Studies in sociology and psychology, as well as a survey of consumer preference, attitudes, or opinions, use samples to obtain information on the whole population where the samples used represent the population of interest accurately. The samples selected from a population are the research subjects and are known as the volunteers. Notably, even if the research subjects in a research receive compensation in the form of a chance for psychological problem treatment, a small payment, or in the form of course credit in the case of students, they are still termed as volunteers. Neuman and Robson (2014) assert that volunteers differ from non-volunteers in the sense that volunteers are higher in the social class, are more sociable, have higher intelligence quotients, are more educated and are more interested in the topic of research.
The differences that exist between volunteers and non-volunteers have resulted in high dependence on volunteers affecting the outcome of a research since this can be an issue of external validity. The issue of external validity will arise if there are reasons to show that the volunteers are likely to behave differently as compared to the population they represent (Bordens " Abbott, 2002). Moreover, dependence on volunteers affects the outcome of a research since in it results in self-selection of the units comprising the sample breaking the fundamental rule of sampling.
Reducing the problem of volunteerism will first require all researchers to combine various effective participants recruitment methods such as personal appeal, advertisements, and formal subject pools (Haski‐Leventhal, Meijs, Lockstone‐Binney, Holmes, " Oppenheimer, 2017). This can be followed by the standardization of the experimental procedures minimizing extraneous variables such as experimental expectancy effects caused by volunteerism. Lastly, it is vital for researchers to conduct small-scale pilot tests of their research so as to be sure that the procedure works as planned.
References
Bordens, K. S., " Abbott, B. B. (2002). Research Design and Methods: A Process Approach. McGraw-Hill.
Haski‐Leventhal, D., Meijs, L. C., Lockstone‐Binney, L., Holmes, K., " Oppenheimer, M. (2017). Measuring Volunteerability and the Capacity to Volunteer among Non‐volunteers: Implications for Social Policy. Social Policy " Administration.
Neuman, W. L., " Robson, K. (2014). Basics of social research. Pearson Canada.
