Participant Pains

The problem of conducting research in the human sciences is the unavoidable reliance on humans. Participants are crucial in psychology research and without them, all you have are a bunch of unsupported hypotheses and no data. But there are many, many joys and sorrows that are attached to testing human participants...well, actually...there are mainly just sorrows.

1. You actually have to recruit your participants.

If you're in a University department there is usually an official requirement for the poor First Year Psychology students to take part in studies in exchange for credits, without which they cannot pass into their second year. This sounds like a devious plan and a sure-fire way of  getting them through the door, and on the whole it can work. However, there's not really a punishment for not getting their credits, they just have to submit an extra essay and 'ta-da', entrance into second year is theirs. Without an actual serious consequence, unless they consider essay writing the end of the world, then there isn't much incentive for them to willingly take part. Beyond jazzing up the description of your study to make it sound like the most interesting thing in the world, there's little more you can to get them to sign up.

Alternatively, a lucky few researchers will have a budget out of which they can pay participants for taking part. This quickly attracts interest. Psych studies are often seen as an easy way to make some quick cash, and they are paid reasonably well. But budgets are not bottomless pits and eventually the funds run out and you're back to relying on the goodwill of fellow man and there's not much of that going around.

2. Then you have totest them.

You've done the hard bit and recruited yourself some (almost) willing participants. The study is set up and ready to go. You think the data is in the bag but you've overlooked one little problem...

People can be a real pain, intentionally or otherwise. As you are likely to be testing psychology students who have, by now, slept through a lecture or two, they all think they are experts. They spend your entire study trying to work out what it is you're looking at and will either try their best to give the answers they think you want, or will maliciously mess everything up.Many of them can't follow simple instructions or just don't care enough to listen in the first place.

Occassionally, a participant may actually show interest in your study and have a good discussion with you afterwards, you might even get a good idea from them. On the other hand, some participants think they know absolutely everything and relish the opportunity to tell you exactly what they think you've done wrong, when in fact they've got no idea what they are talking about. These participants are difficult to get out the door and lead to much eye-rolling when they're not looking.

3. Ha! You're assuming that they will actually turn up!! FOOL!

It's all fine and well recruiting participants, but you never know whether they'll actually turn up in the first place. This is my major grumble at the moment, and has been for quite some time.

People who have voluntarily signed up to take part in your study and then fail to actually show up to take part i.e. no shows. No shows are the bain of my life right now. I've been testing for my current study since September and I've had at least 10-15 no show participants in that time. There's nothing worse than dragging yourself out of bed and into the lab for a 9am participant to find that they just couldn't be bothered getting up that day and didn't think it was necessary to let you know that they weren't coming. Seeing the pouring rain and knowing, deep down, that nobody is going to turn up that day but having to go in anyway, just in case.

It's just plain rude.They signed up to it in the first place - I didn't force them to agree to a 9am slot, they chose it. So not only am I constantly left waiting around for participants to show up when I have better things to be doing, but someone else could have signed up to the slot that would have actually turned up. 

ARGH!!!

Participants - you can't do research without them, but you also can't do research if they don't turn up.

I long for the day when data collection is over. But, I'm sure once the analysis starts, it won't be long before I'm craving a no show to complain about.


Isn't research fun?! :D