I'm currently reading about control construct in this book:
McKillip, J. (1992). Research without control groups. In F. B. Bryant, J. Edwards, R. S. Tindale, E. J. Posavac, L. Heath, E. Henderson, & Y. Suarez-Balcazar (Eds.), Methodological issues in applied social psychology (pp. 159–175). Springer US. [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2308-0_8](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2308-0_8) and i have a question regarding this method.
From the chapter, the writer wrote "A good control construct is similar to the experimental construct in terms of historical interest, social desirability, and measurement reliability, but measures a different "true score.""
And gave "an evaluation of a women's safety-education intervention might choose women's job advancement and self-examination for breast cancer as control constructs to compare to the experimental construct of violence against women." as the example.
The problem is I cannot still understand the example. Can someone elaborate why women's job advancement and self-examination for breast cancer are a good control construct in this context?
Thank you,
Looking forward to your answer :)
Zaata Yamni A control construct is a variable used in research as a comparison to control for alternative interpretations of the connection between independent and dependent variables. The experimental construct in the evaluation of a women's safety-education intervention is violence against women. The control constructions, women's career advancement and self-examination for breast cancer, were chosen because they have historical interest, social desirability, and measurement reliability with the experimental construct.
In this context, women's career progression and self-examination for breast cancer share historical interest and social desirability with violence against women, implying that they are important and relevant matters to the population being examined. They are also comparable in terms of measurement reliability, which means they can be quantified properly and consistently in the same way that violence against women can.
The selection of these control constructs was made to account for alternate interpretations of the link between the independent variable (the safety-education intervention) and the dependent variable (violence against women). Researchers can assess the genuine effect of the safety-education intervention on violence against women by controlling for these potential hypotheses, rather than attributing the effect to other causes. Because the control constructions are comparable to the experimental construct in terms of historical interest, social desirability, and measurement reliability, but measure a different "actual score," this is the case. In other words, the control constructions aid in the elimination of alternate explanations for the outcome.
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