Question

According to the federal regulations, which of the following studies meets the definition of research with human subjects? 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 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. 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.

Answer 1

The answer 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.

Here the requirement for research with human subjects according to the Fed :

"Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens."

The experiment on the second option fulfill the criteria because:

- The experiment should use studies or analytics to obtain some sort of private information from the subjects. (such as test scores and subjects' anxiety level)

- The experiment should make some sort of intervention that can be used to measure its hypothesis. (the test above could divide the subjects into two groups. First group of female subjects could be make to take the test without the presence of male subjects while the second group do the test with the presence of male subjects)

- The researchers need to interact with the subject in a certain way.

(meaning that the subjects can't be anonymous to the researchers)