Using the Internet for psychological research: Personality testing on the World Wide Web

Abstract

The Internet is increasingly being used as a medium for psychological research. To assess the validity of such efforts, an electronic version of Gangestad & Snyder's (1985) revised self-monitoring questionnaire was placed at a site on the World Wide Web. In all, 963 responses were obtained through the Internet and these were compared with those from a group of 224 undergraduates who completed a paper-and-pencil version. Comparison of model fit indices obtained through confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the Internet-mediated version had similar psychometric properties to its conventional equivalent and compared favourably as a measure of self-monitoring. Reasons for possible superiority of Internet data are discussed. Results support the notion that Web-based personality assessment is possible, but stringent validation of test instruments is urged.

The internet as a research tool in the study of associative learning: An example from overshadowing

“…This result is encouraging for researchers lacking resources to perform pilot studies to test their procedures or to adjust experimental parameters. In light of the evidence presented here and elsewhere (Birnbaum, 1999;Birnbaum and Wakcher, 2002;Buchanan and Smith, 1999;McGraw et al, 2000;Steyvers et al, 2003;Vadillo and Matute, in press;Vadillo et al, 2005), there is no reason to expect differences in the nature of the studied process arising from the use of an internet-based methodology, as compared to the more traditional laboratory methods. A preparation that works well for the study of one phenomenon in the internet is likely to work similarly well for the study of the same phenomenon in the laboratory.…”

“…Researchers from different areas of psychology are also becoming aware of the potential benefits that the use of the internet can provide. Not only is the internet being used as a means to obtain larger samples in surveys and personality questionnaires (Buchanan and Smith, 1999;Gosling et al, 2004;Schmidt, 1997), but it is also starting to be used in experimental studies on basic cognitive phenomena such as probability learning, decision making or causal induction (Birnbaum, 1999;Birnbaum and Wakcher, 2002;Steyvers et al, 2003;Vadillo and Matute, in press;Vadillo et al, 2005).…”

“…How-ever, many of these problems can usually be reduced by adopting appropriate solutions that have already been explored and published (e.g., Gosling et al, 2004;Reips, 2002;Schmidt, 1997). Additionally, the comparison of traditional studies and online studies has shown that similar results are usually obtained in both domains in a wide variety of research areas (e.g., Buchanan and Smith, 1999;McGraw et al, 2000;Vadillo and Matute, in press). This indicates that whatever potential variables are introduced by internet-based methodologies, their effect is not large.…”

Patients’ Willingness to Accept the Risks and Benefits of New Treatments for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

“…[46] A full comparison of patient demographics between the overall HCV-infected populations in each of the five survey countries and the study sample was not possible, but data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that the mean age of individuals infected with HCV in the US, including those with undiagnosed infection, is approximately 47 years, with 62% of infections occurring in males. [47] Thus, participants in this survey were slightly younger and less likely to be male than the average HCV-infected individual in the US.…”

Gender and Sexual Orientation Differences in Cognition Across Adulthood: Age Is Kinder to Women than to Men Regardless of Sexual Orientation

“…Although home access to computers decreases with age, older adults are increasingly being encouraged to use the Internet (Cutler, Hendricks, & Guyer, 2003;Selwyn, Gorard, Furlong, & Madden, 2003). Obvious disadvantages of the methodology are more than outweighed by its considerable advantages, particularly as evidence is accumulating to suggest that web-based studies can reliably replicate laboratory findings (see Buchanan & Smith, 1999;Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 2004;McGraw, Tew, & Williams, 2000), including recent studies of aging (e.g., Reimers & Maylor, 2005;Robins, Trzesniewski, Gosling, & Potter, 2002).…”