Formal experimental research design

Principles of creating experimental design

Principle of Randomisation Principle of Replication Principle of Locus control

Various designs are:

Completely randomised design Randomised block design Latin Square design Factorial design

 A completely randomized design is the simplest type of randomization scheme IN it treatments are assigned to units completely by chance. In addition,units should be run in random order throughout the experiment. The completely randomized design has several advantages: It is completely flexible. Any number of treatments can be investigated. Each treatment can have any number (more than one) of units although balance (an equal number of units for each treatment) is desirable. The statistical analysis is straightforward. The analysis remains simple even if observations from some units are missing. One way Analysis may be used to analyse such a design

 Completely randomized design can be put under 2 heads: Simple randomized design: Eg. There are 2 groups of students who are randomly selected and randomly assigned to two different treatments ie. Usual training and specialized training. To test that these two groups ar significant or not, this design may be made.

Randomized block design

Randomized block design is an improvement over completely randomized design. In this subjects are divided into blocks such that within each group , subjects are relatively homogeneous in respect of some selected variables . Two way ANOVA may be used as an analysis technique in this design.

Very low

Low IQ

Average IQ

High IQ

VERY HIGH

Student A
Form 1 82

B
67

C
57

D
73

E
73

Form2
Form3 Form4

90
86 93

68
73 77

54
51 60

81
84 71

81
84 71

Latin Square design

It is frequently used in agricultural research. The conditions under which agricultural investigations are carried out are different from that of others. Eg. An investigation has to be made through which effects of five different varieties of fertilizers on the yield of certain crop is to be judged. In such case varying fertility of soil and seed differences are also to be taken into consideration, otherwise the results obtained may not be very dependable.2 WAY Analysis may be used.

x1

x2

x3

x4

x5

Factorial design
It is used when effects of 1 or more factors are to be determined

Sources of errors in Research

Random sampling errors: sample too small sample not representative inappropriate sampling method used random errors Research design errors: bias introduced measurement error data analysis error sampling frame error population definition error scaling error question construction error

Interviewer errors: recording errors cheating errors questioning errors respondent selection error Respondent errors: non-response error inability error falsification error Hypothesis errors: type I error (also called alpha error)
the study results lead to the rejection of the null hypothesis even though it is actually true

type II error (also called beta error)

the study results lead to the acceptance (non-rejection) of the null hypothesis even though it is actually false