PSYS150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Little Albert Experiment, Lev Vygotsky, Cognitive Test
Document Summary
Topic questions: defining developmental psychology, asking some big questions about development, examples of developmental psychology research topics, developmental research methods and challenges. Developmental psychology is the discipline that seeks to identify and explain the changes (in behaviour) that individuals undergo from the moment of conception until they die. Issues when conducting developmental research: sampling bias (representative sample?, observer effects (mother/teacher/researcher, selective attribution (problem in longitudinal studies, practice effects (repeated measures influences performance, validity/reliability of tests (tests of children modified adult tests) In the longitudinal approach the investigator studies the same subjects at a variety of ages as they develop. Inflexibility (stuck with sample and with the measures initially decided upon) Cross-sectional: different groups of children tested at each age. Time needed for data collection < 1 year. Longitudinal: same group of children tested at several ages. Time needed for data collection = 9 years. Longitudinal-sequential: different groups of children, each tested at 2 ages.
