What is reliability?
The degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent.
What is interrater reliability?
The amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behavior.
What is test-retest reliability?
The degree of similarity of a participant’s performance on two or more occasions.
What is internal validity?
The degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing.
What is external validity?
The degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the research.
What is continuous development?
The idea that changes with age occur gradually.
What is discontinuous development?
The idea that changes with age include occasional large shifts.
What is cumulative risk?
The accumulation of disadvantages over years of development.
What characteristics do resilient children tend to have? (3)
- Positive personal qualities (such as high IQ, easygoing personality, optimistic outlook). 2. Close relationship with at least one parent. 3. A close relationship with at least one adult other than their parents.
What is structured observation?
Researcher design a situation that will elicit behavior that is relevant to a hypothesis and then observe how different children behave in that situation.
What are the advantages of a structured interview? (2)
- Ensures that all children’s behaviors are observed in same context. 2. Allows controlled comparison of children’s behavior in different situations.
What are the disadvantages of a structured interview?
- Context is less natural than in naturalistic observation. 2. Reveals less about subjective experience than interviews.
What are the advantages of a interview/questionnaire? (3)
- Can reveal children’s subjective experience. 2. Inexpensive means for collecting in-depth data about individuals. 3. Allows flexibility for following up on unexpected comments.
What are the disadvantages of a interview/questionnaire? (3)
- Reports are often biased to reflect favorably on interviews. 2. Memories of interviewees are often inaccurate and incomplete. 3. Prediction of future behaviors often is inaccurate.
What are the advantages of naturalistic observation? (2)
- Useful for describing behavior in everyday settings. 2. Helps illuminate social interaction processes.
What are the disadvantages of naturalistic observation? (2)
- Difficult to know which aspects of situation are most influential. 2. Limited value for studying infrequent behaviors.
What is a microgenetic design?
A method of study in which the same participants are studied repeatedly over a short period of time.
What are the features of a microgenetic design?
Children are observed intensively over a relatively short period of time while a change is occurring (like first step).
What are the advantages of a microgenetic design? (2)
- Intensive observation of changes while they are occurring can clarify process of change. 2. Reveals individual change patterns over short periods in considerable detail.
What are the disadvantages of a microgenetic design? (3)
- Does not provide information about typical patterns of change over long periods. 2. Does not yield data regarding change patterns over long periods. 3. Hard to find correct transition point.
What are the disadvantages of a longitudinal design? (2)
- Difficult to keep all participants in study. 2. Repeatedly testing children can threaten external validity of study.
What are the advantages of a longitudinal design? (2)
- Indicates the degree of stability of individual differences over long periods. 2. Reveals individual children’s patterns of change over long periods.
What are the advantages of a cross-sectional design? (2)
- Yields useful data about differences among age groups. 2. Quick and easy to administer.
What is an accelerated longitudinal design?
Study cross sections over time (combine both cross and longitudinal studies).
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Research Methods26
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Prenatal Development and the Newborn69
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Biology of Behavior and Growth and Development52
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Perceptual Development29
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Theories of Cognitive Development30
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Theories of Cognitive Development 227
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Language Development29
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Development of Symbolic Reasoning5
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Children's Acquisition of Concepts and Categories15
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Intellectual Development and Academic Acheivement37
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Fantasy, Pretense, and the Imagination18
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Theories of Social Development22
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Emotional Development35
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Attachment28
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The Family13
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Stress and Coping12
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Peer Relations34
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Gender and Moral Development15
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Self and Identity8
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Final Test10
