As part of the educational experience here at Harvard, we invite all enrolled students and members of the community to participate in Psychology studies during the academic year and during the summer school session.

If your son or daughter is under 18 years of age at the time of their participation, your permission is required before they can be invited to participate in these studies. Participants must be at least 12 years of age in order to participate in Study Pool studies with Parental Consent. For other Psychology Department studies available to participants under 18, please visit the The Laboratory for Developmental Studies.

If your son or daughter is above 18 years of age at the time they sign up for a study, they will be asked to sign their own Consent Form before each individual study begins.

Also, as part of our initiative to ensure that these studies are educational, participants will receive a Debriefing Form at the completion each study, informing them of the hypotheses, the measures used, a reference to further research on the topic, and information about their rights as a human subject. Each Debriefing Form contains contact information from the researcher in the event that the participant has questions about the research or would like to request a copy of the results when and if they are published.

• Introduction to the Study Pool
• What are studies like?
• Giving your Consent
• Parents of infants or toddlers
• Go to Online Sign-up Now

Students can see a list of ongoing studies in the Psychology Department by viewing our online study scheduling system. By visiting this site, students can learn the details of the study and sign up for available times. Students can earn payment (for most studies) or course credit (if they are enrolled in a Psychology course) for their participation.

Participation is completely voluntary, and refusal to participate involves no penalty or loss of benefits to which the student is otherwise entitled. Furthermore, if a student agrees to participate, he or she may discontinue participation at any time without penalty. All studies on this website have been pre-approved by Harvard University’s Committee on the Use of Human Subjects and are monitored carefully. In addition, the Study Pool Security Policy requires that students be given a numeric code upon registration in this system (instead of using names) and that the student’s responses in all of these studies remain confidential.

Participation in Psychology studies does not influence any decision regarding future admissions to Harvard University.

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If your son or daughter is under 18 years of age at the time of their participation, your permission is required before they can be invited to participate in these studies. With your approval, your son or daughter will be invited to participate in the following kinds of studies:

• Surveys and interviews.
  

• Studies that use direct sensors (e.g., a blood pressure device) or remote sensors (e.g., a video-camera) to measure physiological and psychological reactions.
  

• Studies that use questionnaires or other verbal or behavioral measures.
  

• Studies in which information about the hypothesis and the experimental situation is revealed to the student after participation is completed.

In this way, we seek to enhance students’ learning experience by providing detailed information about Psychology as a social science.

If your son or daughter is under 18 years of age at the time of their participation, they will NOT be invited to participate in the following kinds of studies:

• Procedures that entail a risk of physical harm.

• Procedures that involve hypnosis or unusual degrees of mental stress.

• Procedures that involve explicit or implicit deception about any aspect of the research that is likely to be significant to the student.

• Procedures that elicit information about activities that may be illegal or that are likely to offend prevailing standards of morality.

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If you grant your son or daughter permission to participate in this part of their educational experience at Harvard, please print and sign the Parental Consent Form (see below) to give your written consent. Once you have signed the form, please Fax it to the Study Administrator at (617) 496-8279. This number is also listed on the form. This form will be kept in a file and maintained by the Study Administrator. Should you have any questions about this form or the studies currently being run in the Psychology Department, please do not hesitate to contact the Study Administrator at studypool@wjh.harvard.edu.

Parental consent form - .pdf

Parental consent form - Word document

If your son or daughter is above 18 years of age at the time they sign up for a study, they will be asked to sign their own Consent Form (see below) before each individual study begins. Also, as part of our initiative to ensure that these studies are educational, participants will receive a Debriefing Form (see below) at the completion of each study, informing them of the hypotheses, the measures used, a reference to further research on the topic, and information about their rights as a human subject. Each Debriefing Form contains contact information from the researcher in the event that the participant has questions about the research or would like to request a copy of the results when and if they are published.

Sample Consent Form

Sample Debriefing Form

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If you are a Parent of an infant or toddler and would like to participate with your child in studies being conducted in the Developmental Lab, please visit the Laboratory for Developmental Studies for details on how to sign up.

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Harvard University Home | Psychology Department Home

Psychology Study Pool at Harvard University
234 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Info: 617.495.3891

Contact the Study Administrator

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Copyright 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College