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Multiple-Baseline Design Across Participants Example
A study by Ross and Horner (2009) illustrates the multiple-baseline design across participants. They evaluated a bullying prevention program across three different schools. Baselines of aggressive behavior were established at all three schools. The program (treatment) was then introduced at each school at staggered intervals (separated by 2 weeks). Aggressive behavior dropped at each school only after the program was implemented there, demonstrating the program's effect while ruling out coincidental factors.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Ross and Horner Bullying Prevention Study
Multiple-Baseline Design Across Participants Example
In a multiple-baseline design across participants, what is the crucial procedural feature that helps establish internal validity?
A researcher wants to evaluate a new note-taking intervention using three participants. She records each participant's exam scores during a baseline phase and then begins the intervention with all three participants during the same week. Because she measured baselines for multiple individuals, this design effectively rules out the possibility that an outside event—rather than the intervention—caused any observed improvement in exam scores.
A clinical researcher is testing a new social-skills intervention with three children. To demonstrate that the intervention is effective and rule out outside influences, the researcher plans to stagger when each child begins the treatment. Arrange the following steps in the correct chronological order to properly execute this study.
A researcher evaluates a social skills program for students using a multiple-baseline design across participants. Match each hypothetical data pattern with the appropriate analysis of its impact on the study's internal validity.
A researcher is critiquing a study that used a multiple-baseline design across four participants to test a new behavioral intervention. The researcher finds that all participants improved simultaneously on the same day, even though three of the participants were still in the baseline phase and had not yet received the treatment. In evaluating the strength of this evidence, the researcher must conclude that the study fails to demonstrate ______ validity.
In a multiple-baseline design across participants, the experience of each individual involved in the study essentially follows which basic single-subject design structure?
A researcher is conducting a multiple-baseline design across participants to evaluate a new reading intervention. Match each procedural element or concept with the statement that best describes its role in establishing the study's logic.
A clinical psychologist evaluates a new therapy for anxiety using a multiple-baseline design across three clients. She takes baseline measurements for all clients, then begins the treatment with Client A in week 2, Client B in week 4, and Client C in week 6. If each client's anxiety level decreases specifically after they begin therapy, this staggered introduction helps establish internal validity by making it unlikely that the improvements were caused by a shared external event.
Although a multiple-baseline design across participants staggers the start of treatment to establish internal validity, the basic structural phase sequence experienced by each individual participant in the study is a(n) _____ design.
Order the following experimental scenarios from the weakest demonstration of internal validity (causal evidence) to the strongest demonstration of internal validity based on the logic of a multiple-baseline design across participants.
Describe the procedural steps involved in setting up a multiple-baseline design across participants. In your description, identify the underlying single-subject design structure that each individual participant undergoes.
Explain why the staggered introduction of the therapy is crucial for this study. Based on the logic of a multiple-baseline design across participants, what alternative explanations does this staggering help the researcher rule out?
A researcher plans to evaluate a new mindfulness program for three employees using a multiple-baseline design across participants. If the researcher establishes a baseline for all three employees simultaneously and introduces the program to the first employee on Monday of week 2, how should the researcher proceed with the remaining two employees to correctly implement this design?
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In the study by Ross and Horner (2009), which used a multiple-baseline design across participants to evaluate a bullying prevention program, how were the treatment start times arranged across the three schools?
In the Ross and Horner (2009) study, researchers used a specific experimental sequence to show that a bullying prevention program was responsible for reducing aggression. Arrange these steps in the correct procedural order to demonstrate how this design establishes that the program—and not a random coincidence—caused the results.
Researchers are evaluating a bullying prevention program across three schools using a staggered implementation schedule: School A starts in Week 2, School B in Week 4, and School C in Week 6. Match each hypothetical data pattern with the conclusion it supports regarding the program's effectiveness.
In the Ross and Horner (2009) study, if aggressive behavior at School B had decreased at the exact same time the program was started at School A—but while School B was still in its baseline phase—the researchers would be unable to rule out coincidental factors as the cause of the behavior change.
In the study by Ross and Horner (2009) evaluating a bullying prevention program, the program was introduced at all three schools simultaneously once baseline levels of aggressive behavior were established.
In the study by Ross and Horner (2009) evaluating a bullying prevention program across three schools, the program was introduced at staggered two-week intervals. Which of the following statements best explains why this staggered timeline is essential for demonstrating the program's effectiveness?
If a skeptic argued that the reduction in aggressive behavior in the Ross and Horner (2009) study was caused by a coincidental external factor rather than the bullying prevention program itself, the staggered implementation of the treatment across the three schools would allow researchers to _____ that alternative explanation.
Based on the staggered 2-week interval design used by Ross and Horner (2009), match each school at a specific point in time to its active phase in the study, assuming School 1 starts the program at Week 2, School 2 at Week 4, and School 3 at Week 6.
If aggressive behavior had decreased at all three schools simultaneously when the bullying prevention program was only introduced at the first school, the researchers would be unable to rule out _____ factors as the cause of the behavior change.
Arrange the following steps in the correct order to evaluate the internal validity of a multiple-baseline design across three schools (School 1, School 2, and School 3) with a staggered treatment start.
Describe the core procedural steps of the multiple-baseline design across participants, as illustrated by the Ross and Horner (2009) study on bullying prevention. Provide a concise analytical response detailing how the study was structured.
Based on the principles of a multiple-baseline design, what conclusion should the researchers draw about the reading intervention's effectiveness, and why justify this conclusion?
If you were designing a multiple-baseline study across participants to test a new therapy for anxiety in four patients, how would you schedule the introduction of the therapy for each patient to maximize internal validity? Provide a brief one- to three-sentence answer.