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Psyc311 – Development Psychology
Ch 01Research Methods
Developmental Periods
• Prenatal (conception to birth)• Infancy (birth to 18-24 mos)• Early Childhood (2-5 years)• Middle Childhood (6-11 years)• Adolescence (10-12 to 18-21 years)• Early Adulthood (20s to 30s)• Middle Adulthood (40s to 50s)• Late Adulthood (60-70s to death)
Developmental Periods
• Prenatal (conception to birth)• Infancy (birth to 18-24 mos)• Early Childhood (2-5 years)• Middle Childhood (6-11 years)• Adolescence (10-12 to 18-21 yrs)• Early Adulthood (20s to 30s)• Middle Adulthood (40s to 50s)• Late Adulthood (60-70s to death)
Age Group 1
Age Group 2
Age Group 3
Week Tues Thurs Topic/Reading
1/11Intro to Devel; Syllabus
Ch 1. Research Methodology Section 1: Introduction
1/18Grp Research Proposal Q/
Psyc Info: Look up articles Ch 4-6 Section 3: Infancy
1/25Grp Article Summary -- Intro;
Methods Section Ch 4-6 Section 3: Infancy
2/1Ch 4-6; Grp Proposal
Discussion Ch 4-6; Taking Sides Section 3: Infancy
2/8 Ch 7-8 Ch 7-8; Grp Prop 1st Draft Section 4: Early Childhood
2/15 Ch 7-8 Ch 7-8; Taking Sides Section 4: Early Childhood
2/22 Exam 1 Ch 11-12; Obs Journal 1 Section 6: Adolescence
3/1 Ch 11-12 Ch 11-12 Section 6: Adolescence
3/8 No Class: Spring Brk No Class: Spring Brk
3/15 Ch 11-12; Grp Prop 2nd Draft Ch 11-12; Taking Sides Section 6: Adolescence
3/22Grp Prop Peer Review; Obs
Journal 2 Grp Prop Peer Review; Ch 13-14 Section 8: Early Adulthood
3/29 Ch 13-14 Ch 13-14 Section 8: Early Adulthood
4/5 Exam 2 Ch 17-19 Section 9: Late Adulthood
4/12 Ch 17-19 Ch 17-19; Grp Prop Final Draft Section 9: Late Adulthood
4/19 Grp Presentations Grp Presentations
4/26READING DAY;
Volunteer Project Due
Obs Journal 3 or Exam 3 and Final exam:
10:50 class - 5/1, 8-11am 1:40 class - 5/4, 12-3pm
top choices for topicssocial/moral development
self/personality/identity development
developmental disorders (e.g., ADHD, autism)
romantic relationships (dating, marriage)
emotional development
health issues/problems
parenting/family relationships
friends/peer relationships
puberty/sexual development
death/dying
pretend play/imagination
gender development
effects of aging -- physical, cognitive, social
Characteristics of Development• Lifelong• Multidimensional
– Biological, cognitive, socio-emotional• Multidirectional
– Expansion/contraction• Plastic
– Gene/environment interaction• Multidisciplinary• Contextual
– Age-graded influence– History-graded influence– Non-normative (individual)
Developmental Science
Five steps1. Ask a (developmental) research
question.
Developmental Science
Five steps1. Ask a (developmental) research
question.2. Develop a hypothesis.
Developmental Science
Five steps1. Ask a (developmental) research
question.2. Develop a hypothesis.3. Construct a methodology to test
your hypothesis.
Developmental Science
Five steps1. Ask a (developmental) research
question.2. Develop a hypothesis.3. Construct a methodology to test
your hypothesis.4. Draw a conclusion.
Developmental Science
Five steps1. Ask a (developmental) research
question.2. Develop a hypothesis.3. Construct a methodology to test
your hypothesis.4. Draw a conclusion.5. Share your findings.
Research questions
Does god exist?• Is this a good research question?
•NO!!
Research questions
Good research questions must involve something that can be empirically defined and measured.
• Operational definition– the description of the variable of interest in
measurable terms.
• So, how might we operationally define:– Aggression– Happiness
• Measurement– Device used to detect the events/phenomena
to which the operational definition refers.With this in mind, let’s generate some
research questions of our own.
• Which is the best research q?– A) Alcoholic parents tend to neglect their
children more than non-alcoholic parents.– B) What factors influence high school
dating?– C) Does the frequency and graphic quality
of violence in video games influence levels of anti-social thinking in adolescent males?
– D) How much longer until class is over?– E) None of these are good.
Developing hypotheses
• Developing a hypothesis: – What do you think you’ll find?
• Why?– That is, what is your
(theoretical/conceptual/empirical) justification for you hypothesis?
Testing hypotheses• How are you going to test your
hypothesis?
• Non-experimental Design– Observation of variables of interest
• Experimental Design– Manipulation of variables of interest
Testing hypotheses
Types of measurement• Subjective measures
– Introspective reports– Survey/Questionnaire
• Objective measures– Standardized testing– Naturalistic observation
• Physiological Measurements– fMRI, galvanic skin response– Levels of hormones, neurotransmitters
Research designs• Case study• Target age group• Developmental – several age groups
• Cross sectional• Benefits – cheap way to capture change over time• Problems – cohort effect and other group differences• Longitudinal• Benefits – confidence that change being captured is
genuine change• Problems – reduction of sample size and learning
effect• Cross-sequential
Time 1 Time 2
2nd
4th
6th
4th
6th
8th
Time 1 Time 2
2nd
4th
6th
4th
6th
8th
Design considerations• Validity• Being able to draw accurate inferences
(conclusions) about what you are studying from your measurements
• Invalid in definition– Examples?
• Invalid in detection (measurement)– Examples?
• Reliability• The tendency for measurement to produce the same
results when used in the same way (or under the same conditions).– Type 1 error (false positive)– You want a measurement that is stable enough that it won’t
detect changes in your variable when changes haven’t actually occurred.
• Power• The tendency for measurement to produce different
results when used in different ways (or under different conditions). – Type 2 error (false negative)– You want a measurement that is sensitive enough to detect
changes in your variable when changes actually occur…
population and sample
• You are asking a question about behavior in a given population– It is difficult (if not
impossible) to ever study an entire population – so what do we study instead?
teenagers
population and sample
• You are asking a question about behavior in a given population– It is difficult (if
not impossible) to ever study an entire population – so what do we study instead?
• a sample.
teenagers
• How do we make sure that we can accurately generalize from a sample to a population?
• We choose a representative sample.– controlled or random
sampling
28
describing data
•Central tendency
•mode—most frequent
29
describing data
•Central tendency
•mode—most frequent
•mean—average
Μ = 3.27
30
describing data
•Central tendency
•mode—most frequent
•mean—average•median—
middle
31
describing data
•Central tendency•mode—most
frequent•mean—average•median—middle•Each of these
tells us something different about our data.
normal distribution• Many things tend to
be normally distributed in a given population.
• So, we should expect most people to fall somewhere close to the middle, with the extreme cases being less frequent.
IQ is normally distributed.
mean
33
describing data
•Variability– range
7 – 1 = 6
relationships between variables
• What is a correlation?• Relationship between two variables
– A is related to B– Positive relationship: A+/B+, A-/B-– Negative relationship: A+/B-, A-/B+
what kind of correlation?• As a person gets angrier, they also get
more violent.– A) Positive correlation– B) Negative correlation
• Positive. As anger increases, violence increases.
• As a person gets older, they start to remember fewer vocabulary words.– A) Positive correlation– B) Negative correlation
• Negative. As age increases, vocabulary memory decreases.
• As calorie consumption drops, people have less energy.– A) Positive correlation.– B) Negative correlation.
• Positive. As calorie consumption decreases, energy levels decrease (so variable movement is happening in the same direction).
relations between variables: causation
Ultimately, we are typically interested in whether or not one variable causes another.
T/F: All variables that are causally related are correlated.
T/F: All variables that are correlated are causally related.
38
•Two variables are correlated– X Y
•three possible relationships
X causes Y
Y causes X
Z causes both X and Y
– with correlation, we cannot know which it is.
third variable problem: Classic example
+
+
41
experimentation
•To establish causation, we must conduct an experiment.
•Experimentation requires manipulation
•A B
•A is the independent variable -- manipulated• e.g., amount of television violence watched
•B is the dependent variable -- measured• e.g., amount of aggressive behavior exhibited
Violent TV
Non-violent TV
experimentation
• In the case of a 3rd variable, you have two choices:
• Manipulate and measure x & y, while controlling for z.
or• Manipulate and
measure x, y, & z.
randomization (controls for 3rd variable)
• used when z is not important for the study
selected groups (measures influence of 3rd variable)
• Used when z is important for the study Adult supervision No adult supervision
other considerations: drawing conclusions
• Internal validity– Study is designed so that you are able to draw
accurate inferences about causal relation between independent and dependent variables.
• External validity– Study designed so that your independent and
dependent variables are defined in natural/realistic way.
• You can have internal validity but not have external validity – why?
other considerations: biases
• Biases in observation– Participant biases
• Demand characteristics
– Observer biases• Confirmation bias
Double-blind experiments
other considerations: ethics
• Ethical practices– Informed consent– Debriefing– Special considerations for children
• Are there things we shouldn’t study?
Final steps
• Drawing conclusions– What kinds of conclusions can you
draw?– Can you generalize to a population?
• How broad of a population?
– Limitations
• Sharing your findings– Conference presentations– Publications
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