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30 Behav. Sci. & L. 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/bsclw30 and id is 1 raw text is: Behavioral Sciences and the Law Behav. Sci. Law 30: 1 15 (2012) Published online 18 January 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/bsl. 1992 Do the Psychopathic Personality Traits of Fearless Dominance and Self-Centered Impulsivity Predict Attitudes about and Influences on Research Participation? Shannon Toney Smitht, John F. Edens*t, Monica Epsteint, Paul G. Stilest and Norman G. Poythress, Jr.t Little is known about potential participants' views about research, their willingness to participate in research, and the extent to which they might be susceptible to coercive attempts to compel their participation, particularly among populations at risk for exploitation (e.g., offenders). The extent to which individual differences variables, such as personality constructs (e.g., psychopathic traits), might affect participants' attitudes toward research is also essentially unknown. The present study sought to examine the psychopathy constructs of Fearless Dominance (FD) and Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI) via the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire-Brief Form (MPQ-BF) to assess the extent to which these traits predict attitudes towards research and suscepti- bility to coercion within a diverse criminal justice sample (N= 631). SCI was modestly associated with perceptions that illicit pressures regarding research participation were likely to occur, and participants high in these traits appeared somewhat vulnerable to succumbing to coercive influences. In contrast, FD failed to predict the likelihood that illicit pressures regarding research participation would occur as well as the potential that these pressures would have to impact participants' voluntariness and likelihood of participating. Implications for recruiting potential participants for research in correctional settings are discussed. Copyright 0 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Researchers are required to seek and receive appropriate institutional approval prior to initiating a study and to obtain informed consent from potential participants prior to enrollment. Legally requisite components of informed consent include a comprehensi- ble explanation of the proposed research (e.g., purpose, procedures, potential conse- quences and benefits) as well as an unambiguous declaration regarding the voluntary nature of participation (American Psychological Association, 2002; Stiles, Epstein, Poythress, & Edens, 2011). The latter element, voluntariness, is the focus of the pres- ent study and entails an autonomous decision to participate in research with the explicit understanding that neither declining to participate in nor withdrawal from a study will result in punitive consequences. Despite these attempts to uphold ethical imperatives in scientific endeavors, little is known about potential participants' views about research, their willingness to participate in research, and the extent to which they might *Correspondence to: John F. Edens, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, TAMU 4235, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A. E-mail: johnedensgtamu.edu tTexas A&M University, College Station, TX *Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL Copyright 0 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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