Developmental psychology research methods Flashcards
What are the 4 challenges to the assessment of socio-economic problems in children?
- Rapid developmental transitions
- Lack of data integration from different sources e.g., parent sees child’s behaviour differently
- Difficulty determining level of impairment and functioning e.g., ADHD produces higher conflict within the family
- Research approaches assess socio-emotional problems in children using questionnaires, interviews and behavioural assessment require ethical approval
What factors affect children’s accurate responding?
Age (may not understand the question)
Leading questions in interviews
Likert scales may be confusing for younger children - use smiley faces instead
Phrasing/complexity of questions - attention issues
Factual vs abstract information - difficulty understanding e.g., how much pain is someone feeling
How should parent-child observations be conducted?
The researcher must decide about the presence of an observer creating issues with reactivity. Type of task (unstructured vs structured) and location should be considered (e.g., home or lab)
What is the reactivity issue within parent-child observations?
Uncomfortable situation where Ps know they’re being observed - causes unnatural behaviour or social desirability
How is the reactivity issue within parent-child interactions reduced?
Ask parents and child to interact for 13 mins and then disregard the first 3 mins as this would be the unnatural behaviour or researcher leaves the room + leaves a camera
What is the difference between structured vs unstructured parent-child observations?
Unstructured - no targets to meet so display more positive behaviours
Structured - may provoke anxiety and pressure
How does location affect parent-child observations?
More natural behaviours at home and siblings at home may create interruptions + outside noise - factors we can’t control
Advantages of parent-child observations
Can define target behaviours e.g., look at bullying behaviours for aggression
Can look at microscopic processes and mechanisms
Can look at e.g., how many positive comments a parent expresses to analyse data
Disadvantages of parent-child observations:
Training required to code data for statistical analysis - time consuming
Observations are expensive
What are screening questions?
Done if a child has signs for emotional/behavioural issues - try to indicate how often a behaviour e.g., depression occurs e.g., 1 = no depressive symptoms and 20 = positive for all - scores of 10+ generally indicate depression
What are some issues with screening questionnaires?
Cut-offs - fine line between low level of depressive symptoms and depressive symptoms - subjective, ambiguous cut off
Parent reports may be less objective as they don’t want to admit that their child has a problem
Difficult for children to make attributions of children’s behaviour e.g., if they’re behaving a certain way when they’re hungry, or tired it doesn’t mean this is a stable behaviour
Time consuming - hard for people in full time work
What are structured clinical interviews?
Set list of Qs set for all patients to look at frequency and cause of behaviour
However, sensitivity of behaviour to context e.g., may show ADHD symptoms at home but not in a school environment
Must establish what aspects of function are disrupted by disorder
What are selected attachment measures?
Help predict attachment outcomes e.g., emotional regulation + development
Includes the strange situation (babies 9-18 months) to make conclusions about separation/reunion and attachment
Or use attachment story tasks - ask to play scenarios with a doll + can make conclusions according to answers e.g., if you lost your mother in a grocery store what would you do?
How is emotional quality of parent-child relationships assessed?
Use observations to see how positive the parents and children are + interviews to validate these responses
Observations important if parents + children have opposing views
State the procedure of assessing emotional quality of parent-child relationships
Parent asked to talk for 5 mins about what type of child they have and their relationship - talk without interruption so any negativity will appear
Can see evidence for e.g., over emotional involvement + can classify people as having high negative expressed emotion (high criticism)
