATION SHEET

 

Dear Participant

Thank you for giving your time and effort to participate in this study.  Your participation is of course completely voluntary. Should you find any part of this study offensive or distressing you are by no means obliged to continue, and I am available to discuss any issues that may have arisen during the study. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time.  The confidentiality of your results is guaranteed by the use of a personal pin number generated by you; no other identifying information will be used in the analyses of your data.

I am collecting information from you as part of my doctoral studies. The study that you will be completing larger project that will examine what elements are present in fairy tales that contribute to their popularity as a genre of literature. This will be assessed by evaluating a large cross-cultural sample of both traditional and modern fairy tales from areas such as India, Germany, Ireland, and Japan. The primary aim of this initial study is to assess how particular textual elements (e.g. length, characters and so on) present in fairy tales impact on readers’ responses to the stories, including judgments of story liking.

The study will be divided into two parts. The first part will require you to generate a pin number. You will then read a fairy tale, and to complete a small number of rating scales at set points within the tale and at its close. You will be given specific instructions on how to complete the rating scales prior to the commencement of the study. The second part of the study consists of a questionnaire that will ask you to record your personal identification number, and provide basic demographic data, including your age, gender, and whether or not you were familiar with the fairy tale just read. Information about specific aspects of the story (e.g. aspects about specific characters etc) will also be gathered. The time taken to complete the study will vary according to the length of the fairy tale that you are assigned, but should take between 30 minutes and one hour.

This study has been cleared in accordance with the ethical review processes of the University of Queensland and within the guidelines of the National Health and Medical Research Council. If you have any questions or queries regarding the study or its results, you can contact me (Rose Deo)via email (r.deo@psy.uq.edu.au) or my supervisor, Dr Rod Ashton  on 07 3365 6404 or via email (r.ashton@psy.uq.edu.au). If you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact the School of Psychology Ethics Review Officer directly on 3365 6394 (message on 3365 6230), or contact the University of Queensland Ethics Officer on 3365 3924.

 

Thank you again for your participation. 

 

Rose Deo

PhD Student (Research)