Risk Taking as Motivation for Volunteering for a Hazardous Experiment,
Abstract
Army male enlisted personnel were tested in two experiments to assess the psychological correlates of volunteering for a hazardous experiment, (Experiment 1) and a riskless, psychological experiment (Experiment 2). Subjects were given a biographical and personal habit questionnaire, IPAT Anxiety Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, and Torrance and Ziller's Life Experience Inventory. Results from Experiment 1 indicated that volunteers were significantly less anxious (p<.01), and more willing to take risks (p<.01) than were nonvolunteers. Noncommissioned officers (p<.05), smokers (p<.05), later-born children (p<.05), and children of lower socioeconomic class parents (p<.05) were significantly overrepresented among the volunteers, and the hazardous nature of the experiment appears to have determined their characteristics. In Experiment 2, the only finding was that children of mothers who had attended college (p<.01) were overrepresented. Results are in agreement with findings, using college students, that volunteer samples differ significantly from nonvolunteer samples, and that results vary as a function of situational variables. The study indicates that the generalizability of experimental results have important limitations. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 20, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA115097
Entities
People
- Jared B. Jobe
- Stanley H. Holgate
- Thomas A. Scrapansky
Organizations
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine