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8: Quasi-Experimental Research

  • Page ID
    309661
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    • 8.1: Prelude to Quasi-Experimental Research
      The prefix quasi means “resembling.” Thus quasi-experimental research is research that resembles experimental research but is not true experimental research. Recall with a true between-groups experiment, random assignment to conditions is used to ensure the groups are equivalent and with a true within-subjects design counterbalancing is used to guard against order effects. Quasi-experiments are missing one of these safeguards.
    • 8.2: One-Group Designs
      This can be described as the most challenging type of quasi-experimental design. A major limitation to this design is the lack of a control or comparison group. Despite this major limitation, results from this design are frequently reported in the media and are often misinterpreted by the general population.
    • 8.3: Non-Equivalent Groups Designs
      Recall that when participants in a between-subjects experiment are randomly assigned to conditions, the resulting groups are likely to be quite similar. In fact, researchers consider them to be equivalent. When participants are not randomly assigned to conditions, however, the resulting groups are likely to be dissimilar in some ways. For this reason, researchers consider them to be nonequivalent.
    • 8.4: Program Evaluation and Applied Research
      An introduction to how quasi-experimental methods are used in real-world settings to evaluate whether programs work, how they work, and how their impacts can be meaningfully measured.
    • 8.5: Quasi-Experimental Research (Summary)
      Key Takeaways and Exercises for the chapter on Quasi-Experimental Research.


    This page titled 8: Quasi-Experimental Research is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.