5. Possible Benefits

Possible benefits of the study include the opportunity to reflect and develop insight into your own relationships. More specifically, the research will assist in understanding the way in which our relationship behaviours and interactions influence relationship quality. This may have significant future clinical and practical implications for the way couples and families support one another. We cannot guarantee or promise that you will receive any benefits from this project.



6. Possible Risks

It is not expected that you will be exposed to any physical risk or psychological distress by participating in this project, beyond the feelings that may be aroused due to consciously evaluating the motivations that drive your behaviours within relationships, and across stressful contexts. However, for some people, there is a real chance that these reflections may be quite stressful and may elicit strong emotions. If you have experienced any negative relationship experiences in the past, participation in this study may cause distress. Participants are directed to contact the appropriate services, for example Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277 or the Australian Psychological Society Referrals service on (03) 8662 3300 or by visiting http://www.psychology.org.au/ if you experience any emotional discomfort. In the unlikely event that your participation results in distress, the contact numbers of the researchers involved have also been provided. Feel free to contact them at any time. Should anxiety or distress occur at any stage, participants are advised to withdraw from participating in the project. Participants will not incur any risk from withdrawing from the study.



Up until the submission of results, participants are free to withdraw from the study at any time. Any data that withdrawing participants provide will be deleted. However, after the submission of the questionnaire, the data cannot be deleted due to the anonymous nature of your responses.



7. Privacy, Confidentiality, and Disclosure of Information.

All information gathered from participants will be kept securely. Electronic data will be password protected and stored on a secure server within the School of Psychology at Deakin University. None of the electronic files will include any identifying information. Only the research staff directly linked with the project will have access to the data. After the completion of the project, the data collected will be securely stored for six years at Deakin University, as set out in the University regulations, after which all the data will be destroyed.



In any publication, information will be provided in such a way that you cannot be identified. Only group data will be disseminated. As a result, no one person’s data will be presented, nor will any identifiable information be relevant or disclosed in the reporting of results.



8. Results of the Project

Upon completion of this research, feedback regarding the results of the project will be accessible to you via the school of psychology website http://www.deakin.edu.au/psychology/research/karantzas/. As the data will contain no identifying personal information only group results will be reported. The results of the project will also be reported as part of a PhD dissertation. It is also likely that the group findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations.