Compară metode

	Design Ex Post Facto Longitudinal	Cercetare cauzal-comparativă
Domeniu	Design de cercetare	Design de cercetare
Familie	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anul apariției	1964–1986 (Kerlinger 1964 first edition; Campbell & Stanley 1966)	1964
Autorul original	Fred N. Kerlinger (systematized); Donald T. Campbell & Julian C. Stanley (quasi-experimental framework)	Fred N. Kerlinger
Tip	Non-experimental quantitative research design	Non-experimental quantitative research design
Sursa seminală	Kerlinger, F. N. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research (3rd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN: 978-0030417498	Kerlinger, F. N. (1964). Foundations of Behavioral Research. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Denumiri alternative	longitudinal causal-comparative design, longitudinal after-the-fact design, longitudinal retrospective design, LEPF design	ex post facto research, causal-comparative design, retrospective causal study, CCR
Înrudite	5	3
Rezumat	A longitudinal ex post facto design combines the time-depth of longitudinal research with the retrospective logic of ex post facto inquiry. Participants are grouped by a naturally occurring characteristic or past event — not randomly assigned — and then observed or measured at multiple points over time. The goal is to trace how pre-existing differences between groups unfold or predict outcomes across an extended period, without the researcher ever manipulating the independent variable.	Causal-comparative research is a non-experimental quantitative design in which the researcher compares two or more groups that already differ on an independent variable — one that was not manipulated — to investigate possible causes or consequences of that difference. Because group membership is pre-existing rather than randomly assigned, the design can suggest causal relationships but cannot establish them with the certainty of a true experiment. It is widely used in education, psychology, and social sciences when experimental manipulation is impractical or unethical.