Performance Objective

Prepare an experimental design scenario as an alternative proposal for your term project based on the experimental knowledge you have acquired. Focus on problems most commonly encountered in business.

Enabling Objectives

1. List the major classifications of experimental design.
2. Specify the three conditions and four criteria indispensable for causality.
3. Distinguish between internal and external validity and identify threats to each that endanger the results of a study.
4. Explain why a true experimental design is regarded as the most accurate form of experimental research and describe the role of a control (or comparison) group in relation to the treatment.
5. Support the position that it is unethical to withhold treatment from a control group in instances where the treatment provides substantial benefit.
6. Classify other randomized designs that rely on random assignment to produce group equivalence, to balance treatment and control groups, or to compensate for confounding variables.
7. Explain the advantages of a quasi-experiment and how it promotes increased realism and ecological validity when conditions only vary naturally (not by researcher manipulation).
8. Illustrate how matching and other techniques balance treatment and control groups to reduce the effect of confounding variables.