True and Quasi-Experimental Designs - Essay Example

The paper "True and Quasi-Experimental Designs" is a worthy example of an essay on education. Design is the structure of any scientific work that gives direction and systemizes the research. In view of the second responder's program: coordinated police and social service response to domestic violence, it is clear that the researchers employed the quasi-experimental design; this being both qualitative and quantitative method (Gribbons & Herman, 1997). Field findings of the researchers are based on two waves of victims: women who received second responder intervention, and women who received police intervention. The experimental and control groups were defined by a geographical boundary, a wide range of demographical data was collected. The second responder's program was implemented in two of its four police precincts’ in Richmond. Interview findings were presented in four broad areas: services provided by police and responders, attitude towards police and second responders, the probability of receiving follow up, and the likelihood of receiving protection.

The study opted for a quasi research design over a true experimental design because the true experimental design tends to prove or reject a hypothesis mathematically with statistical analysis. It has more of a quantitative design method reason for this could be due to the random assigning of groups that are approached in the later design (Gribbons & Herman, 1997). Again the true experimental design demands a viable control group, this design suggests that only one variable can be manipulated and tested yet we see that the research involved testing of more than one variable. The true experimental design also involves a process whereby the tested subjects are randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups. However, what we see in the study is that the experimental group was drawn from the first and second precincts whereas the control group from third and fourth precincts. Read More