Chapter 1



Chapter 1

Learning Objectives

1. Describe what is meant by developmental change and discuss two general ways in which developmental changes can occur.

2. Describe three goals of developmentalists and distinguish between normative development and ideographic development.

3. Outline four general observations about the character of human development.

4. Differentiate between the terms “theory” and “hypothesis.”

5. Discuss the two qualities that scientific measures must have if they are to be useful.

6. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of interviews and questionnaires as methods of investigating developmental change.

7. Contrast the clinical method of gathering data with standard interviewing techniques.

8. Discuss some of the steps researchers can take to ensure data gathered using observational methods is unbiased, and outline the types of situations in which researchers might use structured observation.

9. Explain how case studies are compiled and discuss two major shortcomings in using case studies to investigate developmental change.

10. Discuss the main uses of ethnography in the study of development and outline the main limitations associated with this research method.

11. Discuss the main uses of psychophysiological methods in the study of development and outline the main limitations associated with these types of measures.

12. Explain how a correlation coefficient can be used to assess the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables, and identify the major limitation of correlational research designs.

13. Differentiate between the independent and dependent variables in an experimental study and explain why researchers use techniques such as random assignment when conducting experiments.

14. Explain the main differences between natural (quasi) experiments and laboratory experiments.

15. Explain the role of cross-cultural research studies in understanding human development.

16. Compare and contrast cross-sectional, longitudinal, sequential, and microgenetic research designs, and note the strengths and weakness of each design.

17. Outline the ethical standards that apply to psychological research.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download