QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL,

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY DESIGN

Presenter: Nguyen Thi Anh Thu,

Nguyen Van Giang
Instructor: Professor Kuei-Min Chen
CONTENTS
1. Essential elements of experimental research.
- Randomization

- Manipulation

- The control condition

II. Type of Experimental design

- Pre-experimental design

- Quasi-Experimental design.

- True experimental designs

III. Strengths and limitation of experimental designs

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I. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY DESIGNS

 To provide the greatest amount of control possible to examine

causality more closely.
 To examine cause, one must eliminate all factors influencing
the DV other than the cause (IV) being studied.
 Other factors are eliminated by being controlled.

 Controlled experiments are considered the gold standard

yielding reliable evidence about cause and effect.
 Experimenters can be relatively confident in the authenticity of
causal relationships because they are observed under control
conditions and typically meet the criteria for establishing
causality.

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DESIGN TERMINOLOGY

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 The three elements of experimental research are (1)
Manipulation, (2) Control, (3) Randomization

(1) Manipulation: The researcher does something to at

least some participants – There are some types of
intervention.

(2) Control: Usually, control group does not receive the

intervention.

(3) Randomization: the researcher assign participants to

a control or experimental condition on a random basis.

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(1) MANIPULATION
 Experimenters manipulate the IV by administering a treatment
(or intervention) I to some people and withholding it from
others (C), or administering different treatment.
 Experimental deliberately vary the IV ( the presume cause) and
observe the effect from outcome (O).
For example:
Experimental group: R O1 X O2
Control group : R O1 O2
+ Among the question researcher need to address are the
following:
- What is the intervention, and how does it differ from usual
method of care?
- What is specific procedure are to be used with those receiving
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the intervention?
- What is the dosage or intensity of the intervention?

- Over how long a period with the intervention be administered ,

and how frequently will it be administered, and when will the
treatment begin?

- Who will administer the intervention? What are their

credentials, and what type of training will they receive?

- Under what conditions will the intervention be withdraw or

altered?

- + The most goals of RCTs is to have identical intervention for

all people in the treatment group. 8
(2) THE CONTROL CONDITION
 The term control group refer to a group of participants whose
performance on an outcome is used to evaluate the
performance of treatment group on the same outcome
 The control condition is a proxy for an ideal counterfactual.
 Decision of choosing counterfactual base on theoretical
ground, practical or ethical concern, in some research, control
group no receive treatment.
 Possibilities for the counterfactual include the following:
+ An alternative intervention: Participants receive two different
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treatment: music versus massage for pain relief.
+ Standard methods of care: that’s , the usual procedure used to
care for patient, the most typical condition in nursing studies.
+ Placebo presumed to have no therapeutic value. Placebo is used
to control for no pharmaceutical effects of drug.
( some patients get drug experiment and others get an innocuous
substances.
+ Different dosage or intensities of treatment: wherein all
participants get some type of intervention: richer, more intense, or
longer. ( dose-response effects).
+ Wait-list control group: with delayed treatment, the control
group eventually receives the full experimental intervention, after
all research outcome are assessed.

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(3) RANDOMIZATION
 Randomization also called random assignment or random
allocation.

 Involve assigning participant to treatment condition at random.

 Random mean that participants have an equal chance of being

assigned to any group.

 If people are placed in groups randomly, there is no systematic

bias in the groups with respect to pre-intervention attributes that
are potential confounders and could affect outcome.

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 Randomization procedure:
 The success of randomization depends on two factor:

+ The allocation process should be truly random.

+ There must be strict adherence to the randomization schedule.
- Allocation concealment is intended to prevent biases that could
stem from knowledge of allocation before assignment actually
occur.
- The timing of randomization is also important. Study eligibility -
whether person meets the criteria for inclusion - should be
ascertained before randomization.
- Baseline data should occur before randomization to rule out any
possibility that group assignment might affect baseline
measurement.
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BLINDING AND MASKING
 A procedure called blinding (or masking) is often used in RCTs
to prevent biases stemming from awareness.
 Blinding involved concealing information from participant,
intervention agent, or data analysts to enhance objectively and
minimize expectation bias.
 When blinding is used with only one group of people ( study
participant), it is sometime describe as a single-blind study.
 When it is possible to mask with two groups ( those delivering
an intervention and those receiving it), it is sometime called
double-blind.
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4. VARIABLE

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5. STEP IN CONDUCT EXPERIMENT RESEARCH

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THREAT TO EXTERNAL VALIDITY

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II. TYPE OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS

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2.1. PRE-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

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THE ONE-GROUP PRE-POSTTEST DESIGN

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2.2 QUASI- EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

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NONRANDOMIZED GROUP DESIGN

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ADVANTAGE OF QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

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DISADVANTAGE

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2.3 TRUE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
1. Classic Experimental design.

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2. Experimental Posttest-only comparison Group Design.

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Basic experimental (randomization) Designs

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3. RANDOMIZED BLOCKED DESIGN (RBD)

 RBD uses the two-group pretest-posttest pattern or two-group

posttest pattern with one condition: a blocking variable.

 The blocking variable, if uncontrolled, is expected to

confounding the finding of the study.

 To prevent this confusion, the subject are rank ordered in

relation to the blocking variable.

 This process ensure that the experimental group and the

control group are equal in relation to the potentially
confounding variable. 32
FOR EXAMPLE: GENDER IS CONFOUNDING VARIABLE, WE BLOCK
GENDER.

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4 FACTORIAL DESIGN
 Two or more different characteristics, treatment, or event are
independently varied within a single study.
 This design is a logical approach to examining multi-causality.

 The simplest arrangement refer to 2 * 2 factors: there are two

treatment or factors, within each factor, two levels are
manipulated.
 Extension of the factorial design to more that two levels of
variance are to refer to as N * M factorial design.
For example: 3 * 3 or 4 * 4.
 Factorial design are not limited to two independent variable:
however, interpretation of large numbers becomes more
complex and required greater knowledge of statistical analysis.

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Control
group

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 5. CROSSOVER OR COUNTERBALANCED DESIGN

 In some studies: More than one treatment is administered to each

subject. The treatment are provided sequentially rather than
concurrently.
 Comparison are then made of the effect of the different treatments
on the same subject. The direct interaction of one treatment with
another can confound differences in the two treatment.
 Crossover is a strategy designed to guard against possible
erroneous conclusion resulting from carryover effect.
 The design must allow for an adequate interval between treatment
to dissipate the effect of the first treatment. The interval refer to as
a washout period.
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Crossover design

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CROSSOVER DESIGN

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CRITIQUE FOR EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

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CRITIQUE (CON’T)

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Thank you very much

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