University undergraduates are regularly used as research participants in Psychology; students are often willing to be involved for the benefits received from researchers or for course credits. Samples of university students can prove to be useful for researchers, with greatly varying interests and areas of expertise, as well as often being culturally diverse.
However, there are issues with student samples in research. Although such a diverse sample can often be achieved from universities, there may be far too many similarities to generalise findings to the population. University students are academics, and it should not be assumed that the behaviours of these can be generalised to the rest of the population. People who choose an academic career may think differently, and have very different philosophies than those who take a more vocational o approach. The vast majority of undergraduate university students are aged between 18-23, often considered to be an age where the individuals are rebellious and most likely to engage in risky behaviours
An example of the use of university undergraduates in research is the Clark and Hatfield study Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers. The methodology involved a young, attractive stooge approaching students on a university campus and asking them one of three questions: ‘Would you like to go out tonight?’, ‘Would you like to come back to my apartment?’ or ‘Would you like to come to bed with me?’. They found that both sexes were equally willing to accept a date, although women were less likely to go back to the stooges apartment (6% of females agreed, 68% males agreed) and no women agreed to go to bed with the stooge, whilst 75% of the males agreed. Although this is an interesting study, the use of university participants when studying sexual behaviour lacks population validity. As mentioned before, university students are more likely to engage in risk behaviours than many other groups – and so to draw conclusions from this would be incorrect. Furthermore, the results of this study may unfairly misrepresent males. Between the ages of 18-21, males are considered to be at their sexual prime, and so more likely to engage in sexual activity, and so results should not be generalised to all males.
The accessibility of students for the purposes of research does make them an obvious choice of participant. However, it would be best to support any results with similar findings from different populations.
Ref.
Russel. D. Clark., Elaine. Hatfield., Gender Differences in Receptivity to Sexual Offers.
Retrieved from: http://www.elainehatfield.com/79.pdf
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