Explaining the Research Process Posted on March 1, 2006 Cassandra Simmel (bio) emphasizes the need to avoid jargon when discussing research with participants.

As researchers sometimes we use a lot of lingo, use a language, throw around concepts like random assignment and experimental design and control groups, and these are very loaded concepts not only for researchers but for people who are very unfamiliar with these kinds of concepts. We need to be very careful about going in and saying, 'Well, we're going to have some groups assigned to treatment conditions, and some of the group will not receive that service' and just be very aware that child welfare workers may not even want to appear like they're denying services. Just be very careful about how we explain the process. Just take a step back and think about what these concepts mean before we just go in and say this is the design we want to do.

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