cross sectional and longitudinal research

Question 1

what is a cross sectional research ?

Answer 1

a snapshot of a particular group of people. does not involve manipulating variables, just measures of variables you’re interested in.

Question 2

what does cross sectional research allow ?

Answer 2

allows researchers to look at numerous characteristics at once for example age, income, gender etc.

Question 3

example how to do cross sectional research?

Answer 3

researchers studying developmental psychology might select groups of people who are different ages but investigate them at one point in time. by doing this any differences between age groups can be attributed to age differences rather than something that happened over time

Question 4

example of cross sectional research ?

Answer 4

inglehart - age and happiness
they wanted to see us age was related to happiness, they used a subjective well being scale to measure happiness and used a cross sectional study to measure happiness in different age groups. they found that people of all ages were equally happy

Question 5

advantages of cross sectional research ?

Answer 5

relatively quick as they can be conducted in less than a year whereas longitudinal may take many years or even decades

Question 6

disadvantages of cross sectional research ?

Answer 6

• cross sectional study the groups of PT may differ in more ways than the behaviour being researched for example if the researcher is comparing teachers, doctors, solicitors these groups differ in terms of profession but also might differ because teachers have less money, issues with PT variables
• cohort effects = people who are all the same age share certain experiences therefore not generalisable

Question 7

what is longitudinal research ?

Answer 7

assesses the same group of PT repeatedly over an extended period of time usually several months and years. This allows the researcher to look at how behaviour changes over time and trends can be developed.

Question 8

example of longitudinal research ?

Answer 8

kohl bergs moral development -
75 boys aged 10-16 followed every 3 years using semi structured interviews

Question 9

advantages of longitudinal research ?

Answer 9

controlled participant variables, as repeated measures design is often used. so other variables are controlled.

Question 10

disadvantages of longitudinal studies ?

Answer 10

• attrition is a problem some PT drop out over the corse of a study therefore leaves the study with a small sample or a biased sample
• takes a long period of time therefore difficult to finance
• more likely to be aware of research aims so may lack validity