A correlational study is meant to determine whether two variables are linked. During a correlational study, an increase or decrease of a variable is examined to determine whether it increases or decreases the other variable (Kalla, 2011). To examine the relationship between academic performance and the levels of loudness of music using correlation, would require the selection of a group of students, say from the tenth grade. These students would be split into four groups and placed in a controlled environment where the first group would listen to no music, the second group would listen to low music, the third group would listen to moderate music and the fourth groups would listen to loud music. After a period of time, approximately one hour, the students would take a standardized test. The group would take the test within 30 minutes without any extension. After the end of the experiment, the test results would be used to determine whether there exists a correlation between the levels of loudness in music and academic performance (AEN Research Institute, n.d.). The results of this experiment can show one of three things, increase, decrease or no effect. For instance, the experiment will find whether the increase of loudness of music, first variable, decreases the student’s academic performance, second variable.
A quasi-experimental design differs from a normal experiment in its selection of the subjects who should participate in the study. In this design, the selection of subjects is not random. In such a study, the selection can either be administrator selection or self-selection (Shuttleworth, 2008a). The treatment group should be similar as possible to the comparison group. To compare the relationship between academic performance and loudness of music, 2 groups of 30 10th graders will be picked with similar academic performance background. One of the groups will be the control group, where during their examination period, they will study for their tests without listening to any music. The other group will be divided into three where 10 students will listen to low music, 10 will listen to moderate music, and the other 10 will listen to loud music during the period in which they study for their tests. After the tests have been marked, the results will be used to compare whether the music and its loudness had any effect on the performance of the students (White & Sabarwal, 2014).
Using the experimental design, I will start off by formulating a hypothesis. In this case, the hypothesis will be, students who listen to loud music are likely to perform poorly in their academic performance. The sample will be selected randomly from a population of students in one school (Shuttleworth, 2008b). The sample will then be divided into a control and test group. Of the two groups, one will listen to hard rock music while studying and the other group will choose the music to listen to and the level of loudness. Both of these groups will study for their examinations under the research specifications of music and different levels of loudness. Later, the results of their tests will be evaluated to determine the effect the music had on their academic performance, if any. In addition, the analysis will check whether the effects on the performance varied depending on the loudness of the music. The experiment will be geared towards finding if the hypothesis is true or not.
As explained, different means will be implemented to find the relationship between the loudness of music and academic performance. The correlational design aims at finding out if there exist a cause and effect relationship between the variables. The quasi-experimental design is somewhat similar to an experimental study except that the participants are not selected randomly. However, both of them include the use of a control group and a test group.
References
AEN Research Institute. (n.d.). Steps in Correlational Research. Retrieved from www.aghazenau.com/steps-in-correlational-research.html
Kalla, S. (2011, June 16). Correlational Study. Explorable. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/correlational-study
Shuttleworth, M. (2008a, August 13). Quasi-Experimental Design. Explorable. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/quasi-experimental-design
Shuttleworth, M. (2008b, May 24). Conducting an Experiment. Retrieved from https://explorable.com/conducting-an-experiment
White, H., & Sabarwal, S. (2014). Quasi-Experimental Design and Methods. Methodological Briefs: Impact Evaluation 8. UNICEF Office of Research: Florence, Italy. Retrieved from https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/brief_8_quasi-experimental%20design_eng.pdf
