Participants needed for collecting research study

We are particularly interested in recruiting individuals over the age of 35 who self-identify as being a "collector" - that is, a person who has acquired objects of a particular type or theme, as well as people over the age of 18 who know or are related to (child, parent, sibling, or spouse) to adults who maintain a collection or collections.

We are also looking for a control group of healthy adults over the age of 35 who do not have any particular collections.

All participants should be in good health; those who have been diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric disorder (e.g. brain injury, psychosis) are not able to take part in the study.

We are currently recruiting pairs of collectors and relatives: if you are a collector, we will ask you to provide us with contact details for a relative or spouse who would also like to take part in the study. If you are the relative/spouse of a collector, we will ask you to provide contact details of your collecting relative/spouse who would also like to take part.

If you, or someone you know, meet these criteria and decide to take part, you/they will be invited to complete a series of online questionnaires examining various personality characteristics of collectors and their relatives (e.g. how you think about objects, other people, and the world). We also aim to understand the impact of collecting behaviour on relatives/spouses.

The questionnaires should take around 20-35 minutes to complete. Collectors and relatives of collectors will also be asked to complete a telephone interview about their own acquisition/ collecting behaviours (e.g. how many items you collect and why). This interview can be arranged at a time convenient to you and will take approximately 15-20 minutes. People from the community who do not hoard or collect do not need to have a telephone interview with the research team.

If you participate in the study a small financial compensation of £5 (in the form of retail vouchers) will be given as thanks for your time.

This study has been approved by the Psychiatry, Nursing and Midwifery Research Ethics Subcommittee at King's College London (PNM/11/12-34).

If you are interested in taking part or would like to find out more, please contact Helena Drury.

Dr Helena Drury, UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences