Who Are We Studying? Sample Diversity in Teaching of Psychology Research

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the sample diversity of empirical articles published in four premier teaching of psychology journals from 2008 to 2013. We investigated which demographic information was commonly reported and if samples were ethnically representative and whether gender was representative compared to National Department of Education data. Descriptive statistics showed that, in many cases, ethnicity was not reported in teaching of psychology journal articles. When ethnicity was reported, samples were predominantly Caucasian and not typical to that of Department of Education data. Additionally, results indicated there is an overrepresentation of female students in these samples, which is typical of psychology students. Based on the results, teaching of psychology research is accurately sampling the intended population, however, the psychology student population is not representative of the greater college student population. Accordingly, generalizations from teaching of psychology research to teaching other academic domains should be made with caution.