Exam 10: Quasi-Experimental Designs and Program Evaluation

A researcher was asked to evaluate the outcome of a program implemented to enhance recycling in a community.Which method will the researcher likely select to answer the question of whether the program was effective?

A researcher was interested in determining whether more frequent breaks (i.e., "coffee breaks") in a business setting would help employees to be more productive. With the cooperation of the management, employees on one floor of the corporate offices were allowed to take a 10-minute break each hour (at any time) between 8:00 and 11:00 A.M. (for a total of 30 minutes). The comparison group comprised employees on different floors who followed the usual corporate policy of taking a 30-minute break sometime during the morning (at any time). Measures of productivity were gathered for each employee according to his or her job (e.g., number of reports written, number of sales made, etc.). A time series analysis was applied to compare the productivity of both groups of employees for six months before and after the intervention (started in July). Quite surprisingly, the productivity of both groups increased following the onset of the intervention, suggesting to the researcher that the timing of breaks makes no difference. -Describe one threat to internal validity that might be present in this study because the independent variable manipulation was implemented on different floors of the building.What information would you need to know in order to rule out this threat to internal validity?

Perhaps the greatest difference between basic research and program evaluation lies in the differences in

The main problem associated with subject attrition during the course of a study is that

When it comes to control over the conditions in the experiment or over the assignment of participants to groups in the experiment,a researcher in a natural setting is likely to have

After implementing a program to improve admitting procedures in a hospital emergency room,a researcher seeks to determine whether the program is being implemented as proposed.Which research method will best serve this purpose?

A physician wants to test the effectiveness of a new allergy medication.The physician consults a researcher who regularly conducts clinical trials.The physician tells the researcher that she has a backlog of 100 patients she is treating effectively with the prevailing medication but who could potentially benefit even more from the new medication.The researcher recommends that the physician do a true experiment because of the availability of a(n)

Why is the nonequivalent control group design superior to the one-group pretest-posttest design in terms of controlling for threats to internal validity?

An intervention in an office setting leads employees to be pleased that the management is interested in their welfare.If the employees' performance improves in this situation,the researcher should be concerned about potential

In the context of conducting experiments in natural settings,random assignment of participants to conditions is

A researcher was interested in determining whether more frequent breaks (i.e., "coffee breaks") in a business setting would help employees to be more productive. With the cooperation of the management, employees on one floor of the corporate offices were allowed to take a 10-minute break each hour (at any time) between 8:00 and 11:00 A.M. (for a total of 30 minutes). The comparison group comprised employees on different floors who followed the usual corporate policy of taking a 30-minute break sometime during the morning (at any time). Measures of productivity were gathered for each employee according to his or her job (e.g., number of reports written, number of sales made, etc.). A time series analysis was applied to compare the productivity of both groups of employees for six months before and after the intervention (started in July). Quite surprisingly, the productivity of both groups increased following the onset of the intervention, suggesting to the researcher that the timing of breaks makes no difference. -Describe two ways in which contamination may have influenced the results of this study.

Even when pretest scores are the same,on average,for treatment and comparison groups in a nonequivalent control group design,the two groups may not be equivalent because

Participants for a treatment group are chosen because they score very low on a pretest measure of performance.When their performance improves on the posttest,the researcher

When individuals' performance on a posttest differs from their initial testing not because of a treatment but because of familiarity with the measure,a __________ threat to internal validity is likely.

At a large university, a group of education specialists tested the effectiveness of a new academic improvement course. Students seeking help at the university counseling center because of academic difficulties were asked to participate in this 4-week program. Only students who were judged to be deficient in reading comprehension and other study-related skills were chosen for the program. Students who sought help at the counseling center for emotional difficulties were included in the study as a comparison group. They received the usual treatment offered at the counseling center. A group of 30 students completed the academic-improvement program at the counseling center. Average test grades from the students' courses for the two groups were compared before (midterm exams) and after (final exams) the program. Analyses revealed that a statistically significant majority of the students were doing better in school after completing the academic-improvement program than before. -What type of research design was used for this study?

Strong evidence of a treatment effect in a time series with nonequivalent control group design is indicated by

Program evaluation represents perhaps the extreme case of

Contamination that results from communication of information between groups of participants in an experiment can lead to all of the following except

At a large university, a group of education specialists tested the effectiveness of a new academic improvement course. Students seeking help at the university counseling center because of academic difficulties were asked to participate in this 4-week program. Only students who were judged to be deficient in reading comprehension and other study-related skills were chosen for the program. Students who sought help at the counseling center for emotional difficulties were included in the study as a comparison group. They received the usual treatment offered at the counseling center. A group of 30 students completed the academic-improvement program at the counseling center. Average test grades from the students' courses for the two groups were compared before (midterm exams) and after (final exams) the program. Analyses revealed that a statistically significant majority of the students were doing better in school after completing the academic-improvement program than before. -Identify and describe two threats to internal validity in this study.That is,show why there are at least two plausible alternative hypotheses for the obtained change in grades other than due to the academic-improvement program.

Social policy research (like the research done by Ellen Langer on the effects of living in a nursing home among the elderly)serves the purpose(s)of