Research Designs

Research Designs

Introduction

The paper focuses on the research designs proposed in the text of Campbell and Stanley (1963) with major emphasis on the quantitative research designs. The paper utilizes the recommended studies to outline the appropriate usage and assumptions of the assigned research design. Furthermore, paper discusses strengths and weaknesses of the design with possible threats to internal and external validity of the research study.

Discussion

Description of the Design

Campbell and Stanley (1963) proposed a new class of designs, named as quasi-experiments that shared a similar purpose of testing descriptive causal hypothesis about manipulate-able causes and structural designs, with other experiments. In these experiments, cause is identified as manipulable that can occur even before the measurement of effect; however, the features of quasi-experiments design have created relatively less compelling support for inferences of counterfactual nature (Shadish et. al., n.d.).

Appropriate Usage of the Design

Quasi-experiments provide sufficient control over scheduling and selecting measures, over various ways to execute non-random assignments, over some aspects to identify ways of scheduling assignment and over comparison groups' kinds with which researchers may compare treatment groups. Hence, it can be effectual to use quasi-experiments in natural social settings, where researchers strive to introduce experimental designs into their scheduling of procedures for data collection.

Underlying Assumptions

The research design is based on the following assumptions that can guide a researcher to achieve desired outcomes: Alternative explanations shall be enumerated independently by the researcher in order to decide which are plausible and which are not. Furthermore, the researcher can use design, logic or measurement to evaluate whether the chosen alternatives are functioning in a way that can help to explain experiential effects (Shadish et. al., n.d.).

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Design

Quasi-experiments allow researchers a substantial control over the execution of nonrandom assignments by managing control over various measures' selection and scheduling. Credit shall be ...