
Unit 4: Research design
Experimental research
- It is associated with the natural sciences
- It is regarded as the gold standard
- It allows the establishment of cause and effect
- What about experimental design and social research?
- It is difficult to manipulate the variables of interest, for example, a socio-economic group
- There are ethical issues
Classic experimental design
- Researchers randomly allocate subject to either an experimental or control group
- Pre-test both
- An experiment performed on the experimental group
- Post-test on both
SMILE - Research design by Learning from WOeRk, University of Plymouth modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.