The Use of Animals in Psychological Research: A National Study of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees

该项目旨在跟踪两项全国性调查，其中心理学家和心理学学生被问及他们对在心理学研究和教学中使用动物的态度。本研究的重点将放在一个重要的，但被忽视的方面，动物研究企业的作用，机构动物护理和使用委员会（IACUCs）。根据法律规定，这些委员会负责批准研究，并确保实验动物得到人道对待。因此，它们为理解动物研究的科学和伦理判断所依据的决策过程提供了理想的工具。在拟议的研究中，50个IACUC将审查最近在另一个参与机构审查的四个随机分配的动物研究提案。此外，在这些委员会中任职的大约500人将被要求评估每个研究提案的各个方面（例如，科学价值、临床价值），并完成先前心理学家调查中的几个项目。这种委员会级数据和个人成员数据的组合将用于生成IACUC决策的统计模型，它们将首次允许对IACUC建议的委员会间可靠性进行定量估计。这些分析的目标主要有两个方面：了解与IACUC决策相关的心理因素，并提出旨在最大限度地提高方案审查可靠性的政策导向策略。

This project is designed to follow up two national surveys in which psychologists and psychology students were asked about their attitudes toward the use of animals in psychological research and teaching. The focus of the present study will be on an important but neglected aspect of the animal research enterprise-the role of institutional animal care and use committees (IACUCs). As mandated by law, these committees are responsible for approving studies and for assuring that laboratory animals are treated humanely. Consequently, they provide an ideal vehicle for understanding the decision processes that underlie scientific and ethical judgments of animal research. In the proposed study, 50 IACUCs will review four randomly assigned animal research proposals that have been recently reviewed at another participating institution. In addition, the approximately 500 individuals serving on these committees will be asked to evaluate various dimensions of each research proposal (e.g., scientific merit, clinical value) and to complete several items from the earlier survey of psychologists. This combination of committee-level data and individual-member data will be used to generate statistical models of IACUC decision making, and they will permit, for the first time, quantitative estimates of the inter-committee reliability of IACUC recommendations. The goal of these analyses will be primarily twofold: to understand the psychological factors associated with IACUC decision making, and to suggest policy-oriented strategies designed to maximize the reliability of protocol reviews.