Hello and welcome to this information page!
Before we give you all the details and ask for your consent to participate in our study on this webpage, we would like to introduce ourselves and the broader goal of this study.
We are a team of researchers at Princeton University who are devoted to improving treatment for mental health issues. Currently, there are many effective treatment methods available. However, some of these treatments seem to work better for certain people, while other treatments might be the most effective for a different group of individuals.
Our goal right now is to find out who can make best use of what: which individuals can benefit the most from what treatment, so that in the future, those struggling with mental health issues can be matched with the type of treatment that suits them best.
In this particular study, we will be using behavioral tasks to tap into your expectations about how hard different actions will be and how rewarding their outcomes may be, as well as your propensity to learn best when information is presented in different ways. We hypothesize that these individual characteristics can reveal potential clues regarding treatment matches.
If you choose to participate in this study, your time and effort will be most helpful for the goal of this study if you respond to these tasks as you would under your normal conditions. You do not need to think about what we would want you to answer – being your genuine truthful self is all we ask.
You will do the entire study online, on a browser on a computer (sorry! this experiment cannot be completed on mobile devices). You will receive links with questionnaires and behavioral tasks to complete, ideally in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed. You will be asked to participate in 8 parts of the study over 12 months. Each part takes between 10 to 60 min and all parts together take 4 hours in total.
You will also receive free access to the the depression program of the self-help tool e-couch (https://ecouch.com.au), and be asked to engage with this tool for 30-60 minutes per week, for 5 consecutive weeks. E-couch is an online, self-directed training program that provides interactive self-help and evidence-based information to help users to understand and manage symptoms associated with common mental issues. The depression program is like an interactive self-help book, which you can log back into at any time to learn more skills or to add to your workbooks. It includes a comprehensive information module, as well as self-help modules with interactive exercises and workbooks that teach evidence-based strategies. As pointed out on the website by e-couch, they provide general information for skill development, but not medical advice.
We are interested in your genuine ability and reactions: there are no right or wrong answers (except for comprehension checks for task instructions)!
For the first 5 weeks of your access to e-couch, we will send you emails with instructions on which submodule from the depression program you are required to engage with each week. These submodules aim to tackle negative thoughts, increase engagement in fun and physical activities, and reduce low mood. If these are your primary health concerns, this study might be a good fit for you. After 6 weeks, you may access and engage with all modules of the depression program that e-couch offers, for free.
Please note that the study you are about to access through this webpage will involve a program for self help to improve your wellbeing. This is not a psychological treatment, and does not require or imply a clinical diagnosis. The experimenters are not in a position to make any diagnoses or offer medical advice.
If you are interested in participating, press “next” to see our consent form, where we outline what this study involves in more detail, and the steps we will take to protect your data.