Studying Development – research methods

Question 1

What are all humans are interested in?

Answer 1

• understanding behaviour (their own, their parents, children, family and friends)
• finding out why we find some tasks easy/ hard
• exploring why we feel for some people the way we do.

Question 2

who said we are all ‘nature’s psychologists’?

Answer 2

Nicholas Humphrey (1984)

Question 3

Why have an organised study of the science of psychology?

Answer 3

One reason is to help humans have greater insight, and maybe agreement, on contentious issues.

Question 4

What is a cross-sectional study?

Answer 4

Investigator looks at several different age groups simultaneously
Example
• Look at language ability in 3 year olds and 4 year olds at the same point in time to see differences
Benefits
• Quick and convenient
• Appropriate if main interest is abilities or behaviours at certain ages

Question 5

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 5

Investigator follows certain individuals over a given time period, measuring change
Example
• Record language ability for a 3 yr old and a year later visit the same child to record again, then at 5 and 6 years old…
Benefits
• Preferable if the focus of interest is the process of change, and the relationship between earlier and later development
At 3…..and again … At 4!
Very powerful but has drawbacks

Question 6

What is the subject attrition or loss of longitudinal studies?

Answer 6

• participants move away,
• lose contact,
• refuse
so cannot take part at next point of testing
How could this effect the generality of a study?
Time – consuming
• need to wait for the next time point and then compare
• may not have asked questions about what we want to know now
• conclusions may not be applicable to current times as society has changed

Question 7

What TV series demonstrate longitudinal research?

Answer 7

Child of our Time (2000)

Question 8

Who first studied development?

Answer 8

• Earliest contribution from famous biologist Charles Darwin in “A biographical sketch of an infant” (1877), based on observations of his own son
• At beginning of the twentieth century most of our understanding of psychological development was from anecdote and opinion
• Therefore not considered ‘scientific’

Question 9

What happened in the 1920s/30s in terms of development?

Answer 9

USA founded Institutes
• These combined
• observations and
• experiments in development
• looking at normal, abnormal and adjustment of children
• Included Piaget, a very influential psychologist

Question 10

What happened in 1940s/50s in terms of development?

Answer 10

• Observation – which often took place in naturalistic settings and relied on introspection of the psychologist – went out of favour
• Instead they used…
• Experiments in laboratory conditions – this provided rigour and enabled situations to be altered for different participants

Question 11

What happened in 1970/80s in terms of development?

Answer 11

• Laboratory work was seen as “the science of the behaviour of children in strange situations with strange adults” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)
• Led to research considering how the child’s developmental processes and the social context in which they exist are intertwined