The Human Subject: A Study of Individual Experimental Participation

Abstract

Intensive analysis of subjects' individual perceptions of an experimental task was conducted in distinctly different contexts of testing. Independent sets of subjects were tested individually in a rapport-inducing context (defined as collaborative) and a traditional context of research engagement (defined as contractual). Collaborative subjects were either known before hand or not known beforehand by the experimenter who tested them. The task was a difficult problem-solving one that allowed subjects to manifest their changing perceptions of the test situation over time. Results indicated marked within-subject variability and intergroup variation in subjects' attitudes to the experimenter and his test procedures. Data highlighted, in particular, the error of typing subjects in terms of well-defined roles or collections of social attitudes. The pattern of interplay between subject and experimenter was multidimensional and suggested the need to redefine the application of the concept of role to the social psychology of the psychological experiment.