SOCSCI 2J03 Lecture 4: SOC SCI 2J03 - LECTURE 4 - EXPERIMENTS

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: SOCSCI 2J03
• Professor: Rizwan Tahir

Document Summary

Soc sci 2j03 - lecture 4 - experiments. Data can be obtained from observational studies, experiments, or surveys. To make decisions, data needs to be accessed. The purpose of an experiment is to identify a cause and effect relationship between two variables. If diet 1 and diet 2, are being promoted by two different companies, and each of these companies claims that its diet is successful in reducing weight, a research nutritionalist may want to test this data. Below are two options for how the researcher will conduct research: observational study, the researcher contacts the persons who are using these diets and collects information on their weight loss. Then she compares these two groups with regard to the effectiveness of these diets. When the assignment of elements to different treatments is voluntary, and the experimenter simply observes the results of their progress for the study. When the experimenter controls the random assignment of elements to different treatment groups.