Lecture 4

Question 1

What’s the difference between experimental research and quasi-experimental research?

Answer 1

Quasi-experimental does NOT have radomization, OR lacks a control group

Question 2

what are the 3 major types of QUANTITATIVE research?

Answer 2

1. Experimental research (aka clinical trials or RCT)
2. Quasi-experimental
3. Non-experimental

Question 3

What is the Hawthorne effect

Answer 3

the knowledge of being in a study may cause people to change their behavior bc they know they’re being watched (this is a disadvantage to the researcher–it can bias the study outcomes)

Question 4

What are the advantages of experimental research? And the disadvantages?

Answer 4

advantage: it is most powerful for detecting cause and effect relationships

Disadvantage: often not feasible or ethical, it’s costly, also risk of Hawthorne effect

Question 5

Rival hypothesis

Answer 5

An alternative explanation, competing with the researcher’s hypothesis, for interpreting the results of a study.

Question 6

What is a challenge of longitudinal studies?

Answer 6

attrition (the loss of participants over time)

Question 7

Threats to Internal Validity

Answer 7

• Selection bias— preexisting differences btwn groups being compared (randomization helps to reduce this)
• History threat—other events co-occurring with causal factor that could also affect outcomes (ex. Of self-breast examinations with Michelle Obama in control group)
• Maturation threat—processes that result simply from the passage of time
• Mortality/attrition threat—differential loss of participants from different groups

Question 8

What are “strata”

Answer 8

Strata are mutually exclusive segments of a population based on a specific characteristic. (aka subpopulations, such as women)