Project Title:
Psychological Responses to Motor Vehicle Accidents

You are being invited to participate in a research project conducted by Kristina Wade from the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Houston . This study is being conducted to fulfill research project requirements for a doctoral degree in counseling psychology under the supervision of Dr. Mary Armsworth.

Non-Participation Statement
Your participation is voluntary and you may refuse to participate or withdraw at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. You may refuse to answer any question. Since this study is conducted anonymously, your decision to not participate or to withdraw your participation will not affect your relationship with the University of Houston .

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this research study is to examine the psychological responses that different drivers have to their involvement in an auto accident. It is being conducted for 1 year, beginning in November 2007 and concluding no later than November 2008.

Procedures
You will be one of approximately 100 individuals asked to participate in this project. You are eligible to participate in this study if you meet the following criteria:

1. You must be between the ages of 18 and 65
2. You were the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident which occurred at least 6 weeks ago, but no longer than 2 years ago
3. You were not in a coma or experienced a brain injury as a result of this accident
4. No individuals died during or because of this accident

Should you agree to participate in this study, you are agreeing that you meet all four of the requirements listed above.

During this study you will be asked to complete four questionnaires with a total of 97 questions and a demographic survey. In total, this study will take approximately 1 hour to complete. These questionnaires will be answered online and will be submitted to the researcher after you have completed all of these questionnaires. After completing these questionnaires, you will not be asked to complete any additional questionnaires for this project.

Confidentiality
Your participation in this project is voluntary and your answers will be anonymous. In order to maintain your anonymity, you are being asked to not write your name or contact information in any of the questionnaire fields. Should you chose to participate in the optional raffle, offered at the completion of the surveys, your contact information will be obtained separately from this study and will remain confidential.

Risks/Discomforts
There are no physical, social or legal risks associated with your participation in this project. Participants should understand that material in this study may be psychologically sensitive as the items explore emotional states and you could experience psychological distress. If the items in this study do cause emotional distress, you may stop taking the survey at any time.

It is possible that you may feel the need to obtain psychological support after completing these questionnaires. In such cases, the researcher recommends that you consider contacting the psychological support services provided in your area of residence or, if you are a student at the University of Houston , at the student counseling center ( http://www.caps.uh.edu or 713-743-5454).

Benefits
While you will not directly benefit from participation in this study, your participation may help researchers to better understand psychological responses to automobile accidents.

Incentives/Remuneration
In exchange for your time, you will have the option of participating in an online raffle to win one of four $50 gift certificates to Best Buy or one of five $10 gift certificates to Starbucks. You will be able to access registration information about the raffle when you have completed all of the questionnaires. If you are student, you will also be able to print confirmation of your participation in this study in order to receive extra credit. All contact information submitted for the raffle and participation confirmation sheets will in no way be directly associated with either the questionnaires or the demographic survey.

Publication Statement
The results of this study will be published as graduate research. They may additionally be published in scientific and/or professional research journals and/or used in educational/professional presentations. No individual participants will be identified.

Subject Rights
ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING YOUR RIGHTS AS A RESEARCH SUBJECT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS (713-743-9204). ALL RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT ARE CARRIED OUT BY INVESTIGATORS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON ARE GOVERENED BY REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.