Week 3: Aging Research Methods & Theory Flashcards
metamodels include 3 things
- mechanistic (nurture)
- organismic (nature)
- contextual/interactionist (both)
life-span developmental perspective
development:
- occurs over the entire life-span
- is related to societal and contextual influences
- is related to normative history-graded events
- multidisciplinary
- includes gains AND losses
- is plastic
TB: what are the similarities between the SOC model and the life-span perspective?
- development is plastic and behaviour can change over time
- organisms have both gains and losses
- contextual –> can change environment and organism can be changed
experimental research design
- independent and dependent variables
- manipulate independent variable
- random assignment of participants!!!!
- directional hypothesis
- cause and effect statements CAN be made
quasi-experimental research design
- describes naturally occurring events
- exploratory hypothesis
- categorical factors (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
- NO random assignment of participants!!!!
- cause and effect statements CANNOT be made
- multiple groups (studied and control)
cohort effects
social, historical, cultural influences present during childhood that influence behaviour
time of measurement effects
social, historical, cultural influences presently influencing behaviour
types of studies
- cross-sectional
- longitudinal
- time-lag
- sequential
- single vs multi-factor
- descriptive
- meta-analytic
cross-sectional
- observational
- quasi-experimental
- compare different population groups at a single point in time
- most commonly used design
cross-sectional limitations
- measures age-related differences, but cannot disentangle factors of age and cohort
- sampling bias
longitudinal
- observational
- quasi-experimental
- participants from one cohort are followed over time and tested/interviewed on two or more occasions
longitudinal limitations
- cannot disentangle factors of age and time of measurement
- selective attrition (losing participants)
- practice effects
- tests becoming outdated
- expensive
TB: what confounding factors could influence the results of the walking and stress study?
- environmental hurdles
- short-term vs long-term stress
- ability/inability to keep being mobile in older ages
- type of walking
single-factor design
- one independent variable
- two groups/levels compared
multi-factor design
- more than one independent variable
- manipulations of independent variables can be quantitative or qualitative
interaction
effect of one variable depends on the value of another variable
- look for equal in one group and different for the other
main effect
effect of one variable occurs regardless of the value of another variable
- look for patterns within different variables
pros and cons of between-subjects design
pros:
- no carry-over effects
- subjects can be naïve to hypothesis
cons:
- large sample size
- inter-individual variability
- difficult to create equivalent groups
pros and cons of within-subjects design
pros:
- smaller sample size
- more sensitive/powerful
- don’t have to worry about equivalent groups
cons:
- increased risk of contamination
- possible order effects
descriptive
- non-experimental
- no manipulation of variables
- can study correlation (R-values) between variables
descriptive limitations
- cause and effect statements CANNOT be made
reliability
extent to which the outcomes are consistent when the experiment is repeated more than once
validity
extent to which the instruments used in the experiment measure exactly what you want them to measure
inter-rater reliability
degree to which different raters give consistent estimates of same behaviour
test-retest reliability
stability of test over time
internal validity
accurate identification and interpretation of the factor(s) or effect(s) responsible for an observation
external validity
whether findings obtained from a sample of study participants can be generalized to the population of interest
ecological validity
whether the results obtained with a particular test instrument reflect real-world functioning/behaviour
TB: how can cohort sampling affect the outcome/validity of your study?
- different cohorts experience different life/historical events
- older adults are less flexible (more stress within lab setting) vs younger (less stress within lab setting)
