One of the main advantages of using college students in psychological research is that they are available in large numbers, enabling researchers to pick their desirable samples. Researchers often have easier access to college students compared to any other population outside of universities, and in many universities across America, such as Wheaton College of Psychology, there are established research participation pools comprised of students taking courses.
Students learn psychology through lectures, seminars and conducting their own research. According to Wheaton College, another way students gain knowledge about the research process is by participating in studies conducted by the faculty. Also, the experience gained can help students to analyze in a critical manner other researches they come across during their coursework. Wheaton College of Psychology also expects that participation in a research project will inspire students to conduct their own research that will contribute to the psychology field.
In any research, participation should be voluntary, and discontinuing should not lead to any form of punishment or loss. However, much psychological research in campus settings involve faculty members who also teach participating students who cannot turn down the opportunity to participate or pull out of the study. Students may feel that they risk failing or getting a lower grade by not participating in such studies. Also, many universities offer participants incentives or compensation in the form of extra credits, course requirements, or financial payment. All of these are considered coercive methods of getting people to participate in research, and they are not ethical.
In any research, a sample must contain the characters of the population of interest to ensure the validity of the results from the study. The choice to use college or university students for psychological studies leads to a biased sample that barely represents the adult population at large. Student samples are biased in terms of age, experience and intellectual ability, according to Psychologist.org.uk. In essence, researches using students is difficult to generalize to the rest of the population because students are may not be representative sample.