Approval-seeking motivation and the volunteer subject

Students were recruited under 4 degrees of external inducement to participate as Ss in psychological research. Their performances on a test of approval-seeking motivation differed in an orderly manner. Captive Ss, tested without forewarning, received the lowest and most widely dispersed scores; those who participated as an academic requirement and volunteers who received extra grade credit for participation showed intermediate scores; and Ss who volunteered with minimal external inducement obtained the highest mean and least dispersed scores. The t tests indicate that the groups differed significantly as a function of the conditions of recruitment: the more voluntarism, the higher the approval-seeking scores.