Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
My co-workers . . .
What is a quasi-experiment?
Research design in which researcher only has partial control over the independent variables Participants are not randomly assigned to different conditions When do we do quasi-experiments?
Types of Quasi-experiments
1. Person by treatment quasiexperiments 2. Natural experiments
DV
Cognitive Performance
Median Split
A way to convert a continuous variable into a categorical variable Determine the median of a sample and divide the group into two groups (e.g., high vs. low SE) Problem people near the cut-off point
Therefore, rather than doing median split take people with extreme scores
What do you know about people in the middle of the distribution? assume that people who possess a medium amount of an attitude or trait will respond to treatments in medium amounts when compared to people who scored at the extreme Use extreme scores to increase test sensitivity
Inductive Problem
Because we are not manipulating the IV it is possible that there are confounds
e.g., self-esteem correlated with gender. SES, depression, anxiety, etc
Inductive problem we never know if we have ruled out all possible confounds
Natural Experiments
Experimenter does not manipulate anything Naturally occurring events expose some people to a condition and other people to other condition
e.g., effect of job loss on marital satisfaction; effect of natural disasters on anxiety levels
True vs Quasi-Experiments
Internal validity true wins External validity quasi wins Ethical sensitive topics quasi wins
Examples
1. The effect of poor housing on health.
2. The effect of learning a second language on cognitive ability.