Randomized Controlled Trials in The Social Sciences
The use of RCTs in social sciences is a highly contested issue. Some writers from a medical or health background have argued that existing research in a range of social science disciplines lacks rigour, and should be improved by greater use of randomized control trials. The issue has been particularly controversial in transport studies, with some writers arguing that public spending on programmes such as school travel plans could not be justified unless their efficacy is demonstrated by randomized controlled trials. Graham-Rowe and colleagues reviewed 77 evaluations of transport interventions found in the literature, categorising them into 5 "quality levels". They concluded that most of the studies were of low quality and advocated the use of randomized controlled trials wherever possible in future transport research.
Melia took issue with these conclusions, arguing that claims about the advantages of RCTs, in establishing causality and avoiding bias, have been exaggerated. He proposed the following 8 criteria for the use of RCTs in contexts where interventions must change human behaviour to be effective:
The intervention:
- Has not been applied to all members of a unique group of people (e.g. the population of a whole country, all employees of a unique organisation etc.)
- Is applied in a context or setting similar to that which applies to the control group
- Can be isolated from other activities – and the purpose of the study is to assess this isolated effect
- Has a short timescale between its implementation and maturity of its effects
And the causal mechanisms:
- Are either known to the researchers, or else all possible alternatives can be tested
- Do not involve significant feedback mechanisms between the intervention group and external environments
- Have a stable and predictable relationship to exogenous factors
- Would act in the same way if the control group and intervention group were reversed
Read more about this topic: Randomized Controlled Trial
Famous quotes containing the words controlled, trials, social and/or sciences:
“White men have always controlled their wives’ wages. Colored men were not able to do so until they themselves became free. Then they owned both their wives and their wages.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel’s face. Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.”
—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)
“Almsgiving tends to perpetuate poverty; aid does away with it once and for all. Almsgiving leaves a man just where he was before. Aid restores him to society as an individual worthy of all respect and not as a man with a grievance. Almsgiving is the generosity of the rich; social aid levels up social inequalities. Charity separates the rich from the poor; aid raises the needy and sets him on the same level with the rich.”
—Eva Perón (1919–1952)
“All the sciences are now under an obligation to prepare for the future task of philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the rank order of values.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)