Debriefing
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Debriefing is an interview given after an experiment by the experimenter to assess how the experiment went and to answer any possible questions. This can be conducted in a large group at the end of a study or on an individual basis with each group immediately after a study is conducted. If the study is still going on when debriefing is conduct experiments may be limited in what they can tell the subjects during debriefing so as not to contaminant future subjects. A good debriefing can serve as an educational tool because the subject learns what was being tested in the study. Debriefing is often used in deception research as a tool to combat the negative effects of deception. Active deception, such as Milgram’s study (1974), misleds the participant and can leave them feeling guilty, bad or other negative feelings. Passive deception, such as observational experiments (people watching), may not involve interaction, but can violate the boundary between public verses private information. It is important to debrief in either of these cases because a researcher needs to respect the subjects’ feelings. Debriefing can be done as an interview, a survey or a sheet. The interview allows you to answer questions the subject has and address concerns on a personal level. The survey is a broader way to get an idea of how the participants reacted to the experiment without having to answer direct question that could damage your study in the future. The sheet is a simple informative way to summarize the study for the subject that is most often used when deception is not involved.
DEBRIEFING VIDEO
In the NPR video about the “elevator effect” in second life, debriefing was not shown. It is possible that they debriefed and it was just not on the video. If they did the might have done direct interviewing by taking down the names of the avatars that the researcher interacted with and sending a request to them to meet somewhere and debrief them individual or in groups at the end of the study. They could also have recorded their names and used a mailing system in second life to send them a survey or sheet to let them know that the avatar was a researcher and why the researcher’s avatar got so close to them. The researchers may not have debriefed at all because it would be difficult to find the subjects again, and even if they could there is no physical or psychological damage involved in standing uncomfortable close to someone, so after the study the participant probably don’t even care. Also, since the nature of the study is to see if the subject would flee because some one was too close to them, the participants themselves solve any damage done by the deception, and the researcher has the answer they were looking for, therefore no debriefing is really needed.
REFERENCES
Dunn, Dana S. The Practical Researcher: A Student Guide to Conducting Psychological Research. Mcgraw-Hill College, 1999. 161-166.
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