Quasi-Experimental Designs
Quasi-Experimental Designs
Milagros V. Mercado
Walden University
PSYC-3003-12 Methods in Psychological Inquiry
Instructor: Meredith McKee
09/28/2011
Quasi-Experimental Designs According to (Stangor, 2011. pp. 274), quasi-experimental design is employed when there are two groups of people that cannot be assigned randomly to other groups. Also, in this type of design the variables cannot be manipulated as they would be in other types of experiments and the variables are measured rather than manipulated, (pp.274). In this case, there are four different studies that are important to assess as to their variables and how they would work. The first study that I chose is study one that demonstrates that women perform more poorly, on average, than men perform on the mathematics section of the SAT. I chose this study because I needed to know more about it and it left me with the question, “why?” One of the reasons that came to mind as to why this is true is that men are more geared towards math and science that the majority of women. In my opinion, I thought this would be something interesting to study. The independent variable is the mathematics section on the SAT test. The dependent variable is the women’s performance. In order to study this concept to gain additional information would be the comparison group design. The reason this design could be chosen is because it lends itself to observing the two groups. If this study were done, the comparison between the men and women as to their training and education may be important to understand why men perform better than women on the SAT. This would allow the researchers to understand what factors were involved in helping women achieve on the overall SAT and where the challenges were for them on the mathematics section. This knowledge could be helpful in creating a higher standard of teaching and learning for women who wanted to go into math and science when they finished high school. A different way that
Milagros V. Mercado
Walden University
PSYC-3003-12 Methods in Psychological Inquiry
Instructor: Meredith McKee
09/28/2011
Quasi-Experimental Designs According to (Stangor, 2011. pp. 274), quasi-experimental design is employed when there are two groups of people that cannot be assigned randomly to other groups. Also, in this type of design the variables cannot be manipulated as they would be in other types of experiments and the variables are measured rather than manipulated, (pp.274). In this case, there are four different studies that are important to assess as to their variables and how they would work. The first study that I chose is study one that demonstrates that women perform more poorly, on average, than men perform on the mathematics section of the SAT. I chose this study because I needed to know more about it and it left me with the question, “why?” One of the reasons that came to mind as to why this is true is that men are more geared towards math and science that the majority of women. In my opinion, I thought this would be something interesting to study. The independent variable is the mathematics section on the SAT test. The dependent variable is the women’s performance. In order to study this concept to gain additional information would be the comparison group design. The reason this design could be chosen is because it lends itself to observing the two groups. If this study were done, the comparison between the men and women as to their training and education may be important to understand why men perform better than women on the SAT. This would allow the researchers to understand what factors were involved in helping women achieve on the overall SAT and where the challenges were for them on the mathematics section. This knowledge could be helpful in creating a higher standard of teaching and learning for women who wanted to go into math and science when they finished high school. A different way that
References: Boyd, H.H. (2002). Use comparison groups to strengthen your evaluation. University of Wisconsin Wisconsin-Extension Cooperative Extension Madison, Wisconsin. Retrieved from www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/resources/pdf/agenda.pdf Classroom Presentation. (n.d.). Quasi-experimental research designs. Chapter 14. Stangor, C. (2011). Research methods for the behavioral sciences. (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin