Research methods

Question 1

Three methods for studying developmental change?

Answer 1

Cross-sectional, longitudinal, longitudinal-sequential

Question 2

What do you do in a cross-sectional study?

Answer 2

Study groups of different ages and compare changes in group performance with age

Question 3

Advantages of cross-sectional designs?

Answer 3

• Convenient, cheaper
• No concern about attrition
• Usually test each individual once; less concern about practice effects, reactance, etc

Question 4

Disadvantages of cross-sectional designs?

Answer 4

Cohort effects and history
- E.g. Porac’s 1980 ross-sectional study of hand preferences (left vs right) in US/Canada

Not examining developmental CHANGES in individuals; you are just averaging across potentially interesting individual trajectories in development

Question 5

What do you do in a longitudinal study?

Answer 5

Study a number of individuals who are of the same age and repeatedly measure the same children at different times/ages

Question 6

Advantages of longitudinal study design?

Answer 6

• Tracking features of interest in individual subjects over time
• Can compare different aspects of development

Question 7

Disadvantages of longitudinal study design?

Answer 7

• Fatigue and practise effects
• Reactance effects
• Selective sampling and attrition
  
  • Longitudinal study of achievement motivation (Nesselroade & Baltes)
• Expensive and time consuming
• Lack of generalisability due to cohort variation
• Historical events (something happened during course of study in the environment which affected the developmental outcomes of people studied)

Question 8

Longitudinal-sequential designs? Advantages?

Answer 8

• Eliminates most problems experienced by using either cross-section or longitudinal designs
• Allows for testing for historical effects - e.g. compare measures from age 30 in 90 vs 00 vs 10