research Flashcards
normal development
average (common) development.
What most children would experience
How do scientists find out what is normal?
by tracking changes in large numbers of individuals and applying research methods.
average (psych def)
(psych) most representative.
Are all students of average height?
No, 50% will be taller and 50% will be smaller.
Studies of normal development help us …
predict how change and development will occur.
Why do scientists use different norms for boys and girls?
males and females develop at different rates and have different averages ( height, weight etc ).
norms
lists of what is average
longitudinal research
follow a group through their lifespan
cross-sectional research
groups of people of different ages on the same date.
e.g. may 2020 3yr 6 yr and 9 yr olds.
what are two ways scientists study normal development?
longitudinal and cross-sectional
The tv show “7 UP” follows a group of English children through their lives by checking in on them every 7 years. What type of research is this?
longitudinal
What problems are there with the longitudinal method?
4
- takes a long time
- people hard to keep track of. - many drop outs.
- People in the group will get “test-wise” and get better at the test with practice.
- expensive
test-wise
when a person gets better at a test because they have done it before.
Why do scientists take special care to match characteristics like health, socioeconomic (class) status?
so they know that the difference in scores is due to the IV (age) not other factors.
e.g. well off children may learn to read earlier than others because they have lots of books at home.
cohort
group of children of same age in a cross-sectional expt.
e.g. all the 3 year olds.
What is the main problem with cross-sectional studies?
Hard to match the groups for other factors like home environment, culture, nutrition etc
e.g. todays 10 year olds are very good at computers while 70 year olds arent. this is due to the fact that there were no computers 50 years ago!
A cross sectional study seems to show that older people are a lot shorter than younger people (20 yr).
What 2reason can you suggest for this?
Which is correct?
- People get shorter as they age.
2. Older people had poor nutrition when they were young, so were never taller.
What does the term “nature vs nurture” mean?
to what extent our development depends on what we inherit genetically vs what the environment provides.
What is the definition of intelligence?
there is no one definition for intelligence.
Intelligence is affected by Genetics and environment.
True/False.
true
What is the correlation of IQ for identical twins reared together?
What is the correlation of IQ for identical twins reared apart?
Why is there a difference?
0.9 0.7
Environment plays a part in IQ development
which component of IQ is fixed at birth?
genetics nature.
Identical twins
twins formed from same fertilized egg, so DNA (practically) identical.
Fraternal twins
twins formed from two different eggs.
Their DNA is the same as for normal siblings. (50%)
Schizophrenia occurs more often in a twin if they are identical rather than fraternal.
What does this show?
That schizophrenia has a genetic ( nature) component.
What is one major problem with twin studies?
hard to control for environment
i.e. hard to make sure the environment is the exactly the same.
Is it likely identical twins are treated more alike than fraternal twins?
Why do you think this is so?
Yes
Fraternal twins may be boy/girl or very different looking same sex.
Why don’t scientists separate twins to study them better?
Ethical reasons.
What did Thomas Bouchard study?
separated twins and twins reared together.
For IQ, personality, social attitudes.
What did adoption studies find about how shyness develops?
Both nature and nurture (genetics and environment) are important and will affect the child’s level of shyness.
what does IQ stand for?
Intelligence Quotient.
what is the mean of an IQ test?
IQ
What is the shape of a normal distribution?
bell curve
What is the standard deviation of a modern IQ test?
15
Why is each IQ test different for different ages?
reflects different level of development.
