Quasi-Experimental Research Designs
The goal of most social scientific research is to explain the causes of human behavior in its myriad forms. Researchers generally attempt to do this by uncovering causal associations among variables. For example, researchers may be interested in whether a causal relationship exists between income and happiness. One might expect a positive association between these two variables. That is, an increase in income, the independent variable, produces an increase in happiness, the dependent variable. Unfortunately, observing a positive correlation between these two variables does not prove that income causes happiness. In order to make a valid causal inference, three conditions must be present: (1) there must be an association between the variables (e.g., income and happiness); (2) the variable that is the presumed cause (e.g., income) must precede the effect (e.g., happiness) in time; and (3) the association between the two variables cannot be explained by the influence of some other variable (e.g., education) that may be related to both of them. The purpose of any research design is to construct a circumstance within which a researcher can achieve these three conditions and thus make valid causal inferences.
Experimental designs are one of the most efficient ways to accomplish this goal of making valid causal inferences.
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