Exam 1: Section 1: An Introduction to Child Development

Describe the results of Werner's Kauai study in terms of how children who encountered prenatal or birth challenges fared in different environments. What are the implications of these results for the nature‒nurture question? What kind of advice should be given to a hospital that deals with children born prematurely or with biological challenges?

Describe the results of Werner's Kauai study in terms of the effect of forming a close relationship with an adult outside the family on the outcomes for children who encountered prenatal or birth challenges. Are there any limitations on the ability to generalize from this study to other children who encountered prenatal or birth challenges? Or on the ability to generalize from this study to children in other parts of the United States or other parts of the world?

A researcher is interested in the impact of a new type of training diaper on the age at which toddlers become potty-trained. The researcher plans to split a group of 100 toddlers into two groups-in one group, members will wear the new training diapers until they are potty-trained, and in the other, members will wear their usual diapers. Answer these questions about this study: (1) What is the researcher's hypothesis? (2) How should the researcher split the 100 toddlers into two groups? (3) Which group is the experimental group, and which is the control group? (4) What is the independent variable? (5) What is the dependent variable? (6) What results will the researcher need in order to make a conclusion about the effectiveness of the new training diaper? (7) Will the researcher be able to conclude that there is a cause-and-effect association? Why or why not?

Researchers routinely decide on the optimum context in which to measure their variables of interest. Describe one variable for which a structured interview would be the ideal methodology, and explain why other methodologies would be unsuitable. Do the same for a variable for which naturalistic observation would be ideally suited and for a variable for which structured observation would be ideally suited.

Describe two advantages and two limitations of using interviews with children to examine their parents' disciplining practices.