"Contains brief summaries of 240 known completed social experiments. Each summary outlines the cost and time frame of the demonstration, the treatments tested, outcomes of interest, sample sizes and target population, research components, major findings, important methodological limitations and design issues encountered, and other relevant topics. In addition, very brief outlines of 21 experiments and one quasi experiment still in progress [as of April 2003] are also provided"--p. 3.
Social Experimentation: A Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention summarizes the available knowledge about how randomized experiments might be used in planning and evaluating ameliorative social programs. The book presents various aspects of social experimentation - design, measurement, execution, sponsorship, and utilization of results. Chapters are devoted to topics on experimentation as a method of program planning and evaluation; experimental design and analysis; institutional and political factors in social experimentation; and aspects of time and institutional capacity. Sociologists will find the book a valuable piece of reference.
We shall examine the validity of 16 experimental designs against 12 common threats to valid inference. By experiment we refer to that portion of research in which variables are manipulated and their effects upon other variables observed. It is well to distinguish the particular role of this chapter. It is not a chapter on experimental design in the Fisher (1925, 1935) tradition, in which an experimenter having complete mastery can schedule treatments and measurements for optimal statistical efficiency, with complexity of design emerging only from that goal of efficiency. Insofar as the designs discussed in the present chapter become complex, it is because of the intransigency of the environment: because, that is, of the experimenter’s lack of complete control.
This book provides researchers, evaluators, and graduate students with a user-friendly presentation of Campbell's essential work (including his thoughts on some of his classic works) in social experimentation.
A thorough and comprehensive guide to the theoretical, practical, and methodological approaches used in survey experiments across disciplines such as political science, health sciences, sociology, economics, psychology, and marketing This book explores and explains the broad range of experimental designs embedded in surveys that use both probability and non-probability samples. It approaches the usage of survey-based experiments with a Total Survey Error (TSE) perspective, which provides insight on the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques used. Experimental Methods in Survey Research: Techniques that Combine Random Sampling with Random Assignment addresses experiments on within-unit coverage, reducing nonresponse, question and questionnaire design, minimizing interview measurement bias, using adaptive design, trend data, vignettes, the analysis of data from survey experiments, and other topics, across social, behavioral, and marketing science domains. Each chapter begins with a description of the experimental method or application and its importance, followed by reference to relevant literature. At least one detailed original experimental case study then follows to illustrate the experimental method’s deployment, implementation, and analysis from a TSE perspective. The chapters conclude with theoretical and practical implications on the usage of the experimental method addressed. In summary, this book: Fills a gap in the current literature by successfully combining the subjects of survey methodology and experimental methodology in an effort to maximize both internal validity and external validity Offers a wide range of types of experimentation in survey research with in-depth attention to their various methodologies and applications Is edited by internationally recognized experts in the field of survey research/methodology and in the usage of survey-based experimentation —featuring contributions from across a variety of disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences Presents advances in the field of survey experiments, as well as relevant references in each chapter for further study Includes more than 20 types of original experiments carried out within probability sample surveys Addresses myriad practical and operational aspects for designing, implementing, and analyzing survey-based experiments by using a Total Survey Error perspective to address the strengths and weaknesses of each experimental technique and method Experimental Methods in Survey Research: Techniques that Combine Random Sampling with Random Assignment is an ideal reference for survey researchers and practitioners in areas such political science, health sciences, sociology, economics, psychology, public policy, data collection, data science, and marketing. It is also a very useful textbook for graduate-level courses on survey experiments and survey methodology.
This issue considers social experiments in practice and how recent advances improve their value and potential applications. Although controversial, it is clear they are here to stay and are in fact increasing. With their greater abundance, experimental evaluations have stretched to address more diverse policy questions, no longer simply providing a treatment–control contrast but adding multiarm, multistage, and multidimensional (factorial) designs and analytic extensions to expose more about what works best for whom. Social experiments are also putting programs under the microscope when they are most ready for testing, enhancing the policy value of their findings. This volume provides new developments in all these areas from scholars instrumental to recent scientific advances. In some instances, established ideas are given new attention, connecting them to new opportunities to learn and inform policy. By all means, this issue aims to encourage stronger and more informative social experiments in the future. This is the 152nd issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.
Sections include: experiments and generalised causal inference; statistical conclusion validity and internal validity; construct validity and external validity; quasi-experimental designs that either lack a control group or lack pretest observations on the outcome; quasi-experimental designs that use both control groups and pretests; quasi-experiments: interrupted time-series designs; regresssion discontinuity designs; randomised experiments: rationale, designs, and conditions conducive to doing them; practical problems 1: ethics, participation recruitment and random assignment; practical problems 2: treatment implementation and attrition; generalised causal inference: a grounded theory; generalised causal inference: methods for single studies; generalised causal inference: methods for multiple studies; a critical assessment of our assumptions.
Experiments are a central methodology in the social sciences. Scholars from every discipline regularly turn to experiments. Practitioners rely on experimental evidence in evaluating social programs, policies, and institutions. This book is about how to “think” about experiments. It argues that designing a good experiment is a slow moving process (given the host of considerations) which is counter to the current fast moving temptations available in the social sciences. The book includes discussion of the place of experiments in the social science process, the assumptions underlying different types of experiments, the validity of experiments, the application of different designs, how to arrive at experimental questions, the role of replications in experimental research, and the steps involved in designing and conducting “good” experiments. The goal is to ensure social science research remains driven by important substantive questions and fully exploits the potential of experiments in a thoughtful manner.