Between-group design

rdf:langString Between-group design

rdf:langString So, for example, if we are interested in examining the effects of a new type of cognitive therapy on depression, we would give a depression pre-test to a group of persons diagnosed as clinically depressed and randomly assign them into two groups . After the patients were treated according to their assigned condition for some period of time, let’s say a month, they would be given a measure of depression again . This design would consist of one within-subject variable , with two levels , and one between-subjects variable , with two levels .

rdf:langString In the design of experiments, a between-group design is an experiment that has two or more groups of subjects each being tested by a different testing factor simultaneously. This design is usually used in place of, or in some cases in conjunction with, the within-subject design, which applies the same variations of conditions to each subject to observe the reactions. The simplest between-group design occurs with two groups; one is generally regarded as the treatment group, which receives the ‘special’ treatment, (that is, is treated with some variable) and the control group, which receives no variable treatment and is used as a reference (prove that any deviation in results from the treatment group is, indeed, a direct result of the variable.) The between-group design is widely used in psychological, economic, and sociological experiments, as well as in several other fields in the natural or social sciences.