Reflecting on Research Relationships

Now that I have decided on a topic, its time to figure out who I would like to have participate in my study. Its easy to just pick 4 random athletes, but I would rather pick one student athlete from each class. My participants will include 1 freshman, 1 sophomore, 1 junior, and 1 senior athlete.  Due to the fact that I am a coach, my freshman and senior participant will be mens basketball players.  I have known the freshman athlete for the past 6 months and have a developed a trust and a bond with him in short amount of time. Since being here I have been with my senior participant pretty much everyday.  Both participants come from very different backgrounds. Participant 1 comes from the streets of New york. If not for basketball he would definitely not be in college. His only goal in life is to make it to the NBA to be able to provide for his struggling family back east. At this point its sad to say, but I do not know what else he would be capable of doing with out basketball. The next 4 years of his college career are crucial in his development for life after basketball. Participant 2 has a much different story, born and raised in AZ he loves the game of Basketball, but even if he does not go on to have a pro career and make millions of dollars, I am confident that he has it in him to go out in the world and be successful in other ways.  I believe that because of the relationship and trust that I have with these two athletes that both of my interviews with them will be filled with an abundance of honest and heart felt information. My other 2 participants will be female student athletes, I have yet to decide on who they will be.

Participant one and two both have a great deal of respect for me, it is my belief  that during the interview that they will see me as their coach and confidant just like they do every single day. As long as I do not use anything that they tell me against them as a personal attack, I am certain that my relationship with both participants will remain exactly the same.  Before the interview I will explain to all participants exactly what it is that I am doing. The will know that they are expected to answer each question as best as they can. I want them to look at me for that 45 min interviewer as a "researcher" and not as their coach. Setting up the guidelines early will help with that expectation.

In order to get the most out of my participants, its important for me to tell them exactly what I ma doing for the study and well as why I am doing it. The more that my participants know about me and why i have chosen this topic the better. I will give all of my participants the option of being anonymous, if any of them should so choose to not have their name used then they will be given an alias. Because I know both participants really well, I know they will not have an issue with their names being used in the course of the research.

I believe that this project is very cut and dry. At the moment I do not see any problem and ethical issues arising at any point in time. In the event either of these issues does come up, I will be forced to stop my interview and proceed once both the participant and I are comfortable with the new direction things are headed.

I have set a goal to be done with this project by November 1st... 

Chris McMillian