Research Methods In The Study Of Life Span Development

Front 1

define the steps of formulating a research method

Back 1

involves a hypothesis then testing the hypothesis,drawing conclusions and making the findings available to others.

Front 2

define naturalistic observation

Back 2

involves watching people in their natural settings,in which there is no manipulation of the settings by the observer.

Front 3

define field experiments

Back 3

the observation takes place in a natural setting but there is some manipulation or control over variables.

Front 4

define controlled experiments

Back 4

performed in an labortory setting where much greater control over extraneous variables can take place.

Front 5

what are the three types of variables

Back 5

independant variable:they are manipulated by the experimenter
dependant variables:the outcome or the result
confounding varibles:things that may affect the result in an unanticipated way or were not controlled for the design of the experiment.

Front 6

define data collection

Back 6

information is obtained using observation,surveys or interviews and the information is then discussed in a case report.

Front 7

define cross-sectional studies

Back 7

when groups are studied at only one point in time

Front 8

define longitudinal studies

Back 8

when groups are studied at many different times.

Front 9

define sequential studies

Back 9

a combination of cross-sectional and longitudal studies and is the most complicated.

Hint 9

100 five year olds may be studied in the year 1998 and then in 2000 who are now seven years old along with another group of five year olds.

Front 10

define cohert differences

Back 10

differences that arise from the unique sociocultural factors to which people of different generations are exposed.

Hint 10

people entering college today are much more computer literate and comfortable with computers than any earlier generation.therefore a differnce between 20 year olds and 50 year olds on a computer-administered test might be due to cohert effects rather than age.

Front 11

define data analysis

Back 11

refers to statistical procedures that are due to make sense of the findings of a study.

Front 12

how does descriptive research and correlational research relate

Back 12

research that is descriptive is also called correlational which means that the variables are related but you can not say whether one caused the other

Front 13

give examples of descriptive statistics

Back 13

means,medians,modes,frequencies,simple correlations

Front 14

define inferential statistics

Back 14

they are used to determine if there is a significant difference between two or more scores or to determine if some score could occur just by chance.

Front 15

define informed consent
define privacy
define the use of deception

Back 15

means to say "yes" or "no" to participation also means to completely understand what one is consenting to.
privacy: participants have right to privacy and research is kept confidential by researcher, or it can be anonymous.
deception: some research must be done without the participants full knowledge but if deception is necessary participants must be breifed or told of the acutual hypothesis, after the study is over.ther needs to be very good justification for using decption in research.