GERO 300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Confounding, Internal Validity, Random Assignment
12 Aug 2020
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Explain the value of experiments, describing why and how causation can be inferred. Compare and contrast the concepts of causation and correlation. Describe the differences and relationship between internal and external validity. Describe the effect of confounding variables on internal validity of an experiment. Identify threats to internal validity and the features of experimental design that help reduce the impact of each. Describe the purpose and process of random assignment. Describe mechanisms for controlling participant and experimenter expectations. Describe the advantages of including a manipulation check in an experiment. Confirming causation is the most highly sought achievement of quantitative research. To be certain of cause and effect relationships, recall from unit 1 the three criteria that must be met. When one variable changes in a systematic way, so does the other. The change in one variable (consequently called the independent variable) precedes the change in the other (called the dependent variable). There must be no alternative explanation for the effect.
