Research Methods In
Developmental Psychology
Or – How do we figure out what is
important in development?
Research Journals
• Publish scholarly and academic information.
• Scholars publish most of their research in
journals.
• Articles are written for other professionals in the
field.
• Articles undergo intense scrutiny by a board of
experts in the field.
• Serve as the core of information in virtually every
academic discipline.
Journal Article Format
• Abstract- a brief summary of the article.
• Introduction- introduces the issue that is being studied
along with a concise literature review, theoretical
implications, and hypotheses.
• Method - provides a clear description of the experiment
and all its elements.
• Results - reports the analysis of the data collected.
• Discussion - presents conclusions, inferences, and
interpretations of findings.
• References - the bibliographic information for each
source cited in the article.
Ethics
• Ethics of research are concerned with the
well-being of subjects with regard to
physical and mental harm. Participants or
their parents must give informed consent.
• Systematic people (or
animal) watching.
– Advantages?
– Disadvantages?
Case Studies
• An in-depth look at an individual
• Used when unique aspects of a
person’s life cannot be duplicated
• Not readily generalizable
• Concern over reliability of judgments
made by single psychologist
Correlational Research
• Describes the strength of the
relation between two or more
events or characteristics.
• The more strongly two events are
correlated, the more effectively we
can predict one from the other.
• Correlation does not equal
causation.
Experimental Research
• This allows researchers to determine the causes
of behavior.
• It uses experimentation: carefully regulated
procedures in which one or more significant
factors is manipulated, and all others held
constant.
• Experimental research involves independent and
dependent variables, experimental groups,
control groups, and random assignment.
Definition of Independent and
Dependent Variables
• Independent variables are the
manipulated, influential,
experimental factors.
• Dependent variables are the
factors that are measured in an
experiment. They can change as
the IV is manipulated.
Quasi-Experimental Designs
• Many important research questions are
not answered easily using true
experimental designs.
• Ethically we cannot always control the
assignment of participants to conditions or
cannot manipulate the independent
variable.
• Quasi means “almost” or “approximately.
Meta-Analysis
• Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure
that allows a researcher to pool the data
from many studies on the same topic.
• In theory, a well done meta-analysis can
tell us more about a subject than one
study about the topic.
Time Span of Research
• The Cross-Sectional Approach
• The Longitudinal Approach
• The Sequential Approach
The Cross-Sectional Approach
Individuals of different ages are
compared at one time.
Pros Cons
– Study can be – Provides no
accomplished in a information about
short period of how individuals
time. change.
– Researchers don’t – Provides no
have to wait for information about
subjects to age. the stability of
characteristics.
The Longitudinal Approach
The same individuals are
studied over a period of time.
Pros Cons
– Provide a wealth of – Expensive and time
information about consuming.
stability and change – Subjects more likely
in development. to drop out due to
– Provide insight into moving, losing
the importance of interest, or illness.
early experience for – Subjects who remain
later development. may be more
compulsive and
conformity oriented.
The Sequential Approach
• A combination of the cross-
sectional and longitudinal
approach.
– Begins with a cross-sectional study of
individuals of different ages.
– Months or years later, the same
individuals are tested again along
with a new group of subjects for each
age level.
Cohort Effects
• Due to a person’s time of birth or
generation, but not to actual age.
• They can powerfully affect the dependent
measures in a study focused on age.
• Age changes in one cohort can be
examined and compared with age
changes in another cohort.
