Table of Contents A controlled experiment is the only research method that can establish a cause and effect relationship. How do experiments clarify cause and effect?How do experiments, powered by random assignment, clarify cause and effect? To discover cause-effect relationships, psychologists conduct experiemnts, manipulating one or more factors of interest and controlling other factors. The independent variable is the factor you manipulate to study its effect. What exactly do experiments enable cause and effect conclusions?Why, exactly, do experiments enable cause-and-effect conclusions? Every variable except one is controlled. When a researcher arbitrarily places participants in either the experimental or the control group, she is conducting: random assignment. What are the three principles to keep in mind when deciding to generalize from a sample?What are the three principles to keep in mind when deciding to generalize from a sample? Representative samples are better than biased ones. Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable. More cases are better than fewer. How generalizable is your study?Very simply, generalizability is a measure of how useful the results of a study are for a broader group of people or situations. If the results can only be applied to a very narrow population or in a very specific situation, the results have poor generalizability. Is there a control group in a quasi-experimental design?It differs from experimental research because either there is no control group, no random selection, no random assignment, and/or no active manipulation.” This type of research is often performed in cases where a control group cannot be created or random selection cannot be performed. What is the major limitation of the quasi-experimental design?The greatest disadvantage of quasi-experimental studies is that randomization is not used, limiting the study’s ability to conclude a causal association between an intervention and an outcome. Which of the following is an advantage of using quasi-experimental designs?Which of the following is an advantage of using quasi-experimental designs? They allow researchers to capitalize on random assignment. They allow researchers to enhance external validity. What are the advantages and disadvantages of experimental research?Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research: Quick Reference List
What is the primary difference in experimental and non-experimental designs?In an experimental design, the researcher actively manipulates one or more variables, and in a nonexperimental design the researcher explores relationships or differences among the variables. An experimental design can have a control group, but the control is not manipulated but naturally occurring. What is the primary reason that using non-experimental data to measure a treatment effect can be problematic?While non-experimental studies are disadvantaged by lack of randomization, the study costs may be lower, the study sample may be broader, and follow-up may be longer, as compared to an RCT (1,2). How do you know if a study is internally valid?How to check whether your study has internal validity
More from The Question & Answer (Q&A) The Manipulation of Predictor VariablesIn an experiment, the researcher manipulates the factor that is hypothesized to affect the outcome of interest. The factor that is being manipulated is typically referred to as the treatment or intervention. The researcher may manipulate whether research subjects receive a treatment (e.g., antidepressant medicine: yes or no) and the level of treatment (e.g., 50 mg, 75 mg, 100 mg, and 125 mg). Suppose, for example, a group of researchers was interested in the causes of maternal employment. They might hypothesize that the provision of government-subsidized child care would promote such employment. They could then design an experiment in which some subjects would be provided the option of government-funded child care subsidies and others would not. The researchers might also manipulate the value of the child care subsidies in order to determine if higher subsidy values might result in different levels of maternal employment. Random Assignment
Random SamplingTraditionally, experimental researchers have used convenience sampling to select study participants. However, as research methods have become more rigorous, and the problems with generalizing from a convenience sample to the larger population have become more apparent, experimental researchers are increasingly turning to random sampling. In experimental policy research studies, participants are often randomly selected from program administrative databases and randomly assigned to the control or treatment groups. Which research method is the only method that can establish causeAnswer and Explanation: The only method that will establish a cause-and-effect relationship is an experimental research design.
Which research method can establish a causeThe only way to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables is to conduct a case study. In an experiment, the dependent variable is controlled by the experimenter.
Which of the following research methods can best establish a causeThe most powerful research method is the experiment, in which an experimenter manipulates and controls the variables to determine cause and effect.
Which research method is the only one that can result in a causeAnswer and Explanation:
The experimental method is the only method to attribute a cause and effect relationship as the researcher will hold one variable constant and 'experiment' with the other variable to see the effect.
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