Natural Experiments
Natural experiments are designs that occur in nature and permit a test of an otherwise untestable hypothesis and thereby provide leverage to disentangle variables or processes that would otherwise be inherently confounded. Experiments in nature do not, by definition, have the sort of leverage that traditional experiments have because they were not manufactured to precise methodological detail; they are fortuitous. They do, however, have distinct advantages over observational studies and might, in some circumstances, address questions that randomized controlled trials could not address. A key feature of natural experiments is that they offer insight into causal processes, which is one reason why they have an established role in developmental science.
Natural experiments represent an important research tool because of the methodological limits of naturalistic and ...
Looks like you do not have access to this content.
Reader's Guide
Descriptive Statistics
Distributions
Graphical Displays of Data
Hypothesis Testing
Important Publications
Inferential Statistics
Item Response Theory
Mathematical Concepts
Measurement Concepts
Organizations
Publishing
Qualitative Research
Reliability of Scores
Research Design Concepts
Research Designs
Research Ethics
Research Process
Research Validity Issues
Sampling
Scaling
Software Applications
Statistical Assumptions
Statistical Concepts
Statistical Procedures
Statistical Tests
Theories, Laws, and Principles
Types of Variables
Validity of Scores
- All
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z