Define QuasiExperimental Researchwhat is it and how is it do

Define Quasi-Experimental Research—what is it and how is it done?

How is it different from Experimental Research?

Solution

A quasi-experiment is simply defined as not a true experiment. Since the main component of a true experiment is randomly assigned groups, this means a quasi-experiment does not have randomly assigned groups. Why are randomly assigned groups so important since they are the only difference between quasi-experimental and true experimental?

When performing an experiment, a researcher is attempting to demonstrate that variable A influences or causes variable B to do something. They want to demonstrate cause and effect. Random assignment helps ensure that there is no pre-existing condition that will influence the variables and mess up the results.

A silly example would be something like \'Does chemical X1 cause blindness?\' If you accidentally put all of the people wearing glasses in the condition where you spray X1 in someone\'s face, then your results are going to be skewed. This is an extreme and overly simplistic example, but it is demonstrating why normally an experimenter wants to randomly assign people into different groups. Let\'s look at some more realistic and typical quasi-experiments in psychology.