CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VOLUNTEER FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS.

On the basis of the relevant experimental data, volunteering vg for psychological experiments is considered as a function of background, message, and personality variables. The important methodological distinction between volunteers and psuedo-volunteers is stressed. A comprehensive survey and summarization of the literature suggests that the less socio-cultural influences favor volunteering, the more volunteers will tend to be unaware of social desirability, unconventional, neurotic, and introverted than nonvolunteers. It was concluded that an appropriate question to be asked in evaluating volunteers for psychological investigation is not whether they are representative of the population, but on what dimensions they are unrepresentative and whether the particular dimensions on which they are unrepresentative defeat the purposes of the investigation. Author