M8: Quantitative Research Design - Quasi-Experimental Designs

Question 1

What is a Quasi-experimental Designs?

Answer 1

• Interested in maximizing external validity
  – Want to approximate real world settings
• Participants are not randomly assigned
  – Not possible
  – Participants either self-select themselves to one of the groups or an administrator (e.g., coach, technical director) decides who will receive the treatment

Question 2

What is a
Nonequivalent-Control-Group Design?

Answer 2

• Often uses intact groups (similar as possible)
• O1 and O3 are often statistically compared to determine if there are differences in the groups at the outset
  – Even if the groups do not differ on the dependent variables at the pretest this does not infer they are automatically equivalent

Question 3

What is a
Ex Post Facto Design?

Answer 3

• Groups (IV) are already formed based on a characteristic of the participants & are compared on the DV
  – E.g., selected Olympic hopefuls vs.non-selected Olympic
• Use when IV is not easily manipulated
• Want to compare scores on the DV based on already
  formed groups
  – Toronto Maple Leafs fans vs. Vancouver Canucks fans

Question 4

What is a Time-Series Design?

Answer 4

• Infer cause and effect by establishing the rate of change between observations is different between O4 to O5
• Not feasible or practical to have a control group
  – Effect of athlete centralization on athletes’ well-being
• Participants act as their own controls

Question 5

What is a Single-Subject Design?

Answer 5

• Effect of the intervention on a single subject
• A repeated measure design
  – E.g., Time-series
• Often used to examine unique/outlier cases