BFRB Research

Information Sheet

Who am I? Thank you for taking the time to consider taking part in this study. My name is Beril Coskun, I am a master student at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany. 

Before you decide to take part in this study, it is important for you to understand what it would involve, therefore please take time to read the following information carefully. You can contact me at beril.coskun@uni-weimar.de or +4915731542473 (WhatsApp) anytime if something is not clear. 

In addition to that, the contacts of the study supervisors are (PhD) Britta Schulte (britta.schulte@uni-weimar.de) and Prof. Dr. Eva Hornecker (eva.hornecker@uni-weimar.de).

What is this study about? This study aims to understand the experiences of individuals with body focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) through an unusual, creative approach. Because addressing the subject from a different aspect can be beneficial for new ways of treatments and/or for designing products that help against BFRB. Anyone who has experience of any kind of BFRB or are aware of finding themselves often in situations like hair pulling, skin picking, nail or cheek biting are welcome to participate in this study. You don’t need any additional materials beyond having access to the internet on a mobile phone or computer.

Who is eligible to take part? Individuals above 18 years old who have been diagnosed or consider themselves having any kind of BFRB can take part. Participants should be able to read & write fluently in the English language. There are no limitations on demographics for this study (gender, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, occupation etc.)

The Study

Part 1: Story Completions

The basis of this study involves a method called “story completion”, where you will be sent one prompt (a starting point of story) each day for 5 days. These prompts are easy to complete, reflecting different conditions from a third person’s narrative (e.g  Gemma is at work and tends to pull her hair all the time. In order to control herself in this situation, she…). Every day, you need to complete one story and of course, you can be creative, write as much as you want (in fact the more the better!). The duration of the stories would really depend on you, but we can count a duration from 10 mins to 20 mins for each story. You can choose when you would like to start the continuous 5 days and each day, you can only work on that day’s story, because the next day you can not see that prompt anymore since it will be saved. Even if you skip a day of completing a story, please try to continue the next day with the new one. 

On the first day, you will be sent a link which updates itself daily for a new prompt, so you can use this link for your story completions. You can enter the link via phone, tablet or laptop. 

Part 2: An online Interview / Survey 

At the end of completing 5 stories, there will be a brief interview about your experiences, which takes place on Zoom communication platform. You will be just sent a link and you can choose if you would like the interview to be conducted with cameras on or off. This interview is expected to take about 20 mins and your consent will be asked to audio record the interview for analysis purposes later. Alternatively, if you wish not to be interviewed, we can ask you to fill out a survey instead. 

Risks and Benefits:  There is no particular risk that may be caused from this research. You can drop anytime and decide not to continue incase of being triggered or not feeling well during the study. 

Through this study, you will get a chance to experience different ways of self expression and engage with a creative approach on BFRB. These may be beneficial for you to evaluate or understand behaviors, and it may also contribute to developing future design ideas, promising technological advancements on treating BFRBs. As a thank you for filling out this short survey, you will be entered into a draw and get a chance to receive a 15 € Amazon voucher.

Consent:  Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and you are free to withdraw your attendance at any time for any reason without penalty. Please feel free to ask any questions to me before participating or at any time during the study.  

No personal information beyond demographics and contact data is required. It will be maintained completely confidential, deleted after the completion of the study and shall not be revealed to any third party. All the data collected (interview data & stories) will be used anonymously. It might be shared in the research team for analysis, published in my MSc thesis and might be used for academic publications.