Contemporary study one- Chaney (Developmental area)

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

Asthma is a chronic condition that affects about 1 in 10 people. Even though there are treatments for asthma, the problem is that some people (particularly little children), do not use their inhalers correctly.
Why do you think this is?
Children not using their inhaler correctly could place them at a health risk so it is important that they know how to use it.

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

The aim of this study was to see if operant conditioning could be used to encourage children to want to use their inhalers, and when they do use it correctly.

Question 3

Sample

Answer 3

32 children (22 boys and 10 girls) from Australia aged between 1.5 and 6 years (although 75% of the children were over 3).
On average they had had asthma for 2.2 years.

Question 4

What were the inhalers used before

Answer 4

The AeroChamber Inhaler
The Breath-a-Tech Inhaler

Question 5

Compliance/adherence

Answer 5

means following doctor’s advice - using the inhaler correctly)

Question 6

How might the Funhaler provide positive reinforcement?

Answer 6

The toy ball spins more and the whistle is louder when the child breathes correctly through the inhaler.

Question 7

How might the Funhaler provide negative reinforcement?

Answer 7

Children and parents know when it is being used correctly and so it reduces anxiety and stress caused. Correct use also leads to fewer symptoms.

Question 8

Independent variable

Answer 8

Whether child is using the Funhaler or the normal inhaler spacer

Question 9

Dependent variable

Answer 9

The children’s behaviour – how frequently children took the medication
The problems the children had with delivery of medication
Attitudes of the parents and the children towards medication

Question 10

Procedure

Answer 10

Initial Data Collected:
Questionnaire about current inhaler, which measure:
current adherence
Current frequency of medication
Problems with medication
Attitudes towards medication
Data collected through study (2 weeks):
Parents given Funhaler to use with instructions
Parents were contacted randomly by telephone & asked if they had used the Funhaler the previous day
Final Data Collected:
Second questionnaire to measure:
adherence
How frequently the child was medicated
Parent and child attitudes to the Funhaler

Question 11

Behavioural results

Answer 11

Percentage of children who had used their inhaler the day before
Exiting Inhaler- 59
Funhaler- 81
Percentage of children who achieved 4 or more breath cycles per delivery
Exiting inhaler- 50
Funhaler- 80
Percentage of parents who always successfully medicated their child
Exiting inhaler- 10
Funhaler- 73
Unwilling to breathe through the device at all
Exiting inhaler- 61
Funhaler- 7
Screams when device is brought close to face
Exiting inhaler- 48
Funhaler- 3

Question 12

Attitudes results

Answer 12

Pleasure:
Exiting inhaler- 10
Funhaler- 68
Acceptance:
Exiting inhaler- 58
Funhaler- 19
Suspicion:
Existing inhaler- 0
Funhaler- 10
Completely happy
Existing inahler- 10
Funhaler- 61
Dislike
Existing inhaler- 16
Funhaler- 0

Question 13

Sample used

Answer 13

Strengths- It is age appropriate for the target population as the Funhaler wouldn’t be expected to appeal to people much older. Boys and girls studies.

Weaknesses- The narrow age range of the children restricts the study’s generalisability. Only Australian.

Question 14

Self-report questionnaire

Answer 14

Strengths- Questionnaires are easy to administer to collect the thoughts and opinions of the parents on the Funhaler.

Weaknesses- Parents may not be honest in their answers about their use of the inhaler due to social desirability (lying about using the inhaler the previous day to look better).

Question 15

Forced choice questions

Answer 15

Strengths- Easier to make comparisons and analyse difference in use/attitudes to the Funhaler and standard inhaler. Easier and quicker for parents to complete.

Weaknesses- A problem with the data is that it doesn’t tell us why there are any differences in attitude and behaviour with the Funhaler. May be issues of not fully representing their views

Question 16

Field experiment

Answer 16

Strengths- Having the research take place in the natural setting of the child’s home makes it high in ecological validity.

Weaknesses- Lack of control over extraneous variables – different home environments, other events that may have affected inhaler use.

Question 17

Repeated measures design

Answer 17

Strengths- Controls for participant variables as both the regular inhaler and Funhaler was used with each child.

Weaknesses- The parents could work out the aim of the study, therefore, demand characteristics could be an issue.

Question 18

Why did Chaney et al. choose not to counterbalance the participants in this study?

Answer 18

Using the Funhaler first could have increased adherence in the second week due to the Funhaler

Children may not want to go back to using their standard inhaler after using the Funhaler, creating even greater differences in adherence

Question 19

Ethics

Answer 19

Ethics upheld-
Repeated measures – no participants missed out on the chance to benefit-All the children got the benefit of using the Funhaler rather than just some.

Researchers were competent

We can assume there was a debrief

No harm was likely to be caused

Question 20

Validity

Answer 20

Internal/ construct validity-
Socially desirable rather than true responses are possible (parents don’t want to admit not giving their children inhaler properly)
Improved use could also be the result of novelty of the Funhaler
External validity-
Population- Difficult to apply to all cultures and other age ranges
Ecological- Children used the inhaler at home so this increases the ecological validity

Question 21

Reliability

Answer 21

Internal reliability-
The study used a standardized procedure which could be repeated if needed to prove a consistent effect as the
Same questionnaire
Length of time using Funhaler was the same
Funhaler was the same for all children
External reliability-
The sample is not large enough to suggest a consistent effect as only 32 children involved – raises questions about how consistent the effect was

Question 22

Ethnocentric

Answer 22

All children were from Australia. This raises questions if all the will children from all cultures find the design of the Funhaler appealing.

Question 23

Which side of the nature-nurture debates does the study relate to and why

Answer 23

Chaney study links to the nature side of the debate as the the use of positive reinforcement and adding a reward to the inhaler changes the children behaviour and encourages them to take their medication.

Question 24

What side of the freewill-determinism debates does it link to and why

Answer 24

Chaney supports the determinism debates, which states that behavior is caused by forces outside of an individuals control, making them not responsible for their actions. This is because behaviour is determined by our environment and a change in the child environment by adding positive reinforcement by making the inhaler whistle and spin improved medical compliance.

Question 25

Say how this study relates to the behaviorist perspective

Answer 25

Operant conditioning as explaining the development of behavior in children- if behavior is positively reinforcement- something pleasant happens after the behavior (a spinner going round or whistle blowing). Negative reinforcement-something unpleasant-is taken away (feeling breathless stopped)- then the behavior again is rewarded and so repeated.

Question 26

Explain how Chaney links to the development area

Answer 26

The developmental area investigates how behaviour develops from birth and throughout life.

How has Chaney’s study shown us how children learn good behaviours that might stick with them throughout their life?

Chaney investigated how children learn and change their behaviour. In this case it is looking at ways to improve children’s behaviour via operant conditioning.

Question 27

Operant conditioning

Answer 27

learning through positive and negative reinforcement,
Or Punishment

Question 28

How does this study link to the key theme of External influences on children’s behavior

Answer 28

This study shows that by using rewards such as positive and negative reinforcement you can influence a child’s behaviour. Children learned to use their inhaler effectively because it was fun to use (rewarded through spinning toy and whistle) and less distressing for them.

Question 29

Similarties to Bandura

Answer 29

Both investigate the behaviour of younger children (so may be difficult to generalise to other age groups)

Both provide evidence for aspects of the behaviourist perspective

Both support nurture rather than nature

Question 30

Differences between Chaney and Bandura

Answer 30

Bandura used observation while Chaney involved self-report methods
Bandura’s study took place in a more controlled setting (less ecologically valid)
Bandura’s research supports social learning while Chaney’s was focused on operant conditioning
Bandura collected both qualitative and quantitative data while Chaney’s only collected numerical findings

Question 31

How far has the study changed our
understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity?

Answer 31

Individual diversity – NOT CHANGED
Although there were some differences in attitudes to the inhaler, they did not investigate personality factors that are linked to this
Social Diversity – NOT CHANGED
Chaney found that both male and female children were similar in how they responded to the Funhaler - both responded positively to operant conditioning
Cultural diversity – PARTLY CHANGED
This study does show that external influences can affect children in a different culture (Australia rather than USA) but both cultures are similar, developed nations so does not bring out a huge amount of cultural diversity

Question 32

How does chaney link to the debate psychology is a science

Answer 32

Chaney support the side of the debate the psychology is a science as it has respectability because there was a standardized procedure with the same questionnaire used for the parents the funhaler was the same for all parents and the same time was spent (2 weeks) with the funhaler.