Health Service Study Will Measure Psychological Effect of College Life

A one-time coal bin and record storage center has become, this fall, the focus of a new College research project. "Unit B" of the University Health Services, using a $420,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, has begun a program of testing freshmen to measure psychological and sociological changes during their undergraduate years.

"We want to discover what happens to individuals when they come to Harvard, and whether or not they change their viewpoints," Dr. Charles E. Bidwell, research sociologist of the Health Services, comments. In the five-year study, members of the Unit B staff will try to ascertain the relation between an individual and the College, and the extent to which their interaction produces changes in the individual.

The impact of a college upon its students, says Stanley H. King, associate director of research at the Health Services, "has never received the full study it deserves." "We are not interested in the abnormal person, but in the average college student, and in the changes he undergoes during four years."

Project Has Two Leveis

For the rest of this year, the project will continue on at least two levels. A random sample of 100 members of the Class of 1963 will undergo additional testing; they will be paid for voluntary work this year. As a second program, Dr. Bidwell is interviewing 70 students--20 seniors and juniors, 50 sophomores and freshmen--on an intensive basis.

The main portion of the research, however, will start with the Class of 1964. After pinpointing the psychological variables this year, the members of the project will choose a sample group from '64 and follow them through four years at Harvard. By means of tests, interviews, and the like, the researchers hope to chart the changes in each individual.

"It's easy to lose a person in a welter of data," Dr. Bidwell notes, "but our main concern is for the individual." Students cannot be categorized into single groups, he feels, and thus the project definitely has a slant toward individuality. Although no final results can be expected for a few years, the new Unit B may soon produce some significant insights into the inter-relation of the individual and the College.