Non-Experimental Research Design

Non-Experimental Research Design

• This research design avoids manipulating variables or assigning participants to groups.
• It focuses on observing and analyzing existing relationships, behaviors, and phenomena.
• Commonly used in social sciences, psychology, and education.
• Useful when experimental manipulation is not feasible or ethical or in complex settings.

Chapter Objectives

• Learn techniques for studying behavior without manipulating antecedent conditions.
• Understand phenomenology and how it is used in research.
• Learn how to analyze existing data collected by other researchers.
• Learn observational research techniques.
• Understand the basics of qualitative research.

Input Information

• Topics: Chapter objectives, describing research activities, phenomenology, and case studies.
• Research Activities: Field studies, naturalistic observation studies, participant-observer studies, and archival studies.
• Qualitative Research: A research approach focusing on self-reports, personal narratives, and lived experiences to gather data.

Describing Research Activities

• Research involves two major dimensions: manipulation of antecedent conditions and degree of imposition of units.
• Manipulation of antecedent conditions refers to the extent to which the researcher controls factors or conditions presumed to influence the outcome.
• Imposition of units refers to how strictly variables are categorized or operationalized.

Phenomenology

• Phenomenology is a philosophical and research approach investigating human experiences and consciousness.
• It focuses on how people perceive, interpret, and give meaning to their experiences.
• Two Main Types:
  • Descriptive Phenomenology: Describes experiences as they appear without interpretation.
    • Employs bracketing (epoché) to avoid biases.
    • Aims to identify essential structures of experiences.
  • Interpretive Phenomenology: Focuses on interpreting the meaning of experiences, considering individual backgrounds and contexts.

Case Studies

• Case studies are descriptive records of individual experiences or behaviors.
• They are useful for making inferences about the impact of events, origins of disorders, or development processes, with many purposes.
• Five Major Purposes/Advantages:
  • Generating theories or hypotheses
  • Providing innovative therapy techniques
  • Studying rare phenomena
  • Providing counterexamples to existing theories or practices
  • Providing persuasive and valuable insights

Types of Case Studies

• Critical Instance: Used in criminalistics and experimental settings to identify cause-effect relationships.
• Explanatory: Used in social sciences to explain why or how certain events occurred.
• Cumulative: A collective case study compiling data from many sources for a broader analysis.
• Exploratory: Used to initially understand a phenomenon.
• Descriptive: Used with a pre-existing hypothesis to look for relationships between variables.
• Instrumental: Using a specific case to further understand or refine a theory.

Field Studies

• Non-experimental research conducted in natural settings, observing behavior as it naturally occurs.
• Characteristics: Multiple data sources, no manipulation of antecedent conditions, observation in natural settings.
• Examples: Ethological studies, child development studies, market research, and organizational studies.
• Naturalistic Observation: Observing behavior in natural environments without manipulation.

Archival Study

• Re-examining existing data from records to find new applications.
• Researchers study information collected by government, hospitals, businesses, or others.
• Using existing data can reveal societal trends.
• Types of Archival Data: Public records, organizational records, media archives, and personal documents.
• Challenges:Incomplete or biased data, accessibility issues due to privacy laws or institutional policies.

Qualitative Research

• Focuses on gathering and analyzing non-numerical data. It explores people's lived experiences in detail.
• Qualitative data includes personal narratives, memories, feelings, ideas, and values.

This research design explores existing relationships and behaviors without manipulating variables. It's used across social sciences and education. This approach is valuable where experiments are impractical or unethical, offering insights into complex settings through observation and analysis.