PROJECT TITLE

An Investigation into the Relationships between Female and Male Work Colleagues

INVITATION

I am a student at Regent’s University, London. My name is Shelbey Dutchak.

For my final-year dissertation, I am conducting a study to investigate the relationships between female and male work colleagues.

The project is being supervised by Dr. Alastair Davies at Alastair.Davies@regents.ac.uk.

The project has been approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee at Regent’s University London (reference: 11.21).

PARTICIPANT REQUIREMENTS:

To participate, you must be at least 18 years old and not currently diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Also, as this study is investigating the relationships between heterosexual female and male work colleagues, you must self-identify as heterosexual and self-identify as the gender you were assigned at birth.

Please only continue if you feel comfortable doing so.

WHAT YOU WILL BE ASKED TO DO

If you agree to participate, you will be directed to an online questionnaire.

You will first be asked to provide your age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and to indicate that you are not currently diagnosed with a mental health condition. You will then be asked what you think sexual harassment is and how often you experience sexual harassment.
You will not be asked to provide details of any sexual harassment you have experienced.

You will then be presented with a photograph of a person of the opposite sex to you and asked to imagine that the person is a work colleague of yours. Next, you will be asked if the person in the photograph is a work colleague of yours and did certain behaviours, would you consider those behaviours to be sexual harassment.

Next, you will be asked about your views on certain social issues.

Finally, you will be asked a few questions about your views on casual sex.

If you have any concerns regarding sexual harassment, you may seek support from the following agencies:

Canada: RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence network. They created and operate the National Sexual Assault Hot-line at 1-800-656-HOPE. This nationwide partnership provides victims of sexual violence with free, confidential services around the clock.

United Kingdom: Rape Crisis England and Wales - specialist resources for women who have experienced any form of sexual violence; Survivors UK - specialist resources for men who have experienced any form of sexual violence.

Contact details of mental health helplines throughout the world can be found at the following websites: https://www.helpguide.org/find-help.htm and https://checkpointorg.com/global/ .

DURATION OF PARTICIPATION

Your participation will take about 10 minutes in an anonymous online survey.

BENEFITS AND RISKS OF PARTICIPATION

There are no known risks associated with participating in this study. Results of this study may be beneficial to society because they may increase the scientific understanding of the relationships between female and male work colleagues.

You will receive no remuneration for your participation.

PARTICIPANT RIGHTS

Participation in this study is completely voluntary. You are free to withdraw at any point during your participation, without having to give a reason, by simply closing your browser window or tab.

CONFIDENTIALITY/ANONYMITY

The data we collect are anonymous and do not contain any personal information that could be used to identify you. Like all websites, the online questionnaire will record your IP address, which will be deleted upon download of the data. The data you provide will be password protected and kept securely in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Only members of the research team will have access to this information. The data collected in this study may be published or presented at conferences in aggregate form, in which case no individual information will be disclosed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Please take your time to consider the information above and discuss it with other if you wish.

If you have any questions or concerns about this study, please contact me, Shelbey Dutchak at S20005209@regents.ac.uk or the study’s supervisor, Dr. Alastair Davies, at Alastair.Davies@regents.ac.uk, who will be glad to answer your questions about this study at any time.

If you would like to find out about the results of this study, you should contact the study’s supervisor, Dr. Alastair Davies at Alastair.Davies@regents.ac.uk, who can provide the final report after June 2024.

If you have any comments or concerns about this study that you would rather not discuss with the researchers, please contact the Chair of the Research Ethics Committee at Regent’s University London at psychology.ethics@regents.ac.uk.