Ethics
A true experiment would randomly assign children to a scholarship, in order to control for all other variables. Quasi-experiments are commonly used in social sciences, public health, education, and policy analysis, especially when it is not practical or reasonable to randomize study participants to the treatment condition.
As an example, suppose we divide households into two categories: Households in which the parents spank their children, and households in which the parents do not spank their children. We can run a linear regression to determine if there is a positive correlation between parents' spanking and their children's aggressive behavior. However, to simply randomize parents to spank or to not spank their children may not be practical or ethical, because some parents may believe it is morally wrong to spank their children and refuse to participate.
Some authors distinguish between a natural experiment and a "quasi-experiment". The difference is that in a quasi-experiment the criterion for assignment is selected by the researcher, while in a natural experiment the assignment occurs 'naturally,' without the researcher's intervention.
Read more about this topic: Design Of Quasi-experiments
Famous quotes containing the word ethics:
“If you take away ideology, you are left with a case by case ethics which in practise ends up as me first, me only, and in rampant greed.”
—Richard Nelson (b. 1950)
“Indeed the involuntary character of psychiatric treatment is at odds with the spirit and ethics of medicine itself.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion includes the personality of God; Ethics does not.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)