W1 Conceptualising/Measuring Development

Question 1

What is development?

Answer 1

Systematic changes and continuities in an individual that occur
between conception and death.

Question 2

What is developing?

Answer 2

It is all the gains, losses, neutral

changes and continuities.

Question 3

What are the Challenges of Studying Development?

Answer 3

1. Thinking Across Time and Space.

It branches many different disciplines like, Cultural, Social, Behavioural, Neural, Physiological, Genetic.

2. Complex interactions.

Like Nature affects nurture as it is the basis of experience with the world, and nurture affect nature by changing epigenetics, how the gene is expressed.

Question 4

What are the 5 environmental systems in the Bioecological model?

Answer 4

Microsystem

Mesosystem

Exosystem

Macrosystem

Chronosystem: changes occur in a timeframe

Question 5

What is the Microsystem? Give examples.

Answer 5

The immediate physical and social environment. i.e. School, home, peer group.

Question 6

What is the Mesosystem? Give examples.

Answer 6

It’s the linkages between microsystems. How the micro systems affect each other. i.e. Problems at home lead to decreased performance at school.

Question 7

What is the Exosystem?

Answer 7

It’s the linkages between social system. Exo: outside.

The outside systems not directly connected to you, that affect you. Government changing educational laws, affecting schools, affecting you.

Question 8

What is the Macrosystem?

Answer 8

It’s the larger cultural context.
i.e. Western/Tech.

Know memes, do/don’t do customs etc.

Question 9

What are the aims of developmental psychology?

Answer 9

Describing, Explaining, Predicting, Optimising

Question 10

Give an example for Describing.

Answer 10

Normal development and individual differences.

Question 11

Give an example for Explaining.

Answer 11

Why Typical vs. individually different development.

Question 12

Give an example for Explaining.

Answer 12

This factor will cause people to grow up with this attribute.

AFS (Alcohol Foetal Syndrome) and IQ.

Question 13

What are the characteristics of a good theory?

Answer 13

Internally consistent (Logical),
Falsifiable,
Supported by data.

Question 14

What are Theories and Models?

Answer 14

A theory is aimed at a generalized statement aimed at explaining a phenomenon.

A model, on the other hand, is a purposeful representation of reality.

Question 15

What are the data collection techniques?

Answer 15

Reporting,
Behavioural Observations,
Neural / Physiological / Biological Measures.

Question 16

What are the pros/cons of Reporting?

Answer 16

+ Data collection with large groups
+ Ability to collect many measures

• Cannot be used with infants, young children, or
  those with reading or language difficulties
• Difficult to equate questions across age groups
• Self-presentation concerns (children might answer
  strategically instead of honestly)

Question 17

What are the pros/cons of natural Behavioural Observations?

Answer 17

+ Reflects behavior in the real world
+ Helpful for generating research questions and theories

• Difficult to identify causation
• Behaviours of interest might occur rarely
• Children may behave differently when being observed
• Observations can be biased

Question 18

What is Bias in Observation?

Answer 18

Early primatology
research focused on
male-dominated troops

Question 19

What is Naturalistic Observation vs Structured Observation?

Answer 19

Observing behaviour in natural
settings (e.g., at home or at school) vs Creating special conditions to elicit
behaviours of interest

Question 20

What are the pros/cons of Structured Behavioural Observations?

Answer 20

+ More control, less noise
+ Allows for more direct comparisons between children

• Concerns about whether behaviours in controlled
  environments will generalise to natural settings

Question 21

What are the pros/cons of Neural / Physiological / Biological Measures?

Answer 21

+ Hard to fake (or strategically change)
+ Don’t require an understanding of language or subject to do complex behaviours

• Can be difficult to interpret (e.g., does increased heart rate reflect anger or excitement?)

Question 22

What did the Hubbard and colleagues (2002) study cover?

Answer 22

Used all 3 collection methods including 2 types of report, teacher and self-report.

Children who showed more “hot” aggression in classroom showed more anger in task.

Difference was more pronounced in skin conductance and non-verbal behaviour
than self-report and heart rate

Question 23

What are the Research Methods?

Answer 23

Case studies, Correlational studies, Experiments, Meta-Analyses.

Question 24

What is a case study?

Answer 24

In-depth examination of an individual or small
number of individuals.

+ Rich information about complex or rare aspects of development

• Often difficult to generalize findings to other situations or groups

Question 25

What are Correlational good/bad for?

Answer 25

+ Can be used when it is unethical to manipulate variables of interest (e.g., studying the impact of divorce on cognitive development) + Allows for multiple factors to be examined - Cannot establish a causal relationship - Directionality problem (Does X cause Y or vice versa?) - Third variable problem (Is some other factor driving the correlation?)

Question 26

What are Experiments?

Answer 26

A variable is manipulated in order to see what effect this has on the measured variable • Independent variable (manipulated) • Dependent variable (measured) Three critical features of true experiments: • Random assignment • Manipulation of an independent variable • Experimental controls

Question 27

What are the pros/cons of experiments?

Answer 27

``` Strengths + Can establish cause and effect + Allows for careful controls Limitations - Concerns about generalizability to real world conditions - Interventions raise ethical concerns ```

Question 28

What are Meta-Analyses?

Answer 28

Synthesising | the results of many different studies

Question 29

What are the Developmental Research Designs?

Answer 29

Cross-Sectional Designs, Longitudinal Designs, Sequential Designs

Question 30

What is a Cross-Sectional Design? What are the pros/cons?

Answer 30

Compare the performances of people of different cohorts (same year or range of years) + Quick and easy to conduct (don’t have to wait for people to age) Limitations - Cannot reveal developmental change and constancy within individuals - Age effects and cohort effects are confounded

Question 31

What is a Longitudinal Design? What are the pros/cons?

Answer 31

Assess one group of the same individuals repeatedly over time • E.g., studying the a cohort of children from birth to 8 years of age ``` Strength + Allow researchers to follow specific developmental trajectories Limitations - Costly and time consuming - Some participants are not studied at each time point - Potential issues with repeated testing - Are results specific to the cohort? ```

Question 32

What is a Microgenetic design?

Answer 32

Microgenetic designs measure the same individual or group repeatedly in a relatively small timespan. Subcategory of longitudinal

Question 33

What is a Sequential Design? What are the pros/cons?

Answer 33

Combine the cross-sectional and longitudinal designs • E.g., studying the development of memory longitudinally in different age groups ``` Strengths + Can reveal age effects, cohort effects, and time-of-measurement effects (the effects of specific historical events) Limitations - Costly and time consuming - Potential issues with repeated testing ```

Question 34

Explain the concept of Reliability

Answer 34

Would similar results be observed if the study were repeated?

Question 35

Explain the concept of Validity

Answer 35

Are you sure your measuring what you think you’re measuring?

Question 36

Explain the concept of Replicability

Answer 36

Do other labs find the same result?

Question 37

What is Test-retest reliability?

Answer 37

If you give the same task/test/measure to the same group of participants, do participants perform similarly each time?

Question 38

What is Interrater reliability?

Answer 38

Do different researchers get the same results when they code (get conslusions from) the same data?

Question 39

What is Internal validity?

Answer 39

Are changes in the dependent variable driven by different levels of the independent or extraneous influences? • Did meditation improve memory, or was it just extra attention from the teacher?

Question 40

What is External validity?

Answer 40

Do the results generalize to other populations and | situations?

Question 41

What is Ecological validity?

Answer 41

Do the results generalize to real-world settings | (situations where the behaviours of interest would naturally occur)?

Question 42

What is the File-drawer problem in Replicability?

Answer 42

``` It can be tempting for researchers to re-run the same experiment with minor tweaks until they get the results they expect • It can be more difficult to publish studies that fail to show an effect • Researchers might put studies revealing null effects into the file drawer ```