PSYC 320 Lesson 2

doesn't involve a prediction

• - structured observation
• - clinical interview
• - naturalistic observation

field experiment

findings cannot be applied to individuals other than the participant

structured observation

structured observations

structured interview

measures of autonomic nervous system activity

culture

reliability

inference about cause and effect

correlational

independent

dependent

a research design in which the investigator studies already existing treatments in natural settings by carefully selecting groups of participants with similar characteristics

biased sampling

because they are an efficient strategy for describing age-related trends

• - it controls cohort effects
• - it makes longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons
• - the design is efficient

debriefing is used when the research involves deception

whether or not the research reflects what it was intended to measure

involves assessing whether the patterns and themes identified by the researcher are grounded in evidence and are plausible

• - examines relationships between variables without altering the people's experiences
• - do not permit cause-and-effect inferences
• - used when it is difficult or impossible to control the variables of interest

measures the association between variables

• - permits cause and effect inferences
• - independent variable is manipulated by exposing groups of participants to two or more treatment conditions
• - random assignment and matching

reduce the internal validity of experimental findings

• - achieve a high degree of control
• - findings may not apply to everyday life
• - less precise and rigorous than true experimental design

researchers randomly assign participants to treatment conditions in the real world

compare existing treatments involving groups of people whose characteristics are much alike

• - participants are studied repeatedly at different ages
• - used to identify common patterns and individual differences in development
• - used to find the relationship between early and later events and behaviors

• - biased sampling
• - selective attribution
• - practice effects
• - changes in accepted theories and methods during long term studies
• - validity threatened by cohort effects

difficulty generalizing to children growing up during different time periods

- groups of participants differing in age are studied at the same time

benefit: avoids problems of selective attention, practice effects, theoretical and methodological changes in field

problems: limited to comparisons of age-group averages; can be threatened by cohort effects

• - allows researchers to test for cohort effects
• - makes longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons
• - gathers information about developmental efficiency

- researchers track change as it occurs to gain insights into processes of development

• - time required for children to change is hard to anticipate
• - practice effects can bias findings

the investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has an equal opportunity to display the response

Benefits: gives all children same opportunity to display behaviors

Problems: not always representative of everyday, true life

• - an observation on the child's behavior or development
• - may be natural and accurate but less controlled
• - may be controlled but less accurate
• - can be quick but is then limited with a small amount of data
• - can be long but is then more general with a wide amount of data

an observational procedure in which the researcher records all instances of a particular behavior during a specified time period

• Strength:
• - efficient due to information on only one or a few kinds of behavior being needed
• - can be used to study infrequent behaviors
• - notes antecedents and consequences of behavior

• Weaknesses:
• - focus on only one or a few behaviors
• - does not have as much detail as running record

researcher records whether certain behaviors occur during a sample of short intervals

stregths: efficient, quick

weakness: short time period so all behaviors might not be observed

interview method in which the researcher uses a flexible, conversational style to probe for the participant's point of view

• strengths:
• - very close to how participants think in every day life
• - greath breadth and depth of information can be obtained in a short time

• weakness:
• - may not be an accurate reporting of info
• - flexible procedure makes comparing difficult

interview method in which each participant is asked the same questions in the same way

• strengths:
• - permits comparisons of responses
• - efficient data collection
• - researchers can specify answer alternatives that may not be thought of in an open ended interview

• weakness:
• - does not yield same depth of information as a clinical interview
• - responses are subject to inaccurate reporting

• - research methods that measure relationship between physiological processes and behavior
• - measures of autonomic nervous system
• - measures of brain funcitoning

• - EEG
• - ERP
• - fMRI
• - PET
• - NIROT

• - electroencephalogram
• - researchers examine brain wave patterns for stability and organization (signs of mature functioning of the cortex)

• - event related potentials
• - detects the general location of cortical activity when a child processes a particular stimulus
• - used to study pre-verbal infants' responsiveness to various stimuli
• - used to study impact of experience on development of regions of cerebral cortex
• - used to study atypical brain functioning in children at risk for learning and emotional problems

• - yield detailed, three-dementional computerized pictures of the enitre brain and its active areas
• - provides most precise information about which brain regions are specialized for certain capacities and about abnormalities in brain funcitoning

• - functional magnetic resonance imaging
• - child lies in tunnel-like apparatus
• - detects increases in blood flow and oxygen metabolism throughout the brain magnetically
• - yields colorful and moving picture parts of the brain used to perform a given activity
• - not suitable for infants and young children (required to remain as motionless as possible)

• - pasitron emission tomography
• - uses x-ray photography
• - requires injection of a radioactive substance
• - not suitable for infants and young children (required to remain as motionless as possible)

• - near infrared optical topography
• - new brain imaging method that works well in infancy and early childhood
• - infrared light is beamed at regions of cerebral cortex
• - measures blood flow and oxygen metabolism while child attends to a stimulus

• ethnographic method
• - entering into close contact with social group
• - researchers can understand the beliefs and behaviors of its members in a way not possible in interview or questionnaire

the consistency, or reatability, of measures of behavior

the extent to which methods in a research study accurately measure what the investigator set out to measure

the degree to which conditions internal to the design of the study permit an accurate test of the researcher's hypothesis or question

the degree to which their findings generalize to settings and participants outside of the original study

• - research design in which investigator gathers information on individuals without altering their experiences
• - then examines relationships between participants' characteristics and their behavior or development
• - does not permit inferences about cause and effect
• - used when the instances and conditions of interest are difficult or impossible to arrange and control and must be studies as they currently exist

• - a number, ranging from +1.00 to -1.00
• - describes the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

• - the variable the researcher expects to cause changes in another variable in an experiment
• - manipulated when researcher exposes participants to the treatment conditions

• - the variable the researcher expects to be influenced by the independent variable in an experiment
• - manipulated as it changes as controls the independent variable

researchers capitalize on opportunities to randomly assign participants to treatment conditions in natural settings

• strengths:
• - permits generalization of experimental findings to the real world

• weakness:
• - control over the treatment is generally weaker than in a laboratory experiment

the investigator compares already existing treatments in the real world, carefully selecting groups of participants to ensure that their characteristics are as much alike as possible

strengths: permits study of many real-world conditions that cannot be experimentally manipulated

weaknesses: findings may be due to variables other than the treatment

• - participants studied repeatedly at different ages
• - time span ranges from a few months to a lifetime

• strengths:
• - researchers can identify common patterns as well as individual differences in development
• - permits investigators to examine relationships between early and later events and behaviors

• weakness:
• - biased sampling
• - samples become more biased as investigation proceeds
• - participants' experience can interfere with studies' validity
• - cultural historical change

failure to select participants who are representative of the population of interest in a study

selective loss of participants during an investigation, resulting in biased sample

changes in participants' natural responses as a result of repeated testing

the effects of cultural-historical change on the accuracy of longitudinal and cross-sectional findings

• groups of participants of different ages are studied at the same point in time
• - avoid problems such as selective attrition, practice effects, or changes in the field that might make the findings obsolete
• - efficient for describing age-related trends

investigators conduct several similar cross-sectional or longitudinal studies at varying times

• a comparison of the costs of a research study 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
• - used in assessing the ethics of research

the right of research participants, including children, to have explained to them, in a language they can understand, all aspects of a study that might affect their willingness to participate

providing a full account and justification of research activities to participants in a study in which deception was used

• - protection from harm
• - informed consent
• - privacy
• - knowledge of results
• - beneficial treatments