Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development

1. Psychology 3260: Personality & Social Development Don Hartmann Spring 2006 Supplementary Lecture 03: Method II

2. Overview • Developmental Methods of Study (continued) • True Experiments • Laboratory versus naturalistic • Group versus single-subject • Developmental Methods • Developmental function vs. Individual Differences (IDs) • The FAT variables: Age, Cohort, & Time of Assessment • The simple designs, their advantages and disadvantages, including confounding • introduction to sequential designs

3. Evaluating Laboratory Vs. Naturalistic Experiments • Artificiality of Laboratory versus the control it affords over the phenomena studied • Laboratory studies illustrate Bronfenbrenner’s concerns that child psychology is increasing “..the science of the strange behavior of children in strange situations with strange adults.”

4. Do Times Really Change?

5. Individual Subject Experiments • Randomly assign TV content (either an aggressive or a non-aggressive TV program) to, for example, days for the child (IV) • Measure aggression following the TV program (DV) • The data might look like…

6. Individual Subject Experiments Aggressive Responses Day

7. Evaluating Experiments • Clarify the causal connection between variables. • McCall: “…experiments tell us what can cause a developmental change, but do not necessarily identify the factors that actually do cause changes in natural settings.”

8. Perhaps the Real Answer… • Convergent REPLICATION—or replications that converge! (Remember “Cold Fusion:” When replication failed…like BIG!)