Md Ali Asghar

18A3HP622

Causal Research Design

1. Concept of Causality: Causality is when occurrence of X increases the probability of
the occurrence of Y. Marketers try to understand the effect caused by variable which
is usually probabilistic.

2. Conditions for Causality:

 Concomitant Variation: It is the extent to which a cause, X, and an effect, Y,

occur together or vary together in the way predicted by the hypothesis under
consideration.
 Time Order of Occurrence of Variables: This condition states that the causing
event must occur either before or simultaneously with the effect; it cannot
occur afterwards.
 Absence of Other Possible Causal Factors: It means that the factor or variable
being investigated should be the only possible causal explanation.

3. Validity in Experimentation:

 Internal Validity: It refers to whether the manipulation of the independent

variables or treatments caused the observed effects on the dependent
variables. Control of extraneous variables is a necessary condition for
establishing internal validity.
 External Validity: It refers to whether the cause-and-effect relationships found
in the experiment can be generalized. To what population, settings, times,
independent variables and dependent variables can the result be projected?

4. Classification of Extraneous Variables:

 History: It refers to specific events that are external to the experiment but
occur at the same time as the experiment.
 Maturation: It refers to the change in the test units themselves that occur with
the passage of time.
 Testing Effects: These are effects on the experiment of taking a measure on the
dependent variable before and after the presentation of the treatment.
 Instrumentation: It refers to changes in the measuring instrument, in the
observers or in the scores themselves.
 Selection Bias: It refers to the improper assignment of test units to treatment
conditions.
 Mortality: It refers to the loss of test units while the experiment is in progress.
 Md Ali Asghar
18A3HP622

5. Controlling Extraneous Variables:

 Randomization: It refers to the random assignment of test units to
experimental groups by using random numbers. Treatment conditions are also
randomly assigned to experimental groups.
 Matching: It involves comparing test units on a set of key background
variables before assigning them to the treatment conditions.
 Statistical Control: It involves measuring the extraneous variables and
adjusting for their effects through statistical analysis.
 Design Control: It involves the use of experiment designed to control specific
extraneous variables.

6. Classification of Experimental Design:

 Pre- Experimental Designs: It does not employ randomization procedures to

control for extraneous factors.
o On-Shot Case Study:
A single group of test units is exposed to a treatment(X). And a single
measurement on the dependent variable is taken(O1). There is no
random assignment of test units.
o One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design:
A group of test unit is measured twice. There is no control group. The
treatment effect is computed as 02 – O1.
o Static Group Design:
It is a two-group experimental design. The experimental group (EG) is
exposed to the treatment, and the control group (CG) is not.
Measurements on both groups are made only after the treatment. Also
test units are not assigned at random. The treatment affect would be
measured as O1 – O2.

 True- Experimental Designs: Here researcher can randomly assign test units
and treatments to experimental groups.
o Pretest- Posttest Control Group Design:
In this experiment, Test Units are randomly assigned to either the
experimental or control group. A pretreatment measure is taken on
each group. Afterwards, treatment effect is measured as
(O2 – O1) – (O4 - O3). The final experimental result is obtained by
(O2 – O1) – (O4 - O3) = TE + IT.
o Posttest-Only Group Design: The treatment effect is obtained by
TE = O1 – O2. Except for pre-measurement, the implementation of this
design is very similar to that of the pretest-posttest control group
design.
 Md Ali Asghar
18A3HP622

 Quasi- experimental designs: It used when the researcher is unable to achieve

full manipulation of scheduling or allocation of treatments to test units but can
still apply part of the apparatus of true experimentation.
o Time Series Design: There is no randomization of test units to
treatments. The timing of treatment presentation, as well as which units
are exposed to the treatment, may not be within the researcher’s
control.
o Multiple Time Series Design: if the control group is carefully
selected, this design can be an improvement over the simple time series
experiment. It can test the treatment effect twice-once against the
pretreatment measurements in the experimental group and against the
control group.

 Statistical Design: It is series of basic experiments that allows for statistical

control and analysis of external variables.
o Randomized Blocks: The test units are blocked, or grouped, based on
the external variable. By doing that, the researcher ensures that the
various experimental and control groups are matched closely on the
external variable.
o Factorial Design: A factorial design is used to understand the effect of
two or more independent variable upon a single dependent variable.
o Latin Square Design: An experimental that can be used to control
the random variable of two factors. The design is arranged with an
equal number of rows and columns, so that all combinations of
possible values for the two variables can be tested multiple times. This
design is used to reduce the effect of random or nuisance factors.

7. Limitations and Disadvantages:

 Experimental research can create artificial situations that do not always

represent real-life situations. This is largely due to fact that all other variables
are tightly controlled which may not create a fully realistic situation.
 Because the situations are very controlled and do not often represent real life,
the reactions of the test subjects may not be true indicators of their behaviors
in a non-experimental environment.
 It may not be possible to control all extraneous variables. The health, mood,
and life experiences of the test subjects may influence their reactions and those
variables may not even be known to the researcher.
 Experimental research designs help to ensure internal validity but sometimes
at the expense of external validity. When this happens, the results may not be
generalizable to the larger population.