Term
| What are some common research methods? |
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Definition
1. Systematic observation
2. Self-reports
3. Clinical or case studies
4. Ethnographic |
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Term
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Definition
observation of behavior in natural contexts.
- Strengths: Reflects participants' everyday behavior.
- Limits: Can't control conditions undre which observations |
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Term
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Definition
observation of behavior in a lab, where conditions are the same for all participants.
- Strengths: grants each participant an equal opportunity to display the behavior of interest.
- Limit: may not yield observations typical of participants' behavior in everyday life. |
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Term
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Definition
flexible interviewing procedure in which the investigator obtains a complete account of the participant's thoughts.
- Strengths: comes as close as possible to the way participants think in everyday life.
- Limits: may not result in accurate reporting of information. |
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Term
| Structured interviews, questionnaires, and tests |
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Definition
self-report instruments in which each participant is asked the same questions in the same way.
- Strengths: permits comparisons of participants' responses and efficient data collection.
- Limits: does not yield the same depth of info as clinical interview. |
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Term
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Definition
methods that measure the relationship between nervous system processes and behavior.
- Strengths: revelas which central nervous system structures contribute to development and individual differences in certain competencies.
- Limits: cannot reveal with certainty the meaning of autonomic or brain activity. |
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Term
| Clinical, or case study, method |
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Definition
a full picture of one individual's psychological functioning, obtained by combining interviews, observations, test scores, and sometimes neurobiological assessments.
- Strengths: provides rich, descriptive insights.
- Limits: may be biased and cannot be applied to individuals other than the participants. |
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Term
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Definition
participant observation of a culture or distinct social. By making extensive field notes, the researcher tries to capture the culture's unique values and social processes.
- Strengths: provides a more complete description than can be derived from a single observational visit.
- Limits: may be biased by researcher's values and theoretical preferences. |
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Term
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Definition
| the observer records all instances of a particular behavior during a specified time period. |
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Term
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Definition
| in this procedure, the researcher records whether certain behaviors occur during a sample of short intervals. |
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Term
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Definition
| a major problem with systematic observation - the effects of the observer on the behavior studied. |
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Term
| How can we limit observer influence? |
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Definition
| An adaptation period, in which observers visit the research setting so participants can get used to their presence. |
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Term
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Definition
| danger in observational research, when observers are aware of the purposes of a study, they may see and record what they expect to see rather than what participants actually do. |
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Term
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Definition
| refers to the consistency, or repeatability, of measures of behavior. |
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Term
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Definition
| observers are asked to evaluate the same behaviors, and agreement between them. |
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Term
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Definition
| by comparing children's responses to the same measures on separate occasions. |
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Term
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Definition
they must accurately measure characteristics that the researcher set out to measure.
1. Internal validity
2. External validity |
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Term
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Definition
| is the degree to which conditions internal to the design of the study permit an accurate test of the researcher's hypothesis or question. |
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Term
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Definition
| the degree to which their finding generalize to settings and participants outside the original study. |
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Term
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Definition
researchers gather info on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, and make no effort to alter their experience. Then they look at relationships between participants' characteristics and their behavior or development.
- Strengths: permits study of relationships between variables.
- Limits: does not permit inferences about cause and effect relationship. |
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Term
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Definition
| a number that describes how two measures, or variables, are associated with each other: range from +1.00 to -1.00 and shows the strength of the relationship. |
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Term
| What is the sign of the correlation coefficient refer to? |
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Definition
the direction of the relationship.
- A positive sign means that as one variable increases, the other also increases.
- A negative sign means that as one variable increases, the other decreases. |
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Term
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Definition
| permits inferences about cause and effect because researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions. |
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Term
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Definition
| so closely associated that their effects on an outcome cannot be distinguished. |
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Term
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Definition
| of participants to treatment conditions are unbiased by drawing numbers out of a hat, which increases the chances that participants' characteristics will be equally distributed across treatment groups. |
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Term
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Definition
| participants are measured ahead of time on the factor in question, then children high and low on that factor are assigned in equal numbers to each treatment condition. The experimental group is deliberately matched. |
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Term
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Definition
researchers capitalize on opportunities to randomly assign participants to treatment conditions in natural settings.
- Strengths: permits generalization of experimental findings to the real world.
- Limits: control over the treatment is generally weaker than in a lab experiment. |
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Term
| Natural (quasi) experiments |
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Definition
treatments that already exist, such as different family environments, child-care centers, or schools, are compared. These studies differ from correlational research only in that groups of participants are carefully chosen to ensure that their characteristics are as much alike as possible.
- Strengths: permits generalization of experimental findings to the real world.
- Limits: control over the treatment is generally weaker than in a lab experiment. |
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Term
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Definition
participants are studied repeatedly at different ages, and changes are noted as they get older.
- Strengths: permits study of common patterns and individual differences in development and relationships between early and later events and behaviors.
- Limits: age-related may be distorted because of biased sampling. |
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Term
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Definition
under controlled lab conditions, the investigator manipulates an independent variable and looks at its effect on a dependent variable.
- Strengths: permits inferences about cause and effect relationships
- Limits: findings may not generalize to the real world. |
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Term
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Definition
the investigator studies groups of participants differing in age at the same time.
- Strengths: more efficient than the longitudinal design. Avoids problems of selective attrition in the field.
- Limits: does not permit study of ind |
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Term
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Definition
the investigator conducts several cross-sectional or longitudinal investigations (sequences). These might study participants over the same ages, but in different years.
- Strengths: permits both longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons. Also reveals cohort effects and enables tracking of age-related changes.
- Limits: may have the same problem as longitudinal and cross-sectional strategies, but design itself helps identify difficulties. |
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Term
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Definition
the investigator presents children with a novel task and follows their mastery over a sereis of closely spaced sessions.
- Strength: offers insights into how change occurs.
- Limits: requires intensive study of participants' moment by moment behaviors. |
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Term
| What are the special ethnic guidelines for research on research? |
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Definition
1. Protection from harm
2. Informed consent
3. Privacy
4. Knowledge of results
5. Beneficial treatments |
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Term
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Definition
| which involves weighing the costs to participants in terms of inconvenience and possible psychological or physical injury against the study's value for advancing knowledge and improving conditions of life. |
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Term
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Definition
| if there are any risks to the safety and welfare of participants that the research does not justify, then preference is always given to the research participants. |
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Term
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Definition
| people's rights to have all aspects of a study explained to them that might affect their willingness to participate. |
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Term
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Definition
| when researchers provides a full account and justification of the activities, occurs after the research session is over. |
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