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Non-Experimental Designs:
Research design is a set of decisions that make up the master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information. Design chosen depends on: Type of problem, Knowledge already available about the problem and Resources available for the study.
Non-Experimental study designs describe existing phenomena without manipulating conditions to affect subjects' responses and there are no manipulations of an independent variable. Investigates current status of something (the way things are or were).
All the research questions cannot be answered by experimental designs because there are many variables can't be manipulated either technically or ethically, such studies are done through Non Experimental research designs. Variables such as birth weight, body temperature, and ethnicity cannot be manipulated technically. Experimenting one group by providing specific care and withholding for another group poses ethical constraints1.
Generally an experimental study is planned based on a casual relationship established through a non experimental design. Strong experimental interventions are planned with the findings if it is suitable for experimentation or if not suitable it remains as a primarily a descriptive study.
Definition:
Non-Experimental research design is one of the broad categories of research designs, in which the researcher observes the phenomena as they occur naturally, and no external variables are introduced. It is a research design in which variables are not deliberately manipulated, nor is the setting controlled.
Purposes of Non-experimental research design:
* Exploration and description of phenomena in real life situations
* Used to develop theory
* Identify problems
* Make decisions /determine what others in similar situations are doing.
Reasons for undertaking Non-experimental studies:
* Number of human characteristics/ independent variables are not subject to experimental manipulation or randomization
* Some variables cannot ethically be manipulated
* For some research, it is not practical to conduct a true experiment/manipulate variables
* For some situations, it is more realistic to explore phenomena in more natural manner.
* Non-experimental research is often needed to scope out the experimental one.
Steps in Non-experimental Research2:
1. Determine the research problem and hypotheses to be tested.
2. Select the variables to be used in the study.
3. Collect the data.
4. Analyze the data.
5. Interpret the results.
Types of Non-experimental Research:
The classifications of non- experimental...