... to simply describe the events they observe. They want to make inferences about what produced, contributed to, or caused events. To gain such information without ambiguity, some form of experimental design is ordinarily required. As a consequence, the need for using rather elaborate designs ensues from the possibility of alternative relationships, consequences or causes. The purpose of the design is to rule out these alternative causes, leaving only the actual factor that is the real cause. Causal-comparative research is a useful tool that can be employed in situations where experimental designs are not possible. The researcher must remember, however, that demonstrating a relationship between two variables (even a very strong relationship) does not "prove" that one variable actually causes the other to change2. The given article describes an experiment held with a random assignment of people to groups and statistical controls for confounding. The purpose of the research was ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now