Final answer:
Experimental designs are the most rigorous of the designs because they involve randomly assigning subjects to different treatment groups and include a control group.
Step-by-step explanation:
Experimental designs are the most rigorous of the designs because they involve randomly assigning subjects to different treatment groups and include a control group. This helps eliminate lurking variables and ensures that any differences between the groups are due to the experimental manipulation rather than chance. Therefore, option a is true.
On the other hand, option b is false because experimental designs do require random assignment to a control or intervention group. Option c is also false because it is possible to conduct studies of this design in the social sciences. Finally, option d is false because the comparison and control groups in experimental designs need to be equivalent to properly measure the effect of the independent variable.