PSY BEH 101D Lecture 18: Lifespan Chapter 1: Review #3 (part 18)
14 Jul 2018
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Crucial in developing hypotheses for the causes and sequences of behavior not cause-and-effect relationships. Needs to compare the impact of the independent variable on one group that receives the independent variable (the experimental group) and one group that does not (the control group) Biggest strengths of the survey method are that it is quick and direct. Biggest weakness is that answers may not be accurate. People may lie, want to come across favorably, or be influenced by the wording of the questions. Biggest advantage: useful in tracing development over many years. Disadvantages: dropout of participants, participants becoming increasingly aware of the questions or the goals of the study, and the influence of the historical context. Allows researchers to study several groups of people of different ages and then follow those groups over the years. Most time-consuming and complex, but it yields the best info. Just because two variables are correlated does not mean that one causes the other.
