Unit 2

Question 1

What are findings vs interpretations?

Answer 1

Findings are the data/information that is collected whereas interpretations are the meaning of the findings.

Question 2

What is an experimental design?

Answer 2

A study in which researcher administers the potential casual variable. Comparison groups are identical on everything but the treatment.

Question 3

What is a correlational design?

Answer 3

A study in which the researcher observed and records data as it unfolds. Researchers look at naturally existing relationships.

Question 4

What is a cross-sectional design and how is the data collected?

Answer 4

A design allows us to study groups of people of different [cohorts] at a single point in time.

Data is collected at one time point from multiple cohorts.

Question 5

What is a longitudinal design and how is the data collected?

Answer 5

A design which collects data from the same individual over multiple timepoints.

Question 6

What is a sequential design and how is the data collected?

Answer 6

A sequential design is the combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.

Question 7

What is a pro and con of the experimental method?

Answer 7

Pro: The method can establish a cause-effect relationship.

Con: May not work this way in the real world and there are many variables that can’t be manipulated or duplicated in an experimental setting. “Not everyday life”

Question 8

What is a pro and con of the correlational method?

Answer 8

Pro: Data can be collected in natural settings and may be more applicable to the real world.

Con: This method cannot prove a cause-effect relationship and we can only look at what exists already. “No causation”

Question 9

How can we address the limitations of experimental study designs?

Answer 9

Researchers can conduct experiments in the field (outside of the lab.)

Question 10

How can we address the limitations of correlational study designs?

Answer 10

Researchers can add time by examining beginnings and adding time sequences.

Question 11

What are the pros/cons of cross-sectional design?

Answer 11

Pro: We can gather information about age differences. It is practical.

Con: The data doesn’t tell us about changes within individual people - only large groups.

Question 12

What are the pros/cons of longitudinal design?

Answer 12

Pro: We can see how individuals develop over time (we can detect patterns of stability/change) and we can see if earlier experiences affect later development.

Con: It’s expensive and time consuming.

Question 13

What are the pros/cons of sequential design?

Answer 13

Pro: Can detect/rule out cohort effects, can learn how historical/cultural influences might shape development, and provides the most complete information for developmental research.

Con: Complex, time-consuming, expensive, generalizable to cohorts studied, and no casual inferences.

Question 14

What are cohort effects?

Answer 14

Some differences between people born in different years may not be developmental and it may be due to unique historical-cultural experiences. IE Differences between groups of people who have had the same set of experiences.

Question 15

What are historical effects?

Answer 15

Some changes within a person over time are caused by history, not by development.

Question 16

How can we address the limitations of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs?

Answer 16

We can adopt a sequential design because although it is complex, we can monitor developmental change and the design detects historical and generational effects.

Question 17

In order to be useful for “evidence based practices what are the two important criteria to be met?

Answer 17

The data must demonstrate cause-effect relations and work in the real world.

Question 18

What are the highlights of a deductive method?

Answer 18

A scientist starts with a falsifiable hypothesis and then conducts a series of observations to test whether the specifics on the ground are consistent with the hypothesis.

Question 19

What are the highlights of an inductive method?

Answer 19

AKA grounded theory - this method starts with a general question and then constructs a theory of the phenomenon based on the researcher’s actual observations of many specific experiences on the ground. “More qualitative”

Question 20

What is community-based participatory action research?

Answer 20

A methodology based on the assumption that knowledge, research, and effective social action can best be co-constructed among researchers and community participants, incorporating the strengths and perspectives of all the stakeholders involved in a particular set of issues.