Thank you for participating in this survey. The Informed Consent Page is repeated below, in case you wish to review it again.

Informed Consent Page

Title: The Ordinary Life Experiences Ranking Scale (OLERS)

Investigators: Evan Harrington, Ph.D.

This survey has been reviewed and approved by the IRB Committee of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

I am asking you to participate in a research study. Please take your time to read the information below. After reading the Informed Consent Page, if you agree to participate, you may click the button titled "I AGREE" to continue. Do not proceed unless you have read this page and agree with its contents.

You must be 18 years old, or older, to participate.

Purpose: This brief study is being conducted to obtain measurements on a variety of ordinary life experiences, and how distressing people find them to be. An example item that is not included in the survey is "Getting stung by a bee". Were this an actual item in the survey, participants would be asked to rate how distressing this common type of adverse event is to them. The responses will be used to help create an "Ordinary Life Experiences Ranking Scale".

Procedures: If you agree to participate in this online survey, you will be asked to complete a small number of demographic items, such as age, education, and ethnicity, and you will be asked to answer the typical level of distress associated with 39 common life events. These events may be fairly innocuous or mild, or they might pertain to events that produced some distress for you. You will NOT be asked to describe any actual events, you will simply provide ratings a series of 45 simple statements. A survey of this type ought to take typical a respondent about 10-15 minutes to complete.

Risks to Participation: There are no risks anticipated for this survey. However, if any of the statements in the survey are distressing to you, you may skip them. If you find that the survey is not to your liking, you are free to drop out at any time.

Benefits to Participants: There are no direct benefits for participants in this study. There is no compensation for participation. Indirectly, your participation will help in the creation of this scale, and in so doing it will be of benefit to psychological research in general.

Alternatives to Participation: Your participation is entirely voluntary. It is entirely your choice if you would like to participate or not.

Confidentiality: Data will be collected in a manner that provides anonymity to you. There is no manner in which the data can be traced directly to you. The data received on this project will be aggregated and possibly published in aggregate form. Data collected in this study will be maintained for a period of at least 5 years, as recommended by the American Psychological Association.

Questions/Concerns: If you have questions about the study, you may contact the researcher directly at eharrington@thechicagoschool.edu. If you have questions concerning your rights in this research study you may contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is concerned with the protection of subjects in research project. You may reach the IRB office Monday-Friday by calling 312.467.2343 or writing: Institutional Review Board, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 325 N. Wells, Chicago, Illinois, 60654

How Distressing -- Distress Caused by Ordinary Life Events