D-4: DESCRIBE THE ADVANTAGES OF SINGLE SUBJECT EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS COMPARED TO GROUP DESIGN ©
Group Design
Group design involves randomly assigning participants to two (or more) groups with at least one treatment group and one control group. Data from each group are compared (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007).
Group Design Advantages
- Averages in data among groups may help account for variability (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007).
- Usually larger number of participants in the study, which can improve external validity (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007).
Group designs involve a control group and have some advantages compared to single-subject designs.
Single-Subject Experimental Design Advantages
- Better represents individual participants (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)
- Reveals individual variability (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)
- Replication of findings in individual participants (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)
To learn more about single-subject experimental designs, go check out our previous blog post!
Single-subject designs have some advantages too.
Leave us a comment and tell us if you think group designs or single-subject designs are better!