CMN 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Confounding, Sampling Bias, Random Assignment

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMN 2101
• Professor: Mohammed El Hashash

Document Summary

Testing something to see if it has an effect on something else. Experimental research designs allows: the researcher to observe causation (a causes b, will i get cancer (dependent variable) if i continue to smoke (independent variable), control more accurately for internal validity. * causation, independent and dependent variables fall under the umbrella of quantitative research: dependent variable: the variable we seek to understand (i. e. amount of tips a server receives) Independent variable: the force we manipulate (i. e. interaction with customers: control variable: a constant variable or set of variables you control (i. e. male/female servers, ambience in room, food pricing) Procedures la classical experimental design i: generate hypothesis, find a sampling frame select a sample size, random assignment, control group, experimental group. Procedures la classical experimental design ii: pretest (both groups give less than stellar customer service to patrons, treatment, post-test (when you start comparing the data, analysis & findings.