Announcements Reminder: exam #1 a week from today Need to check with me regarding clinical paper topic. Deadline Oct. 3 rd Upcoming assignment: parent interview. See handout.
Research Methods
Types of Investigations 1.Naturalistic or Observational Studies (correlational studies; studies with quasi- experimental designs) A.Characteristics of correlational studies B.Relationships/Causality e.g. Harvard students/SAT e.g. TV watching and aggression in children (see next slide)
TV and aggression Headlines: “TV Time Yields Violence” (The Boston Globe) “Just an hour of TV time a day leads to violence” (Reuters)
Relationships/Causality Three ways that relationships can work: 1.TV causes aggression 2.Aggression causes TV watching (e.g. no friends, time to kill) 3.Third variable causes them both Example: health of babies born to smoking and nonsmoking parents
Classic Experimental Studies Need to meet two conditions: 1.Random assignment to groups 2.Experimental control Steps to design an experimental study 1.Operationalize independent and dependent variables 2.Randomly assign participants to groups
Classic Experimental Studies Conclusions/limitations: 1.Greatest strength is causality 2.Main problem is inability to use random assignment 3.generalizability
Single Subject Design (Case studies and within subject designs) 1.Case studies Used to figure out what might be important Used when situation or disorder is very rare 2.Single subject designs Used to assess change in behavior related to an intervention A – B – A –B design
Time Frame of Studies 1.Cross sectional research Cheaper, easier but can’t look at change over time 2.Prospective longitudinal design Capture developmental processes but time- consuming 3.Accelerated longitudinal design Cohort sequential design
Pedro-Carroll & Cowan divorce intervention study Intro.: Establishes importance of research Reviews prior research Highlights gaps, builds Didn’t address developmental impact of divorce Doesn’t address divorce vs. prior conditions Why chose particular areas??
Divorce intervention study cont’ Methods: strengths: 1.Low dropout rate 2.Control group and random assignment 3.Range of sources of info./measurements weaknesses: 1.Expectancy effects 2.Variability in post divorce time 3.No attention control group – reactivity? 4.No info. on measures used
Review for exam Know everything Developmental psychopathology model Risk/resilience/protective factors Several questions on research methods and interpretation of findings –Be able to design a study –Be able to interpret results from each method (what can you know and not) Divorce article and discussion in class Importance of development in child psychopathology