... and Gaudet (1948) investigated radio listeners and voters. These are just a few examples of the variety of field studies that were conducted before the experimental revolutions of the sixties. If you flick through a Social Psychology journal these days it won't be long before you get the distinct impression that the only kind of people of interest to many psychologists are members of the undergraduate student population. There would be no cause for concern if the student population was a truly representative sample of the population in general, but there is evidence to suggest that they do differ in highly significant ways from the general public. Also there has been some concern over the performance of these subjects, as many of the students used have been coerced into taking part in experiments because it is part of their psychology course requirement. Cox and Sipprelle (1971) discovered that the volunteer status ...

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