A researcher is interested in the effects of ethics training on corporate executive decision-making. She contacts three similar companies. These three companies receive either an ethics training course, a traditional leadership course, or no course (control). Which training they receive is delivered randomly. The participating executives are assessed before and after training. This design is:
Explain your answer. There is random assignment of treatments to similar intact groups. Assume there are no significant pretest differences between the group
A) Poor experimental design
B) Poor quasi-experimental design
C) Moderate quasi-experimental design
D) Strong quasi-experimental design

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is a strong quasi-experimental design because there is random assignment of treatments to similar intact groups, and there are pre and post-test assessments. While there may be limitations such as lack of manipulation of independent variables or lack of control over extraneous variables, this design is still strong in terms of establishing causal relationships between the independent variable (ethics training) and the dependent variable (executive decision-making).

A Researcher Is Interested in the Effects of Ethics Training