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12.6: Summary of Nonexperimental Research

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    Key Takeaways

    • Non-experimental research is research that lacks the manipulation of an independent variable, as well as the lack of initial equivalence between any independent variables conditions.
    • There are many types of nonexperimental research designs that measure behavior to provide valuable information, even if the designs cannot show cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
    • Longitudinal designs can provide useful information on the development or progress of changes in a variety of variables.
    • In general, experimental research is high in internal validity, nonexperimental research is low in internal validity, and quasi-experimental research is in between.
    • Qualitative research is an important alternative to quantitative research. It generally involves asking broader research questions, collecting more detailed data (e.g., interviews), and using non-statistical analyses.
    • Many researchers conceptualize quantitative and qualitative research as complementary and advocate combining them.
    • Case studies are typically used to collect in-depth information on a single individual; and archival research involves analyzing existing data.
    Exercises
    • Discussion: Is there a topic that you'd like to learn more about from a longitudinal design? How would that work?
    • Discussion: With others with similar career goals, discuss what outcome you'd like to improve for your future clients. Which one of the designs that we’ve discussed so far makes the most sense for that outcome and your clients, describing why that design would work best?
    • Discussion: What are some ways in which a qualitative study of girls who play youth baseball would likely differ from a quantitative study on the same topic? How would the data differ by interviewing girls one-on-one rather than conducting focus groups or surveys?
    • Practice: Find and read a published case study in psychology. (Use case study as a key term in a PsycINFO search.) Then do the following:
      • Describe one problem related to internal validity.
      • Describe one problem related to external validity.
      • Generate one hypothesis suggested by the case study that might be interesting to test in a subsequent study.

    This page titled 12.6: Summary of Nonexperimental 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.