The validity of inferences stemming from empirical research in industrial and organizational psychology and allied disciplines is a function of a number of factors, including research design. Research design has to do with the plan, structure, or blueprint for a study. The literature indicates that among the components of such a plan are (a) the
One of the three basic experimental design types used in empirical research in industrial-organizational psychology and related disciplines is quasi-experimentation. Quasi-experimental designs are different from both randomized experimental designs and nonexperimental designs. In the process of describing the nature of quasi-experimental designs, we make reference to a number of issues having to do with the
Nonexperimental Designs Definition Nonexperimental designs are research methods that lack the hallmark features of experiments, namely manipulation of independent variables and random assignment to conditions. The gold standard for scientific evidence in social psychology is the randomized experiment; however, there are many situations in social psychology in which randomized experiments are not possible or would
The most frequently used experimental design type for research in industrial and organizational psychology and a number of allied fields is the nonexperiment. This design type differs from that of both the randomized experiment and the quasi-experiment in several important respects. Prior to describing the nonexperimental design type, we note that the article on experimental designs