University Will Study Student Mental Health

Mental development of the Harvard undergraduate will be the subject of a significantly large-scale study by University psychologists and sociologists, provided that a preliminary study of methodology is successful.

The pilot project, which is to be completed next November, is being financed by a $56,000 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The Institute has promised an even larger sum to carry out the final study.

Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, Director of University Health Services, explained yesterday that the aim of the final study is "to learn as much as possible about the pyscho-social development of the college undergraduate," and that it could aid the University by pointing the way toward the development of "sound pressures for excellence."

In addition, Farnsworth stated, the methods of the study must be acceptable to the Faculty, and involve no compulsion or violation of privacy.

The project directors are finding the preliminary planning "touchy," it has been generally indicated, but not because of any questioning of the value of their study. Rather, it is because of the critical discussion of methods which must precede the study. Among the difficult factors listed by Faculty members involved in the project are the complexity of the material, and difference of approach between those who would study "data" and others who would concentrate on "dynamics."

The Faculty has set up an advisory committee for the project. The members are Dean Monro, Master Leighton, professors Stouffer and Riesman, and William G. Perry, Director of the Bureau of Study Council.