The BPS Code of Human Research Ethics (2021) was followed in this study as an information form, consent form and debrief form was provided. The study was also in line with the Data Protection Act (2018) participant data was anonymised. The Purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of the Dementia Friends intervention. I was asked to complete a dementia questionnaire to evaluate my prior knowledge of dementia, I then had the Dementia Friends intervention and then was asked to continue with the second half of the questionnaire which looked at my feelings towards dementia after completing the intervention. I understood the purpose of the study as the information provided to me was straight forward. I Liked the examples/metaphors provided that helped me to understand how dementia worked. I did feel emotional at times due to personal reasons but despite this it made me more determined to make a positive difference due to the knowledge that I had learnt. A debrief form was provided and the researcher explained at the end what the purpose of the study was, and I had a chance at the end to ask the researcher questions. A focus group could have been a better way for the researcher to gain in-depth understanding of participants’ knowledge and opinions of dementia as a small group of participants were used. According to Liamputtong (2011), a small group of 6-8 participants would be ideal for having a discussion in a focus group as this would allow for participants to bounce ideas off each other. The researcher was friendly and helpful, and I would participate in more of their studies in future as the experience was enjoyable.
The study followed the BPS Ethics and Guidelines for Internet Mediated Research (2021) as researchers gained fully informed consent and debriefed participants after the study. Research also followed the UWTSD Research Data Management Policy (2016) as participants names were anonymised and were known by their unique EMS number. I was asked to complete three questionnaires about my views on women and whether they are just as capable of perming the same army roles as men. The questionnaires were too long which made me lose interest in what was being asked of me. Also, some of the questions were controversial which may have led me to provide socially desirable answers. I was provided with a debrief form and was given the researcher’s email address to discuss any questions I had. An interview would have been a better method to use in order to gain in-depth qualitative data about participant’s thought and feeling regarding women in the army and gender roles. According to Coolican (2019), a semi-structured interview would allow participants to discuss their thoughts and feelings about women in the army which would eliminate the need to have three long questionnaires. The qualitative data from the interview which would be strong in validity could go through the process of content analysis which could give reliable quantitative data. An interesting research study overall.