research in developmental psychology Flashcards
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what is the aim developmental psychology
to describe and explain development in children’s behavior over time.
5 themes in developmental psychology
- nature and nurture
- individual differences
- the active child
- (dis)continuity of development and critical periods
- Socio-cultural context
3 methods of measuring development
- cross- sectional
- longitudinal
- microgenetic
cross sectional design in developmental psych
compare children of different ages at a single time.
longitudinal design in developmental psych
- compare children to themselves
- children are examined repeatedly over a prolonged period ( over months or years)
microgentic design in DP
- children are observed intensively over a relatively short period
- a change occurs within this short period
pros of a cross sectional design
- faster to collect data
- can identify differences between age groups
cons of cross-sectional design
- uninformative about discontinuity of development over age (e.g. stability of wellbeing)
- uninformative about individual differences (within a cohort)
pros of a longitudinal design
- watch development unfold - for each case study
- can examine the stability of individual differences over time and individual patterns of change
cons of a longitudinal design
- practice effect
- attrition - drop out rates and bias
- takes a long time and a lot of resources
pros of a Microgenetic design
- very detailed
- intensive observation can clarify process of change as it occurs
cons of a microgenetic design
- must know when change will occur
- no long term data about change patterns
- narrow in focus
what is a genetically informative design
a design that …
… allows us to estimate, and in some cases locate, genetic contributions to development ( e.g. heritability)
6 types of genetically informative designs
- twin studies
- adoption
- adopted twins
- DNA sequencing
- molecular genetic
- genomewide scan
3 common data collection techniques
- interview / questionnaire
- naturalistic observation
- structured observation/tasks
interview / questionnaires in DP
inexpensive way to gather self reports
clinical interviews allow for flexibility to respond to unexpected answers
naturalistic observation in DP
useful for describing behavior and exploring social interaction
structured observation / task in DP
allows controlled comparisons
participatory techniques
timelines and social network map
NSPCC research with children in care
practical problems of research
stated by Fargas-Malet et al 2010
- gaining access and seeking consent
- context/ location
- data collection
- confidentiality and child protection issues
- debriefing and rewards
fargas malet et al 2010
look at practical problems in research
who researched practical problems
fargas malet et al 2010
what is reliability
the degree to which independent measurements of a behavior are consistent
examples of reliability
inter-rater reliability
test retest reliability
describe 3 potential negatives of choosing a longitudinal design ( 3 marks)
practical SAQ
my answer - time consuming and expensive, high drop out rates, and practice effect.
aim - research into materialism within children
to research to see if children had an issue with materialism
method - research into materialism within children
pin board with pictures of material things on and another board with non-material things on e.g. family members, friends, hobbies and interests.
where asked to take pictures from both board to make a happiness board that reflected everything that makes them happy
how did they calculate the results / score for each participant - research into materialism within children
calculated by counting up the number of each type of item - material vs. non-material
then did material items minus non-material items to get a measure of materialism
then took this score and compared it to a measure of well being to see if the constructs where related
