IRB SUBMISSION COVER SHEET
Proposed Title: The relationship between film genre preferences and Big Five personality types among high school
students
Student's Name: Jonah Jeng
Student's High School: Byram Hills High School
Institution providing approval:
Byram Hills High School
12 Tripp Lane
Armonk, NY 10504
A. Provide your research hypothesis(es).
There will be significant correlation between the film genres high school students show preference for and their
respective personality types assessed using an abridged version of the NEO-PI personality inventory.
B. Explain who your population is, how you will recruit your sample, and how you know that sample will be
representative of your population.
My population is students from Byram Hills High School and other high schools in the area (New Rochelle High
School and Portchester High School). These students are representative of the target population because the subjects
of my study are high school students, and the schools cover both ends ofthe socioeconomic spectrum. I will recruit
my sample via writing letters to the principals of the schools, and to each individual teacher for Byram Hills (Mr.
Torres, Mr. Young, Ms. Subach, Mrs. Greenwald, Mr. Malone), asking them to distribute the consent forms to the
students. Students who wish to participate must sign the consent form and, ifthey are under 18, a parent must also, by
a given date. Upon receiving consent, Mrs. Greenwald, science research instructor of the Authentic Science Research
Program at Byram Hills, will assign the subject a subject number and email the link to my survey, which is based in
Survey Monkey, to each participant.
C. Explain why human subjects are proposed or necessary for this project.
Human subjects are necessary for this project because the study aims to find a correlation between the film genre
preference of the subjects and their personality. This study is within the field of human psychology, specifically
personality psychology, and therefore must include human subjects.
D. Describe and assess any potential risk (physical, psychological, social, legal or other).
The potential risks involved in this study are minimal, no more than those experienced in daily life. The TIPI
personality inventory was not designed to diagnose pathologies; however "extreme" the responses, they are not
indicative of any type of mental disorder, illness etc. In a personal correspondence, Dr. Pascal Wallisch ofthe NYU
Center of Neuroscience reassured that "no pathology can be diagnosed based on the NEO-PI questionnaire. It is much
too general for that, not a clinical questionnaire, and not the MMPI. Moreover, the short version (TIPI) that we are
using is really not designed to do that. So there is no concern in that regard." The only potential source of discomfort
among the subjects as a result of the survey is self-disclosure, where a participant may discover an aspect of his/her
film preferences and/or general personality that he/she was not aware of previously.
E. Describe consent procedures to be followed and attach a sample of completed Informed Consent Form used.
Using the Informed Consent Form attached, I will obtain each participant's signature along with a parent signature if
the subject is under the age of 18. Teachers will distribute the consent forms to and collect them from the students.
Each teacher will be instructed to enclose the forms in an envelope with a seal, on which he will sign his name. The
completed forms will be either mailed or delivered to the test coordinator (Mrs. Greenwald).
F. Describe procedures to minimize risk.
Subjects have the option of discontinuing the survey at any time without prejudice. To maintain confidentiality, a
policy of anonymity will be maintained. After collecting the consent forms, each teacher will enclose the completed
forms in an envelope with a seal, on which he will sign his name. Any premature attempts at accessing the forms
would result in the breaking of either the envelope or the seal and would be immediately obvious to any observer. All
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seals and envelopes must remain intact prior to the test coordinator's receiving it. The assigning of subject identifiers
will be done by a third party and not by the administrator.
G. Describe benefits to the individual or society.
An individual's hobbies and interests play a significant role in his/her psychological development and serve as
indicators for his/her personality type (and vice versa). With this study, we hope to provide further insight into the
field of personality and the psychology of entertainment preferences. We hope to shed new light on the facets of
one's personality that compels one to adopt a particular hobby/activity, specifically in regards to film preference.
H. Explain how the benefits exceed the risks.
Because the actual process of taking the survey can be done within the comfort of the participants' own homes and at
their own free will, there are no risks involved with participating in this study outside of those experienced in daily
life. The personality inventory used is a ten question, abridged version of the NEO-PI (Neuroticism-ExtraversionOpenness Personality Inventory) the TIP! (Ten Item Personality Inventory), and is much too broad to diagnose any
type of pathology or to cause any psychological harm in the event of self-disclosure. As for the benefits, prior studies
have been conducted that examine the relationship between personality and preferences e.g. for music and art, but
none has been conducted that is specific to film genres and uses high school students as its subject pool. Therefore, the
study has the potential of further validating previous research by introducing new methodology and a new
demographic into the field.
I. Outline your methodology and statistical tests.
Week 1: Distribute informed consent forms. I will call the principals of the selected high schools for prospective
participants asking them to deliver the informed consent forms to their students. The consent forms will be delivered
in a sealed manila envelope. On the forms, participants are required to provide their email addresses with the option of
using either their school emails or home emails. After two-three days, r or Mrs. Greenwald will pick up the completed
forms from the schools. By the end of the week, the students who have submitted completed forms will become the
participants in the experiment.
Week 2: Students will have provided their email addresses on the consent form . The link to the survey will be emailed
to each participant to be completed. The survey is on Survey Monkey: participants can take it right on the site. Mrs.
Greenwald will assign each participant a subject identifier and strip away all identifiers to maintain confidentiality. As
the administrator, I will not know which participant corresponds with which subject number. Once a participant has
completed the survey, Mrs. Greenwald will record the results on a spreadsheet.
Week 3: For my study, I will be using a large set of chi square tests.
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Mr. Steven Borneman
Mr. David Keith