Quasi - experiments Flashcards
What are the two types of quasi-experiments?
Natural experiments and Difference studies
What is a natural experiment?
Conducted when it is not possible for ethical or practical reasons to manipulate an IV, therefore it is said the the IV varies naturally.
What is a difference study?
Apparent IV is naturally occurring, the key feature is that the IV hasn’t been made to vary by anyone. It’s simply a difference between people that exists.
Why can’t researchers draw cause and effect conclusions from quasi-experiments?
The lack of control of the IV means that we cannot say for certain that the change of the DV was caused by the IV.
In an experiment with an independent group design participants are randomly allocated to conditions. This isn’t possible in natural or quasi-experiments. This mean that there may be biases in the different groups of participants.
The sample studied may have unique characteristics which means that the finding cant be generalized.
