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Based on the provided scenario, diagnose the type of research methodological design being used and justify why this design possesses lower internal validity compared to a true experiment.
Case context: A school psychologist wants to evaluate the effectiveness of a new anti-bullying program. They implement the program in School A and use School B as a comparison condition without the program. Because the schools are already established, the psychologist cannot randomly assign individual students to either the treatment or the comparison condition.
Question: Based on the provided scenario, diagnose the type of research methodological design being used and justify why this design possesses lower internal validity compared to a true experiment.
Sample answer: The psychologist is using a quasi-experimental research design because there is a treatment and comparison condition, but no random assignment. This design possesses lower internal validity than a true experiment because without randomly assigning students, preexisting differences between the students in School A and School B might explain any differences in the outcome, rather than the anti-bullying program itself.
Key points:
- Diagnoses the research design as quasi-experimental.
- Notes the presence of a treatment condition and a comparison condition.
- Points out the failure to use random assignment to place participants into distinct groups.
- Explains that lacking random assignment lowers internal validity compared to a true experiment.
Rubric: Full credit is given if the student correctly identifies the design as quasi-experimental and explains that the inability to use random assignment reduces internal validity.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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