lecture 2 Flashcards
what are the big five families of theories?
1) Organismic
2) Psychodynamic
3) Mechanistic
4) Dialectical
5) Contextual
explain organismic theories
- development is goal-directed (teleological)
- qualitative change
- unidirectional and irreversible
- discontinuous
- universal
- active and constructive organism
- passive environment
explain psychodynamic theories
- regression and fixation
- focus on personality and emotional development
- timing of movement through stages
explain Mechanistic Theories
- organism is analogous to a machine
- change (development) depends on the level & kind of stimulation, plus history
- Organism is passive (or reactive), environment is active
- change is quantitative, addictive, and continuous
explain dialectical theories
- basic metaphors are contradiction and conflict
- individual develops through continuous process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis
- both organism and environment are inherently active
- changing individual in a changing world
- cross-cultural psychology and cultural relativism
explain contextualism theories
- basic metaphor for development is the situated historical event
3 kind of change
1) individual differences: individuals differ from one another on various dimensions
2) Intra-individual differences: differences between individuals in the course and rate of change
3) Inter-Individual differences: differences between individuals in the course and rate of change
naturalistic observation pros and cons
- pros: gets at “real” behaviour
- cons: cant control variables and cant infer cause-effect
what are the pros can cons of structured observation?
- pros: study behaviour rarely seen in everyday life
- cons: may not generalize to “real” life, observer influence and bias influence
what are the pros and cons of interview/questionnaires?
- pros: can capture unobservable behaviour
- cons: biased recall and social desirability
what are pros and cons of clinical interviews?
- pros: breadth & depth of information
- cons: flexibility of interview makes comparing across individuals is difficult
what are the pros and cons to neurobiological methods?
- pros: infer perception, thoughts & emotions from infants
- cons: cannot reveal with certainty the meaning of brain activity
what are the pros and cons to case studies?
- pros: provides a rich understanding of one individual
- cons: theoretical bias of research generalizability
what are the pros and cons to ethnography?
- pros: more complete than single-subject, single visit, interview, or questionnaire
- cons: can’t apply findings to individuals or settings other than the ones observed
what are the pros and cons to combination of methods?
- pros: multiple methods result in broader understanding
- cons: $$$$$$ expensive!!!!!!
define reliability
the consistency, or repeatability, of measures of behaviour
what are two different types of reliability?
Inter-rater Reliability
Test-restest Reliability
what is inter-rater reliability?
if results are consistent when measurements are taken by different people using the same methods
what is test-retest reliability?
if results are consistent from one test administration to the next
define Validity
the degree to which the test measures what you claim it measures
what are the two different types of validity?
- Internal Validity
- External Validity
what is internal validity?
the degree to which conditions internal to the design of the study permit an accurate test of the hypothesis
what is the external validity?
the degree to which findings generalize to setting and participants outside the original study
what are three developmental designs?
1) cross-sectional
2) longitudinal
3) cross-sequential
what are cross-sectional studies?
study groups of people of different ages at single points in time
what are longitudinal studies?
study the same group of people over time
what are cross-sequential studies?
study groups of people from different birth cohorts over time
“when tested at the same time, are there differences between 6-and-8-year-olds?” what type of comparison is this?
cross-sectional comparison
“when testes at 2-year intervals, do children change?” what type of comparison is this?
longitudinal comparison
“when tested at 8 years of age, do children born in 1994 differ from those born in 1996?” what type of comparison is this?
cohort comparisons
what is involved in experimental studies?
- control and manipulation of variables
- random assignment
- blind assignment
- drawn conclusions about causality
what is the purpose of correlational studies?
to determine relations between naturally occurring variables m
define correlation
a number indicating the direction and magnitude of association between two variables ( r = - 1.0 to + 1.0)
what does negative correlation refer to?
high scores on one variable are associated with low scores on the other
what does zero correlation refer to?
scores on one variable have no relationship to scores on the other
what does positive correlation refer to?
high scores on one variable are associated with high scores on the other
true or false?
children who spend more time watching violent TV programs also exhibit a higher number of aggressive acts on the playground.
true
if correlation does not = causation, what are the possible explanations?
A causes B
B causes A
OR A THIRD VARIABLE CAUSES BOTH
