longitudinal studies Flashcards
Definition
A piece of research carried out over a prolonged period of time, with a key focus on researching the process of change over time. As the data is collected in time sequence, this enables changes and connections to be established. - interpretivist
Limitation
Expensive
Attrition - respondents may drop out or withdraw before it’s complete - reliability, representativeness, validity.
They only provide snapshots of events carried out at pre-determined moments in time, lacking validity (may miss moments).
Hawthorne effect
reliability becomes an issue as it can be affected through the change in the researcher and research design. This is because when a research has begun, changing the research method half-way through will damage reliability as different results will be given
participants tend to start at a young age. Therefore only parents may have given consent, researchers could evade privacy by asking them personal questions about their lives will also be an ethical problem.
Advantages
can be helpful in determining patterns. It is possible to learn more about cause and effect relationships. More data over longer periods of time allows for better and more concise results. These studies are high in validity and are great for picking up long-term changes.
though people usually might not remember past events, it can be solved by means of actual recording, thus ensuring a high level of validity
Longitudinal studies allow for flexibility to occur, which means their focus can be shifted while data is being collected.
