Introduction and Informed Consent

Question Title

* 1.
Welcome to our Research Study. We appreciate your participation in this meaningful effort and encouraging others to do the same.

Principal Investigator:
Dr. Tara Pir aka Dr. Tahereh Pirhekayaty, Chief Psychologist

Affiliation:
President/CEO of The Institute for Multicultural Counseling and Education Services, Inc., (IMCES)


About the Organization:
IMCES is an outpatient community clinic that provides direct comprehensive health and mental health services to a culturally diverse underserved community. IMCES also provides clinical training to helping professions. For more information, contact IMCES:
Website:  https://www.imces.org
Phone:  (213) 381-1250
Email:  info4research@imces.org.

About the Study:
Diversity is a reality of our evolving world. However, our approaches and ways of handling diversity lead to different outcomes. For example, managing diversity in a variety of contexts ranges from “destroying those who are different” to “including those who are different.” This study aims to assess the existing differences among ways of approaching diversity in many contexts while recognizing the influence of unconscious biases and the effect of society. The study is designed to find out how individuals from different cultural backgrounds in various communities respond to “diversity” and to recommend action toward “management of differences.” Also, the study is designed to find out what factors may contribute to the motivation or underlying reasons for the attitude or action toward “diversity.”
The data collection includes: 1.) some demographic information about you; 2.) some questions to be answered by selecting from provided drop-down lists; 3.) some questions about your opinion to be answered in your own words/statement. 

Some information such as definitions/common understanding of the key concepts of the study, such as "culture," "cultural identity," and "unconscious bias," is provided. 

The study is being conducted by Doctoral Interns and Residents under supervision.

Who Participates in the Study:
We would like to invite and motivate as many diverse individuals as possible to participate in this study. Specifically, any individual over the age of eighteen is encouraged to participate. Greater diversity of participants increases the significance and meaningfulness of the outcome. Participation in this study is entirely voluntary and if you choose to participate, you have the right to withdraw your participation from the study at any time. However, if you choose to participate, please answer all of the questions, otherwise the outcome of our study will be incomplete and the data cannot be used.

Please indicate:

T