What will be expected from me and what will I experience during my participation?

___We would like you to complete an online-questionnaire now and a second one in two months. You will receive an invite to take part in the second online-questionnaire via email (including a link to the study). After receipt of the invitation email, you can complete the online-questionnaire within one week from wherever suits you. The online-questionnaires are designed to assess various aspects of your personality, emotions, and beliefs. Assessing these constructs at the same time helps us to understand how they are related to each other. Most of the time we will provide you with a statement and ask you to what degree the statement applies to you. Participants in this kind of psychological study typically experience enjoyment while completing the task and some indicate to gain a better insight regarding who they are. If an item should make you feel uncomfortable you can of course choose to not respond to it. Thus, overall we expect that participation is a positive and educational experience for you.

Is participation in this study anonymous, for what is the data going to be used, and how long will the data be stored for?

___The information provided by you will be held totally anonymously, so that it is impossible to trace this information back to you individually. The data will be exclusively used for scientific research purposes and may lead to several publications. In these potential publications, no reference to you individually would be made. In accordance with the Data Protection Act, this information may be retained indefinitely.

What benefits do I gain from participating in this study?

___Participation in experimental research will help you to gain a better insight in how research in psychology is carried out. This specific study will also give you an initial understanding of how to assess certain aspects of personality, emotions, and beliefs. At the end of the third part of this study you will be provided with detailed information about the purpose of the study and its hypotheses. Also, upon request (addressed to J.Gebauer@soton.ac.uk), we are happy to email you a summary of the results of this study after its completion. Furthermore, the information we collect is intended to lead to a scientific publication and thus may help further the understanding of the human psyche and behaviour.

Does participation in this study help to solve psychological issues?

___The researchers involved in this project do not have expertise in clinical diagnosis of mental health disorders as they are researchers and not clinical psychologists. Therefore, you should not regard completion of the mental health questionnaires as a clinical screening procedure.

Are there any ethical issues or risks associated with the participation in this study?

___This study was reviewed by and got approval from the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology at the University of Southampton and there are no known risks in participating in this study (contact information: Chair of the Ethics Committee, Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ. Phone: (023) 8059 5578).

Is participation voluntary, can I ask questions, and can I withdraw from the research?

___Participation in this study is entirely voluntary. If you choose not to participate there will be no consequences to your grade or to your treatment as a student in the psychology department. You can send the primary investigator an email with your questions (email: J.Gebauer@soton.ac.uk). Finally, you can of course withdraw from the study at any time without the need to give any explanation.