1 Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development Don Hartmann Spring 2006 Supplementary Lecture 2: © Method I

2 Supplementary Readings Hartmann, D. P., & Pelzel, K. (in press). Design, measurement, and analysis in developmental research. In M. H. Bornstein & M. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology: An advanced textbook (5th. ed., pp.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Miller, S. A. (1998). Developmental research methods (2nd ed.). Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice ‑ Hall.

3 Overview Methods of Study. The Context: Should we let kids watch violence on TV (pp )? Preparing for class discussion of a current event—if time allows

4 Context: Violence in the Media Violence in the media is an important social problem with extensive history Ancient Greeks Plato versus Aristotle Contemporary Theorists: Freud, Lorenz: the catharsis hypothesis Bandura et al. Which theory is right? Let the data speak…

5 Theories & Facts

6 The Case Study More-or-less careful descriptions of the natural experiences of a single individual. E.g., case study described in the newspaper of a child who observed a movie in which the protagonist fed ground glass to the victim by disguising it in candy; the child viewer subsequently attempted to do the same thing to a dislike teacher.

7 Evaluating the Case Study Value: Suggests possible relationships (Heuristic value) Dangers: Accuracy of the description (bias or forgetfulness) on the part of the reporter Lying on the part of the individual The question of causality: What causes what? Concerns about generality: Just who would are the results generalizable to? Note: Dangers better known as Validity Threats—after Campbell et al.

8 Correlational Investigations Better name is ex post facto studies or studies of natural variation Investigator measures the two variables to be correlated (e.g., viewing TV violence & aggression) in a sample and correlates the two variables (e.g., study by Eron et al.) r

9 The Eron, Huesmann et al. Study  Studied th graders in rural upstate NY  Parental reports of TV viewing habits (a retrospective report)  Peer nominations used to measure the children’s aggressiveness  Longitudinal design (psychologists) better called cross-lagged panel design (sociologists)

10 More on Correlations Measure of strength of relationship or association with range from -1.0 to +1.0 Interpretations: -1.0 (perfect negative relationship): High score on one variable invariably goes with low score on the other (e.g., distance of nose from ceiling and nose from floor; % right and % wrong). Other negative correlations: High scores on one variable tend to go with low scores on the other (e.g., golf and bowling scores). rrrrrr

11 Still more on Correlations 0.0: No relationship (e.g., nose length and IQ) rrrrrrrrrrrrrr Other positive correlations: High score on one variable tend to go with high score on the other +1.0 (e.g., height and IQ) (perfect positive relationship): High score on one variable invariably go with high score on the other (e.g., height in inches and in centimeters).

12 And Correlations are Statistics

13 Evaluating Ex post facto Designs Correlation is a necessary--but not sufficient-- condition for causation Possibilities if X (e.g., viewing violent TV) & Y (acting aggressively) are correlated (  means causes): X  Y Y  X Z  X & Y

14 Summary of: Methods I First shot at Methods Go in Peace

15 Current Events & Social Development Topic: The effect of the Iraqi war on children Our approach Clarifying the issue (question) How to address the issue Resources

16 CED: Clarifying the Issue  Observing children or experiencing children?  Are we attempting to relate social development to the war as a background event in our life? (E.g., it’s there, but mom and dad don’t say anything about it.)  To observing scenes of the war? What scenes? (E.g., heroism, destruction, dead children?)  And in what context? (E.g., mom and dad saying how sad it is that people deal with issues that way.)

17 CED: Looking for an Answer Does psychological theory or research data speak to the issues? Does theory and/or data speak to the issues directly or indirectly? Indirectly only: Effects of war on participants Effects of viewing violence Effects of parental socialization

18 CED: References A formal search Text: War; Nothing Violence: See under TV Socialization by parents: See under parents and parenting. Other texts on social development & abnormal psychology WEB—some winners!

19 CED: References More WEB: !PsychInfo: 99 entries under war & children !Card catalogue