Cross-Sectional Vs Longtiudinal Studies

Question 1

Describe a longitudinal study.

Answer 1

Identifying a group of participants at the start, and following them over a period of time. Often used in developmental psychology.

Question 2

Describe a cross-sectional study

Answer 2

Can study the effect of age. This method uses a selection of people to represent the different age groups you want to compare.

Question 3

Give an example of a longitudinal study

Answer 3

For example, Kohlberg used a longitudinal method in his research into moral reasoning

Question 4

Give an example of a cross-sectional study

Answer 4

For example, a researcher, wanting to find out about the effect of age on intelligence, may measure the IQ of a group of 20 year old & compare it to a group of 80 year olds.

Question 5

Give two strength of a longitudinal study

Answer 5

• reduces recall bias as participants are research as their life occurs, rather than asking them to report experiences from a long time ago
• helps control participant variables and therefore ensure good internal validity.

Question 6

Give to limitations of longitudinal studies

Answer 6

• more time-consuming than cross-sectional studies as research takes years. This can lead to your sample decreasing as people lose touch or dropout. This is known as sample attrition.
• reduce the validity- as participants are part of the study for years, they are more likely to be aware of the aims of the study compared to cross-sectional studies, so they may show demand characteristics

Question 7

Give two strengths of cross-sectional studies

Answer 7

• as participants are only use once it’s much quicker than longitudinals study, so may be prefer to longitudinal studies for practical reasons & less sample attrition
• participants are easier to obtain because there is less pressure for them to take part compared to having to stick with a long-term longitudinal study, which could take years

Question 8

Give to limitations of cross-sectional studies

Answer 8

• compared to longitudinal studies, results may be low in internal validity, because any differences between groups may not be due to the thing measured but actually because a participant variables
• cross-sectional studies do not provide information from before or after the study was conducted & is only in a snapshot of a point in time. Limited as it is difficult to generalise to other generations