PSYC 3380 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Random Assignment, Cleveland Clinic, Hyperfocus
18 Jul 2016
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Example: if a predictor variable is personality, you can"t randomly assign people to have a specific personality because personality is a character trait that cannot be assigned. Therefore, a non-experimental design would be used in which people with specific personalities are chosen. If participants are randomly assigned to either treatment or control conditions, the design is referred to as an experimental design. Other names for experimental designs: randomized experiments, randomized control trials (rct), or randomized clinical trials (rct) Because of its ability to rule out alternative explanations. Experimental designs are good at helping us infer causality, which is about ruling out alternative explanations in order for you to be able to conclude what caused a change in a variable. Or: if the individuals who did not receive the treatment had in fact received it, what would we have observed on y? (people in the control group)
