Hi,
Whilst I can see your very good point, there are many academic researchers who simply use their own students as participants for many studies which are not, of course, representative of the general population but are used widely regardless. As researchers we must accept that we won't have "pefect participants" or "perfect conditions" for example, we have to make the best of what we have and acknowledge the limitations. In addition, all participants of a study have that one thing in common, they have all agreed to participate. The idea of a participant registry is simply about bringing together people such as this (who all agree to participate). People who register within it do not need to enjoy filling out questionnaires on a regular basis as they may not be asked regularly, they will be asked simply when a researcher feels they fit the criteria the researcher's looking for. Furthermore, we all have a "database" of people we have used as participants before and will approach!
ag
ain to help in further studies don't we? whats the difference?
sara
--
On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 08:52:16
Bruce Hoag wrote:
>Dear Everyone,
>
>We all know the frustration of finding participants for our research
>studies; but, I want to remind you of the inherent bias that such a
>group would possess. Remember that people who enjoy filling in
>questionnaires, etc. on a regular basis are not a representative sample
>of the general population. If you use this group for your studies, you
>may not be able to generalize your findings.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Bruce Hoag
>PhD student
>Manchester School of Management
>
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