goals, theories and methods Flashcards
goals of developmental science
- describing
- explaining
- applying
researching in developmental science
- conducting research
- ensuring scientific rigour and integrity
describing
- what developmental change looks like
- is it qualitative or quantitative
quantitative
gradual change in the amount, frequency or degree of behaviour
- ex: child gradually learning language
qualitative
progression through a sequence of distinct changes in thought and action
ex: motor development: sitting to crawling to walking
individual differences between children
- age of onset
- rate of change (how quickly they acquire skills)
- the form of skills
developmental onset
the approximate age at which skills emerge
- ex: first words, steps or signs of puberty
rate of change
the course of change over time
- one kid can be slower to learn language but they will both eventually end up with equal levels
forms of skills
what behaviours look like in children with diverse experiences
- ex: in a culture that doesn’t have words for numbers, children appear to lack number concepts.
stability
- whether children who are relatively low or high on a certain characteristic or behavior at a particular point in time are also relatively low or high at another point
- helps in predicting future development
plasticity
the impressive capacity of humans to adapt to changing environments and experiences
explaining development
the second goals of developmental psychology is to identify factors that effect children as groups and what factors lead to individual differences
nature
a childs biological characteristics or genes inherited from parents
nurture
the range of environmental contexts and experiences that influence development
developmental cascades
the idea that change of one kind can have positive or negative effects, setting other kinds of change in motion, both immediately and at later ages
cascades within time
simultaneous influences that occur across different domains and/or between the devloping child and the childs environment and experiences
cascades over time
changes at one point in time result in changes at a later period in the same or a different domain
applying developmental psychology
it has implications for parenting, schooling, ect..
hypothesis driven research
begins with a question and a hypothesis about what they think that answer is
ex: are violent games related to agressive behaviors?
discovery based science
science based on discovering and understanding what children do and what development looks like without presuppositions
- seeing things that are happening and making theories or questions about it
sample
who participates in a study
- sample size
- sample demographic (describe them)
generalizability
how do research findings from one sample extend to the population at large
- bigger sample = greater chance for genaralizability
convenience sampling
recruiting participants in a study based on how easy it is to get them
- ex: professor using students in his class
- these samples could be biased and differ from population
W.E.I.R.D
western
educated
industrialized
rich
democratic
- problematic because of evidence showing that thing presumed to be universal are affected by cultural context
research methods
how data was collected:
- interviews
- written surveys
- observations
- physiological assessments
study design
specific plan for conducting a study that allows researchers to test a study’s hypothesis
correlation studies
test associations between two or more variables with no manipulation of variables
- things are related but not necessarily cause and effect
- could be confounding variables
experimental design
research method testing a hypothesis about a cause and effect relationship between two or more variables
longitudinal study
follows same group of participants over time
cross-sectional study
test different groups of participants at different ages
- ex: studying different ages, ethnicities, locations at a single point in time
cohort-sequential study
tests different groups of participants, but then follows them across time
mix of longitudinal and cross-sectional
micro-genetic design
frequent assessments over a small period of time
- testing rapid change
interobserver reliability
extend at which different observers reach the same results
test-retest reliability
same results when tested at different times and under similar conditions
face validity
the purpose of the measure is clear to people who look it over
concurrent validity
reflects the degree to which a measure corresponds to another measure that tests the same thing at the same point in time
- same results from different types of tests
predictive validity
reflects the degree to which measure predicts a criterion to be measured at a future point in time
- high validity because you can predict it
external validity
refers to the extent to which a measure can be applied across different settings or groups of people
replicability
need to describe study well enough so that other scientists can be able to replicate it and get similar results
open science
movement that is recently shaping because of problems with replicability. a lot of classic findings arent replicable so open sharing of procedures and data makes research available to everyone to help improve replicability
SRDC
ethics with vulnerable populations
- vulnerable population who you cannot get consent from
SRDC principles
- confidentiality
- full disclosure
- informed consent
- informing participants
- mutual responsibilities
- non-harmful procedures
- anonymity
- clear agreement
- right to withdraw
