Essential Ethics

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You have a keen interest in a particular area of study and you're chomping at the bit to get going with some original research - it's hard enough as it is to come up with an original idea to follow up and you know that the more time you spend getting geared up for the research, the greater the risk of someone else getting to publication first.  At this point, before you go any further, you have to pause and think - does this project fall within ethical guidelines?

Ethical approval is essential in any sort of research.  The coulds, shoulds and woulds of research must fall within the boundaries of scientific investigation and ethical norms in order to carry validity.

With Stage 2 training, as with any advanced degree such as a Masters, students have to go that extra mile in order to demonstrate impeccable ethical practice; arranging for an ethics committee to sign off a project alone is not enough.

There are guidelines for trainees to follow, including the BPS Code of Ethics and Guidance, and the DFP Resources pages, which provide ethical guidelines specific to Forensic Psychology.  These are the rule books which should provide the background to whatever work you carry out on any aspects of competence in the Stage 2 training.

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It helps to extend your thinking when planning your research in order to ensure that it falls within the guidelines. With technological advancements moving at lightning speed and within the easy grasp of trainees, the ethical guidelines agreed by committees may very quickly be left behind or fall short.  Trainees should demonstrate that they have applied the principles of ethical research to each situation and taken ethical issues into account regardless of whether committee guidelines have allowed for innovation.

For example, if using online survey tools, you should be checking what the survey providers do with the data submitted, how long this is kept, how secure it is and is the data sold on to third parties.  Their policies on the use of cookies or privacy will have to be looked into, always with a view on how these might affect the participants.

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The best way to cover as many of the ethical issues as possible is to associate the research with an organisation that has an ethical board who will consider and agree the project.  Without this, you and your supervisor will need to demonstrate thoroughly that all ethical issues have been considered and that they have been managed within overall guidelines.  In addition to this, I would recommend that you obtain permission or a statement from your particular governing body, such as the DFP or BPS before proceeding with the research project as this can be submitted as evidence that you have applied ethical consideration to your work and that you have been permitted to proceed.

Although I have focused on ethics in research, it is wise to remember that ethics permeates every core role in the Forensic Psychology Stage 2 training, and your approach and consideration to the principles of ethics will apply to training, assessment, intervention and consultation.  Ethics, in other words, is essential.

Readiness to Research and Publish

Research is a hot topic for trainees in this discipline.  It is also important for academics and professionals throughout their career, so it is essential for trainees to master the art of carrying out research and, equally important these days, having it published.  

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There is a current, rather heated debate on issues around publication of research.  There are those who voice concerns that there is a distinct lack of replicable studies, while others state that many published studies may replicate others but that this serves to confirm outcomes and push forward political or policy agendas rather than theory.  Critics of the latter focus on their belief that there currently exists too great an emphasis on novel research, or randomised control trials and that there is not enough theoretical development emerging from each study. 

Added to this discursive mayhem are the voices of those who point out that only particular types of research appear to be popular in terms of receiving funding, and there are those who complain of receiving unnecessarily caustic, even personal, criticisms from peer reviewers.  When faced with all this, as well as the ever-present possibility of rejections from editors, it is unsurprising that trainees will feel disheartened at entering this apparent academic minefield.

However, there are ways of achieving publication and recognition for your research.  A good starting point would be to ensure that if you are replicating a research study that you have a very strong case to do so - ideally you will show that you are addressing any recognised flaws in the original study, or you are developing a strand of theory that emerged from the original. If your rationale for replicating  a study is not solid,then it would be best to develop a novel research study.

Trainees in the prison service find themselves with an additional challenge to overcome since they generally have no options as to the research that they carry out: they usually will receive instruction on this as part of their duties.  Independent trainees are fortunate to have greater freedom, but their particular challenges are difficulties in obtaining both funding and access to participants. Research can sometimes be affected by the issue of access to participants since independents sometimes have to resort to researching with willing members of the public rather than a specific sample.

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The discussion must then be had on whether the first step for research is the theory or idea to be tested, or whether the research should be developed from the feasibility of certain areas of study.  When searching for research ideas either or both of these issues may be hugely influential.  

Ideas for research often do emerge from the participants that trainees can access.  To a much lesser extent, however, there are still possibilities to have an original idea by exploring the literature and the current research base and be able to create a successful proposal and gather relevant participants - so trainees do need to hold on to that thought.

Research does need to have a sound rationale based on existing academic literature, theory and  relevance in the current socio-political climate. Although, as scientists we might all wish we could easily research on subjects we feel are of pure scientific interest.  There is a two-fold purpose to this: firstly, the rationale will support at an ethical level why the researcher wishes to test participants; secondly, the rationale will provide a firm foundation with which to approach funding and supporting organisations, groups of participants, and, eventually, publications.

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With some creativity, trainees can develop a successful research proposal where they explore a field of study in which they have an interest, without funding, with access participants even if this might be time limited, and can find theoretical support or gaps in the current literature.  Trainees ought to consider these questions when contemplating developing a research project: Is this research going to be useful to the wider community and if so, why? Does this research open up the pathways to further study, and does it have implications for policy? Does it have current cultural and societal relevance and form a useful addition to the field?

I think most trainees have some great and creative ideas for research, but it is important to pare these down to those which have the attributes of relevance, feasibility and uniqueness in the field.  The research projects that can clearly show these attributes will be the successful projects.

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Trainee research projects do not have to be vast, however, trainees should be aware that though small,concise and thorough may be effective and achieve interesting results, they may be limited in terms of being attractive to publishers.  For example, pilot studies are rarely published unless part of a much wider piece of research.  It is much easier to achieve publication if the initial results are followed up and this work forms part of the paper presented.  Trainees looking to publish research may need to consider adding this dimension of time as a factor required in the research preparation and proposal.

The preparation of research studies is important to trainees and should be neither forgotten or underestimated.  With your supervisor and aided by your review of the literature, your initial ideas will be developed so that you can refine a hypothesis, define your aims, prepare your research questions, decide on the type of data you need and develop your methodology and analysis.  Working through all this with your supervisor will help you to move from an initial research idea into developing a working and feasible proposal and then creating a working project.

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A final, essential issue that must play a part in your preparation to research, is that of ethics.  In many ways, this should be obvious to trainees: research, in its idea and proposed execution, must be ethical, and wherever possible be approved by an ethical board.  Independent trainees who do not have access to an ethical board would be well advised to obtain confirmation of the acceptability of their research from the DFP or BPS in order to cover themselves and also their supervisor.  Furthermore, trainees should always demonstrate strong management of ethics by checking data protection usage and data storage, for example, if using online surveys with the general public.

The labyrinth that needs to be negotiated in order to achieve publication will be addressed in my post later in the month, but for now, happy researching.

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Time for training

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No-one expects advanced training in any profession to be a walk in the park, not least those of us who embarked on the training for chartership as forensic psychologists. When we set off down that particular road, we know that there will be huge demands on us.  We will be applying our academic abilities, our abilities to analyse and interpret research, apply this in a practical setting and much more.  We know that the training will be demanding and involve a great deal of hard work. 

One of the difficulties I encountered was that of managing my time so that I could fit all this additional challenge into my daily life.  Like most trainees, I needed a day job, but there is a vast amount of work to get through to achieve chartership. How people manage their time is very much up to their individual circumstances and to their personal priorities.  For example, I chose to go straight onto a three-hour placement as soon as my day at work had finished, usually twice a week,sometimes more often.  Then, also after work throughout the rest of the week, I had to find the time to write up all the notes and also make sure that a supervision session was squeezed in. I also had to find pockets of time to shop for food, cook and eat it, do the chores and - he is a remarkably patient and supportive partner - give my relationship with my partner, my family and  my friends some attention. Not everyone will chose to do it this way, nor will be able to because of their personal circumstances.

It is important to be realistic as to what you can achieve in any given timescale.  If your day job is particularly demanding, for example, how much time outside of this you can dedicate to your training requirements may be more limited.  That does not mean giving up, but just setting goals that can be achieved in small chunks, and accepting that the qualification will take longer to achieve. 

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It is also helpful to plan meticulously.  For example, if your job is such that you cannot guarantee leaving at a specific time on a specific day, you may not be able to schedule your placements or your supervision that easily.  The stress that this sort of situation can cause you will result in your being disheartened and will certainly not be any good for the organisations you are volunteering in or their service users.  While planning, it is worth taking into account just how much a particular placement will suit you and your personal circumstances and balance this against the core roles that you can achieve in that placement.  Instead of evening placements, then, perhaps a weekend placement may be more suitable.

An important aspect of managing time for training, is also to not neglect health.  The feeling of constantly working and striving can be stressful. Add to that the usual anxieties of trying to meet the standards required for submission and meeting the exemplars, and your immune system can feel under attack.  I know that I had to make sure I dedicated regular pockets of time to exercise and leisure activities by taking short breaks, occasional holidays and making sure I carried out some form of fitness activity every week - I went swimming, cycling, running, for example, and for a while I played in a ladies rugby team, which did wonders for my fitness, my resilience, my resolve, and my social life.  All of which somehow supported the dedication I was making to my training.

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The general rule of thumb is that the more active you are, the more energy you have to expend on more activities.  You may find that working a couple of evenings a week will enthuse and energise you and the progress you see yourself making all enhances the motivation that you feel to continue.  Having said that, it is very important to be self - aware, to look for those clues to low energy levels, to be open to those thoughts about being too tired to be bothered.  At this point, it is always worth taking a brief break - properly managed, of course, to suit the placement service users in particular.  This in itself is a key part of learning for your qualification and preparing for professional life.

If you are extremely fortunate, of course, you may well be able to negotiate a short sabbatical from work in order to take your placement, or in fact your work provides you with a particularly relevant placement.  Most of us are not that fortunate, however, so we must make ourselves familiar with the mantra of: plan, schedule, negotiate, balance.  In fact, we will become so good at it, that it will provide a tremendously strong base for us as professionals and in all aspects of our lives.

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Submission perfection - an eye for detail

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One of the skills forensic psychologists in training need to hone is that of paying attention to detail.  Thoroughness in everything is essential and can range widely, from verifying research sources and accuracy in referencing to ensuring grammar and spellings enhance the meaning of a written piece of work and that argumentation is logical and either supports or disproves a hypothesis.

Submitting a piece of work is sometimes daunting.  Writers talk about submission to publishing houses in terms of sending their babies out to face the world, and your sending in your submission does feel a little similar: you spend months if not longer gestating the idea, researching, developing the hypothesis, developing your research, analysing the results and then writing it up.  At this point, students would be well advised to read, re-read and read again their work.  No-one likes their progeny returned home unloved by the tough world of assessment.  Here are a few tips I have picked up along my road to Chartership:

• In submitting research you need to have a clear rationale for the work and demonstrate in as many ways as possible how you have considered the ethics of the subject matter at hand, and the ethics of how you intend to deal with it.  For example, if you are chartering independently and you do not have an ethics committee to approve your research, you will need to check this with the DFP and submit as evidence anything they respond with about whether the research can go ahead.  I was using social media and Survey Monkey to access participants and use an online questionnaire.  I asked the DFP if there were any ethical issues with this in their policy.  I used their response as evidence of ethical consideration, not only checking my submission would be valid and acceptable, but also enhancing my work.  I also evidenced how I would ensure people remained anonymous online, for example by removing IP addresses from the data downloads.  I gave further evidence in how I gained online consent, how to ensure that participants have read the information and have given informed consent, all issues with ethical ramifications that show you have considered and made provision for all the possibilities.  

•  In analysing data, you need to justify any analysis that you use and you need to provide an adequate depth in the analysis.  For the final write up you should bear in mind that the assessors want to see a report that could be published - you are providing evidence that you can write for non-researchers, such as non-psychologist stake holders.  You may have to write two reports, one of a publishable quality and one a summary of research and outcomes aimed at stake holders.  Trainees have been known to fail on the fact that they did not write for lay persons, or have failed because their final report conversely leaned towards appealing to the stakeholders and was not written with sufficient academic strength.  It is important to her able to separate the two different styles of writing and try retain focus on what is required of each piece. I was one of the trainees who wrote too much for the stakeholders and not enough for publication and so all that was required from me was a bit of editing of language and structure - which sounds simple, but can be time-consuming.

•  One of the requirements of Chartership is that you should demonstrate that you have conducted the research but the challenge in this is that submitting raw data is not acceptable as it could be used to identify your participants.  It is therefore important to apply some creativity in how you do this. Remember, the registrar has to approve it first in your exemplar plan and this should help avoid the situation that you collect lots of data and evidence and the assessors refuse to accept it.  Don't panic, listen to the registrars feedback and apply the advice.

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One  final point; if there is anything in your writing that could possibly identify even an organisation
or location, you will fail.  Be careful about headers, text, coding, letter heads and logos.  Every             identifier must go.

 Above all, once you have submitted, don't let yourself become disheartened by feedback.  The assessors do try to find positive aspects of your submission and they are very clear about what it is they want you to rework and resubmit.  Sometimes they raise what might seem a frustratingly minor point, but this will be part of your learning to be thorough, to cover all angles, as is expected from a professional in any field.  Make sure you have your eye on the fine detail, and success will follow.

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Success in sight....almost.

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At a time when you least think that the going can't get any tougher, it can.  Not insurmountably tough, but there's no point dressing it up in finery.  Gaining Chartership is a testing experience.  It is a test of academic ability, intellectual ability, resourcefulness, creativity, stamina, and, not least, resilience.  The submission of completed exemplars is one of those areas where more than just your ability to gather the evidence necessary to prove you're meeting the standard and string it into words is being tested.  Putting together the submission means applying a multitude of skills, and just as you are beginning to breathe a sigh of relief at having done as much as you thought was necessary to complete everything, the submission comes back at you with stern comments on what you didn't quite get right, or you didn't get right enough.  This is where resilience and determination kick in.

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Firstly, I just want to spend a bit of time reflecting on those fine points of detail in making your submission that can affect how it is received.  You need to ensure that there is nothing confidential that can be identified in any way - there is no option but to be extremely thorough about this.  Just this point alone speaks volume about a trainee's professionalism.  Either remove identities or blank these out.  If posters advertising training events  you are delivering are to be used as evidence, any traces of any identities must be removed e.g. photos.  I'm sure there are readers who will contemplate, as I did, just how reliable evidence that has had all identity wiped clean can be, but it is something that must simply be done. A submission must be sent in duplicate hard copies as well as through an electronic version - the precise details as well as details of what must be signed by your supervisor is on the DFP site.  It is important to make sure you have original signatures because electronic signatures will not be accepted.

Then you wait for the submission to be returned and you will feel varying degrees of confidence almost day by day.  Recieving feedback can be difficult, and this is where resilience kicks in.  The first thing you focus on is whether competence has been demonstrated.  Perhaps it has and you will feel a welter of relief.  That's great.  More commonly, your first attempt - or indeed, early attempts - at submissions will come back with the glaringly harsh comment: "competence not yet demonstrated".  

At first impact the chances are you will move along a spectrum of emotions from outrage, to deep disappointment, to despondency, through despair, and then to grudging acceptance that something was not quite right with it.  I suggest putting it down, brewing a cup of tea and coming back to it once the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth is over.  Then read it through again because you may find, once you read it all through, that you  have passed all but one or two of the competencies, and then, there may just be some minor issues you have overlooked.  Feedback is there to provide you with a chance to improve that little bit more, to stretch youself those last few inches to reach the summit of your training, so it is worth making the most of it.

Assessors tend to give detailed feedback. Some may be more prescriptive in what they want you to submit and others less so. Once you have read through the feedback, discuss this with your supervisor so that you decide together what is going to be resubmitted in order to cover all the points.  Then you are up and running again.

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Most trainees do not pass their first submission.  But after five or more years working on this, not quite demonstrating competence is a difficult judgement to receive and accept.  In fact, when faced with having to rework a project that was completed perhaps a year or more previously, perhaps with a different employer, perhaps in a different part of the country, the task may seem completely impossible.  However, it is very rare for an assessor to want a submission completely reworked.  Usually there is a detail that is missing or needs further clarification or greater reflection.  Perhaps your practice diary may not be clear or a reference to a piece of evidence may be missing.  Most resubmissions are usually in the form of an additional report to demonstrate a very specific piece of learning, or perhaps another reflective piece, or new practice diary entries to show that you went over your statistical analysis and are content that you chose the right one, for example.  Breaking down the feedback and requirements of resubmission into its component parts will make the pill much less bitter to swallow, and the final stretch will appear that bit shorter.

What may be worth pointing out is that assessors vary in what they like and don't like to see in submissions. Some will compliment trainees on their reflective diaries, some may like a very formal approach, others will want a good deal of supporting evidence while others are less demanding as to quantity.  The best way of dealing with this is to make sure you have unfailingly followed the guidelines and that you have made clear anything that you are not sure about with the registrar.

For many trainees, dealing with some negative feedback and having to do yet more work before reaching the finishing post can be very disheartening.  I have written this from the perspective of someone who has to resubmit some work and I understand intimately the range of emotions that this sparks off.  But proving your professionalism and capabitlities is more than what you put on paper.  It is about taking the knocks, working with them, learning from them, shaking off the hurt and taking those next steps to achieving your goal.  Success is in sight.

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Money Matters for training success

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Since starting to blog on my experiences as a Forensic Phsychologist in Training Stage 2, I have had numerous comments and interactions from readers who are either at various stages of the training or are considering embarking on the training, and are concerned about funding.  Of course, how you organise the financing of this professional training is crucial not just to attaining Chartership, but also to avoid an additional stress when in the depths of carrying out the work necessary, arranging supervision and so on.  So I decided to summarise what I had to do to pay for the training.

I have to admit I have not fully kept tabs on all the costs.  Perhaps if I had, the enormity of it would have had me abandon ship.  But, with an eye firmly on the final goal, which I am certain will amply recompense for the work, effort and budgeting of the last few years, I embarked on making sure that I could make ends meet.

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Firstly there is an annual cost of enrollment of £1500.  This covers all your submissions and any resubmissions of that year and of course, is the first cost you must be sure to be able to meet.  You might want to think about how much time it will take for you to complete the training.  5 - 6 years seems to be a standard sort of time frame for this and worth keeping in mind, because this is not a short term commitment.

Next there is the cost of supervision.  This is typically around £80 per hour for face to face contact and around £40 per hour for non-contact time, such as reading through and assessing your work.  The training requires you to ensure that you demonstrate a minimum of 4 hours per month of supervision spread out between your designated supervisor and your co-ordinating supervisor.  If you are in a position at your work to be able to complete any expemplars, it is possible for your manager in your work place to also be your designated supervisor, and this would certainly reduce the cost.  If you are in a particularly advantageous position, you may find that your work place will also be able to supply you with a co-ordinating supervisor and in this way you will have no supervision costs..  I was fortunate enough to have one out of the two and so my supervision costs were not as great as they might have been.  The costs will vary from month to month - some months you will need more face to face time, some months less, and the same for non-contact time.

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So how to meet those costs.  Work is the obvious answer, but not just because it will supply you with a regular income.  Where you work may be crucial to keeping costs down.  Not only could your work place provide you with some if not all supervision opportunnities, but there may be numerous projects or work products that could provide material for exemplars, and your work place may want your developing skills enough to susidise the cost.  Another obvious usefulness of the work place will be whether you are able to work overtime at least on some occasions to add to the income that you can dedicate to meet those costs.

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It is possible to borrow money - perhaps through a personal loan, or possibly a professional development loan, both of these from banks and the usual lending institutions.  It may also be possible to obtain funding from bursaries or research or charitable institutions that want to invest in chartering psychologists, although in general I found that these believed that  having reached Masters level, the career had been achieved.

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One of the ways I found it possible to boost my income enough to meet my commitment to pay for my training was by tutoring students during after work hours.  Having attained masters degree level you can tutor students who are on undergraduate courses.  However, I find that the greatest demand for private tutoring is from A level students - or rather, their parents.  Tutoring is not reliable regular income, and most interest comes in the period January to June (from the time of the mocks to the actual A level!), but it certainly helps tremendously.  This is a tough option, because not only are you working and preparing your submissions, but you are  having to include time for tutoring as well as your own life, relationships, families etc.  This option calls for strong time management and I would strongly recommend builidng in a series of breaks to avoid burn out.

Financing the training is as much of a challenge as meeting the requirements of the course.  It involves reasearch, analysis and good time management skills, not to mention skills of persuasion and the sharpness of wit to spot an opportunity for funding or for saving on costs when it comes your way.  

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If at first you don't succeed.....keep going!

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While networking will certainly go a long way to helping a chartership trainee towards finding those opportunities to work towards the required competencies, the Stage 2 experience will definitely tease creative thinking out of you and intensly test your initiative.

Just take Core Role 3: Communicating psychological knowledge and advice to other professionals.  I have found one of the greatest challenges is to find work that would enable me to meet the requirements and the standards.  There were times when I was able to use work contacts, or my supervisor, or university contacts to help me meet and talk to people who might just help me give life to some of the projects I had in mind that would move my training forward.  But on numerous occasions, despite initially being greeted with enthusiasm, numerous projects never actually got off the ground or fizzled out because a lack of resources such as staff or funding.

 Inevitably I would end up feeling disappointed, frustrated and that I would never get the work finished.  But I quickly realised that these barriers were simply the sorts of contra-temps that professionals in most fields encounter and have to overcome.  So I began to look more closely at the work that I had carried out in order to get as far as I did in some of the projects.  It was soon obvious that a good deal of the preparation work could evidence some of the competencies and I was able to work this into my portfolio.  The moment I realised I could still use the work from failed projects was the moment I realised that there was always a silver lining.   

The projects I had developed had come from a number of different organisations where I had voluntary placements, for example from volunteering on a youth offender panel and also in an approved premises for male mentally disordered offenders.  Volunteering is a tremendously useful way of building up experience and a reputation in the field.  As I got to know staff and service users, attended volunteer meetings, read volunteer newsletters and got involved with the services, I was able to see what needs the service had and what fell within my remit.  I was then able to develop my thinking on the projects and planned these out in writing.  I wrote proposals to carry out the projects to both the youth offender panel and to the approved premises, through the usual volunteer systems.  I explained who I was, my background, my idea, the evidence for the idea from a needs analysis of the service and what I could offer them as a volunteer as part of continuing to evidence my practice.  I was also able to obtain letters of support written by my supervisor.

Having made plans and presented my ideas to the relevant managers, the projects fell through because of lack of funding or because the organisations in questions did not have sufficient staff resources to be able to bring the projects to full fruition.  However, by that point, I had been able to gather enough evidence to attribute some of the work to the core competencies.  For example, by making presentations of my ideas to the managers of these organisations, I was able to demonstrate the benefits of a psychological perspective on different projects.  I needed to make a formal needs analysis of each of my ideas and formalise these into a proposal, which resulted in my creating opportunities to advise and guide other professionals using phsychological advice.  I also needed to submit formal proposals, attend and minute any meetings held to discuss the proposals and their design and eventual evaluation, as well as the potential benefits, and I had to present the proposals formally.

In order to make sure that your experiences can be used to evidence the competencies, I would strongly suggest keeping a log of any psychological advice that you give, for example, how to select appropriate outcome measures and evaluating any programme that you design.  It is also essential for this particular core competency to record and provide evidence of any feedback that you give staff members and professionals.  Through the use of collating evidence from even failed projects, it is even possible to evidence Core competency 3.3, which deals with providing advice and guidance in the formulation of policy.  I am at a stage now with this core role that I will be ready to submit for assessment in the next 6 months.  The collection of evidence has taken almost four years of some failed projects and some successful.  And my suggestions of how to present evidence has come from my supervisor and trainees who have recently passed this core role.

It is so easy to be disheartened when projects fall through, especially if several fall through one after the other - there is an inevitability to this that we all have to face.  But the secret to getting through it is to evaluate your work, apply the requirements of the competencies to it - always checking with your supervisor who will keep your feet firmly on the ground on the production of evidence.  It is worth always being open to opportunities and always to approach each project with the competencies you have not yet evidenced in mind.  This certainly helped me to feel that I was ticking off the boxes rather than feeling that I was having to start everything from scratch.  

Best of luck everyone and happy reading.