Quasi-Experimental Design
Quasi-experimental and single-case designs are common not only for researchers in field of education, health, psychology, but also in our usual life.Thinking about the example of quasi-experimental design I have experienced in my life, I would like to mention my participation in nonequivalent group studies. According to (Gribbons&Herman, 1997) the greatest advantage of this design is that it partially eliminates a major limitation of the nonequivalent group.
As for me, the best example of using such design is our educational system. Every step of studying process can be concerned as an example of pretest-posttest design. In our case, this design was useful both for students, teachers and control bodies (such as Ministry of Education). At school, we were split into 3 groups. Then, the teacher gave us a test on a specific topic. After it, we had a discussion where the teacher answered our questions. In a week we have passed this test one more time, increasing our results. The comparison between these groups was extremely important.As for the single-case experimental design, (Hser et al. 2001) noted that studies using SCEDs are “rare” because of the minimum number of observations that are necessary. For example, in the article (Nock, Goldman, Wang, & Albano, 2004) behavioral treatment for panic disorder was given as an example.
Nevertheless, I think that the example with a standard medical survey also can be suitable for the single case experimental design. One day, being in a doctor`s office, my heart was examined. After the survey, she prescribed a treatment. But, she also asked me to write down everything I felt after my work-outs. The aim of ask was to change some prescriptions, if it was needed, according to my own health. To sum up, despite of the simplicity these types of design, they can become a great tool for making specific research.
References
Gribbons, Barry & Herman, Joan (1997). True and quasi-experimental designs. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(14).
Hser Y, Shen H, Chou C, Messer SC, Anglin MD. Analytic approaches for assessing long-term treatment effects. Evaluation Review. 2001;25(2):233–262.
Nock, M. K., Goldman, J. L., Wang, Y., & Albano, A. M. (2004). From science to practice: The flexible use of evidence-based treatments in clinical settings. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent …
