Observational vs. Experimental designs
Fundamentally, experimental design involves the manipulation of one section of the participants or phenomenon known as the experimental group. Regarding observation, there is no interfering with participants or phenomena. Observation is a visual study for collecting data on how an object of study behaves and does primarily in its natural setting. Some observation designs such as analytical quantify the connection between exposure and outcome variable as it occurs naturally without manipulation (Mann, 2013). Besides, experimental design is reliant on structured procedures that replicated by other researchers (Percie du Sert et al, 2017). It applies a deductive approach starting with a theory as the basis for testing to come with outcomes.
Type of Research Question for this Design
The observation is commonly used to gather qualitative and sometimes quantitative data for exploratory or descriptive research. The exploratory research questions are developed for observational designs. However, experimental design is conducted to gather quantitative data to determine the effects of intervention or treatment on the study subjects. The research cause-effect research question common in this design as the responses are subjected to statistical analysis.
Analytical Observational Design Article
An example of observational analytical design is a cohort study by Viljakainen et al. (2011). The primary objective was to determine an association between the material’s level of vitamin D and newborn born health. The article is classified under analytical observational design because it assesses the relationship between newborns born health as a based on the maternal level of vitamin D during pregnancy. There was no manipulation of any groups in the study as is the case in experimental design. The values were also quantified to provide the causal relationship between exposure and the outcome. The first objective was to assess whether the skeletal effects associated with vitamin D at birth persist into the first year of the newborn’s life. The second objective was to examine the effects of the post-natal status of vitamin D on early infancy growth and development. In conclusion, the study managed to address these primary objectives.
References
Mann, C. J. (2013). Observational research methods. Research design II: cohort, cross sectional, and case-control studies. Emergency medicine journal, 20(1), 54-60.
Percie du Sert, N., Bamsey, I., Bate, S. T., Berdoy, M., Clark, R. A., Cuthill, I., … & Stanford, S. C. (2017). The experimental design assistant. PLoS biology, 15(9), e2003779.
Viljakainen, H. T., Korhonen, T., Hytinantti, T., Laitinen, E. K. A., Andersson, S., Mäkitie, O., & Lamberg-Allardt, C. (2011). Maternal vitamin D status affects bone growth in early childhood—a prospective cohort study. Osteoporosis international, 22(3), 883-891. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-010-1499-4