Chapter 2- Research Methods Flashcards
What are the 3 methods for studying children’s behaviour?
- Descriptive: describing behaviours of kids and adolescents
- Correlational: relation between things
- Experimental
What is an example of a descriptive method?
Observational methods- observing children
What is a naturalistic observation? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
6pts
- Observing kids in their natural/own settings
Ex- in their classroom, at recess
Advantages:
- Ecological validity
- Kids won’t feel any pressure to preform a certain way
- Cheaper, don’t have to set anything up, you just go and observe
Disadvantages:
- Observer bias: observer may unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations
- Observer influences: child may preform in way that is not what they would normally do
A child may show more self-control in their behaviour because they know someone is watching them.
This is due to ?
Observer influence
Why do we use structured observations?
5pts
- To study infrequent behaviours
- To standardize environment for all children
- To eliminate more variables
- To set a baseline
- To be able to observe behaviours that you may see less frequently
What is a structured observation?
Getting everything organized and then observe
What is an study/example of a structured observation?
The strange situation- Everything is set up exactly to see how the child responds
What are examples of descriptive methods?
1pt
Interviews and questionnaires: asking quantitative questions (scale questions/on a scale of 1-10) or qualitative questions (more open ended questions
What are 3 aspects of correlational methods? What is a disadvantage?
4pt
- How are two variables related
- Direction of relationship ( + or -)
- Strength of relationship (from 0 to .99)
- Cannot tell if one variable causally related to the other (NOT cause and effect)
What is an experimental studies?
3pts
- Assign participants randomly to two groups
- Apply different level of IV to each group
- Measure resulting differences in DV
For experimental studies, can you use cause an effect as a conclusion?
Yes
What are the methods of studying development (2 designs)? Define them
2pts
Longitudinal design: Same participants studied across time as they get older
Cross-sectional design: different participants at each age level
What are the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal designs?
3pt for each.
Pros:
- age-related changes
- stability over time
- effects of early experience on later behaviour
Cons:
- time consuming and costly
- repeated testing
- attrition: loss of study units from a sample- people may drop out of the experiment, leading to a smaller and smaller sample size
What are the advantages and disadvantages of cross-sectional designs?
2pts for each.
Pros:
- Shorter duration
- Less costly
Cons:
- Cannot infer stability or change
- Cohort effects
What is a cross-sequential design?
combination of longitudinal and cross sectional :
Multiple age groups or cohorts are studied over time.
