Characteristics of volunteers and nonvolunteers in psychological experimentation.

Abstract

A social psychology or generalized conclusion based on experimental investigations of freshmen or sophomores in college is highly debatable. Use of volunteers from such freshmen or sophomore classes is even more debatable for it may represent a selection within a selection. In experimental work it is also a wise precaution to know as many characteristics as possible of the group being investigated.Studies have been made of the scores of volunteers on visuo-motor learning (4), the type of person requesting volunteers (5), marital adjustment of volunteers (15), as well as the nature of the volunteering act itself (2, 9, 10, 11). Maslow and Sakoda (8) found volunteers to be higher in a scale of self-esteem than nonvolunteers and, as a result of their findings, concluded that the Kinsey data on sex (6, 7) should allow for volunteer error. Siegman (12), however, using a number of personality variables, as well as the self-esteem scale used by Maslow, found no differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers for a Kinsey-type interview.The present study proposed to examine the personality characteristics of volunteers and nonvolunteers for different experimental situations. Reliability of the volunteering act was also to be examined. ProcedureApproximately 400 introductory psychology students at the State College of Washington

A laboratory experiment in retaliation

“…The distinguishing personality characteristics of volunteers vary with what they think they are volunteering for. Martin and Marcuse (1958) found no significant (p < .05) difference on the traits of intelligence, anxiety, ethnocentrism, selfsufficiency, introversion-extroversion, dominance-submission, or sociability between volunteers and nonvolunteers for a learning experiment. However, differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers for hypnosis and personality experiments emerged.…”

Volunteerism, the Beneficent Subject and Ecological Validity

“…That this difference in sociability between the volunteer and the non-volunteer subject is not a fatuous one is attested to by the fact that even when this trait has been assessed by instruments ranging from the Social Participation Scale of the MMPT (Schubert, 1964) to the Bernreuter Scale (Martin & Marcuse, 1957, 1958 to Cattell's Sixteen Factor Personality Inventory (London, et al, 1962), results consistently have been the same-volunteers have significantly higher sociability scores than nonvolunteers.…”

“…In terms of personality or psychological characteristics, volunteer subjects have been shown to have significantly higher (greater) sociability tendencies than non-volunteer subjects (London, et al, 1962;Martin & Marcuse, 1957;Martin & Marcuse, 1958;Schubert, 1964). That this difference in sociability between the volunteer and the non-volunteer subject is not a fatuous one is attested to by the fact that even when this trait has been assessed by instruments ranging from the Social Participation Scale of the MMPT (Schubert, 1964) to the Bernreuter Scale (Martin & Marcuse, 1957, 1958 to Cattell's Sixteen Factor Personality Inventory (London, et al, 1962), results consistently have been the same-volunteers have significantly higher sociability scores than nonvolunteers.…”

Anxiety and volunteering

“…Rosen (1951) and Schubert (1964), using the MMPIPt (psychasthenia) scale, found volunteers to have higher anxiety than nonvolunteers. Martin & Marcuse (1958) asked students to volunteer for experiments on several topics and compared their Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) scores with the scores of nonvolunteers. While they found no differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers if the experiments were concerned with learning or sex attitudes, volunteers for a personality experiment were higher in anxiety than nonvolunteers.…”