Deck 12: Research Over Age and Time

Question 1

Describe what a cross-sectional design is and discuss one strength and one weakness of it.

Answer 1

A cross-sectional design compares participants of different age groups on a measure or behavior of interest. An advantage of using this design is that it is often the cheapest and fastest way to obtain data and can shed light on age-related differences. A weakness of this study is that it is hard to determine the process of change, and whether a cohort effect is at play.

Question 2

Describe what a longitudinal design is and discuss out one strength and three weaknesses.

Answer 2

A longitudinal design uses one group of participants and repeatedly measures them over a period of time. This approach generally involves at least two different time points at which participants are measured. A clear strength of this approach is that it allows researchers to make strong inferences about underlying processes of development and change.
This method also has several weaknesses. The biggest practical issue is that it involves long periods of time, and intense use of resources. A second weakness is that the participants undergo repeated testing, and in some cases it can influence the quality of the data and the validity of the findings. Finally, longitudinal studies often need to deal with subject attrition. If the study is over a long duration, some subjects might inevitably drop out influencing the sample size and might cause some selection bias.

Question 3

Describe what a cross-sequential design is, identify one challenge it helps other designs over come, and two weaknesses it has.

Answer 3

A cross-sequential design mixes cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. It involves recruiting at least two groups and following them for at least two time points to collect data. This approach helps cross-sectional designs overcome issues related to both cohort effect, and maintains the longitudinal design's ability to detect processes that are influencing change. However, it shares many weaknesses with longitudinal designs such as dealing with potential subject attrition, issues of repeated testing, and can also be resource intensive.

Question 4

Describe what a microgenetic design is, and discuss one strength and one weakness.

Question 5

Describe three challenges that developmental research faces

Question 6

The outcome of not having equivalent measures across two age groups is that…

A) one age group will always be at ceiling.
B) one age group will be always at floor while the other will be at ceiling.
C) the results are not valid but you might not be able to detect this.
D) the results are not valid, but are still reliable.

Question 7

Which of the following descriptions about research on topics related to change-over-time is most accurate?

A) Maturation is generally used to refer to issues related to one's experiences. whereas development is used to refer to only genetic influences on change.
B) Maturation is generally used to refer to issues related to one's genetic makeup, whereas development is a broader umbrella term.
C) Learning is generally used to refer to issues related to experience and maturation is generally used to refer to only issues related to the latter portion of one's life (adulthood through death).
D) Development is a broad umbrella term for learning and maturation that does not include aging.

Question 8

A researcher hopes to study how independence levels in children differ across age groups, but also how it develops across time. As an expert, what do you recommend (assuming resources are not an issue)?

A) A microgenetic approach
B) A cross-sectional approach
C) An accelerated longitudinal approach
D) A longitudinal approach

Question 9

One method of studying behavioral change over time is the microgenetic approach. What is not a feature of this research method?

A) This method involves following participants from different age groups over long periods of time.
B) This method can yield both qualitative and quantitative data.
C) This method allows researchers to understand transitions in behavior.
D) This method usually includes relatively few participants but the participants are measured often over a relatively short period.

Question 10

based on the abstract from a 1994 issue of Journal of Counseling and Development. The authors of the paper examined factors that predicted continued enrollment and academic standing in college students. Instructors are advised to use the reference below to retrieve the original abstract for their use.
Gerdes, H., & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 72(3), 281.
-The design of this study is…

A) longitudinal.
B) cross-sectional.
C) archival.
D) cross-sequential.

Question 11

based on the abstract from a 1994 issue of Journal of Counseling and Development. The authors of the paper examined factors that predicted continued enrollment and academic standing in college students. Instructors are advised to use the reference below to retrieve the original abstract for their use.
Gerdes, H., & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 72(3), 281.
-Which of the following is a valid implication of the findings?

A) Poor emotional and social adjustment to college caused students to drop out.
B) Good academic adjustment to college caused students to stay in the program.
C) If a student from the study dropped out, they likely had lower emotional and social adjustment scores than a student who had not dropped out.
D) Students who stayed in college had high levels of emotional, social and academic adjustment scores.

Question 12

based on the abstract from a 1994 issue of Journal of Counseling and Development. The authors of the paper examined factors that predicted continued enrollment and academic standing in college students. Instructors are advised to use the reference below to retrieve the original abstract for their use.
Gerdes, H., & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 72(3), 281.
-Based on the design of the study, which issue would be of largest concern to the researchers compared to using other possible designs?

A) Hawthorne effect
B) Subject attrition
C) Motivated responding
D) Cohort effects

Question 13

based on the abstract from a 1994 issue of Journal of Counseling and Development. The authors of the paper examined factors that predicted continued enrollment and academic standing in college students. Instructors are advised to use the reference below to retrieve the original abstract for their use.
Gerdes, H., & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 72(3), 281.
-If the researchers had instead only recruited individuals who had dropped out and those who showed strong academic achievement as their participants and taken measures of emotional and social adjustment just once to compare their differences, this would suggest that…

A) the researchers used a longitudinal design and likely used more resources.
B) the researchers used a cross-sectional design and likely used fewer resources.
C) the researchers used a cross-sequential design and used fewer resources.
D) the researchers used a cross-sectional design and likely used more resources.

Question 14

based on the abstract from a 1994 issue of Journal of Counseling and Development. The authors of the paper examined factors that predicted continued enrollment and academic standing in college students. Instructors are advised to use the reference below to retrieve the original abstract for their use.
Gerdes, H., & Mallinckrodt, B. (1994). Emotional, social, and academic adjustment of college students: A longitudinal study of retention. Journal of Counseling and Development: JCD, 72(3), 281.
-Which of the following is not true regarding the findings of the study?

A) Since the participants came from a single college, the findings might not be generalizable to students from other colleges within the same country.
B) Concluding that adjustment predicted attrition is not valid because the researchers could not randomly assign participants to either graduate college or drop out.
C) Since the participants came from the same country, the findings might not be generalizable to college students from other countries.
D) The findings reported in the abstract do not allow us to make conclusions about the role of adjustment and how successful an individual is in life after college.

Question 15

Which of the following is not a weakness or confound that comes with using a cross-sectional design?

A) Cohort effects
B) Intense use of resource and time
C) Finding equivalent measures
D) Underestimating of variability within age groups

Question 16

Which of the following are a potential weakness or potential confound with using a longitudinal design?

A) Trouble identifying underlying processes of change
B) Ability to detect change over time in at least two time points
C) Underestimating variability within age groups
D) Potential subject attrition

Question 17

Which type of design recruits multiple age groups and retains these participants over a period of time for repeated testing?

A) Cross-sectional
B) Cross-sequential
C) Longitudinal
D) Microgenetic

Question 18

Why must researchers be mindful of subject payments to maintain their participation in a longitudinal study?

A) Researchers usually do not have enough money to last the entire study because they need to pay for multiple sessions and most researchers run out of funds.
B) Participants only participate in paid research.
C) There are ethical concerns about voluntary participation if researchers pay too much to retain participants.
D) Researchers need to be ready to bargain a price with each participant.

Question 19

A researcher wants to understand how graduating seniors and incoming freshmen differ on their level of reading comprehension. He hopes to examine how much the individuals have learned over their four years in high school. An important part of his research is to examine individual changes over time and not just age-group differences. Which design is most appropriate for his research question?

A) The researcher should use a longitudinal design and measure the freshman's reading comprehension and again when they graduate as seniors.
B) The researcher should use a microgenetic design on a group of incoming freshmen and on a separate different group of graduating seniors.
C) The researcher should use a cross-sequential design, recruiting a sample of juniors and freshman and measure them for two years.
D) The researcher should use a cross-sectional design and compare incoming freshman to graduating seniors.

Question 20

How do the strengths of a longitudinal design overcome some of the shortcomings in a cross-sectional design?

A) Longitudinal designs are better at dealing with issues related to subject attrition than cross-sectional designs.
B) Longitudinal designs are less influenced by repeated testing.
C) Longitudinal designs are less influenced by changes of research team personnel over time.
D) Longitudinal designs are better at detecting processes of changes over time.

Question 21

A researcher is conducting a study on how 6- and 10-year-olds' working memory is associated with readings skills. Which of the following is a bigger concern than the others?

A) Subject attrition
B) Having equivalent measures
C) Repeated testing
D) The costs and resources involved in the study

Question 22

Which of the following is a key advantage unique to a microgenetic design that is difficult to achieve using other methods?

A) Microgenetic designs have easily determinable sampling intervals.
B) Microgenetic designs are focused on understanding key transitions.
C) Microgenetic designs help identify underlying processes for change.
D) Microgenetic designs do not need to worry about subject attrition.

Question 23

Which of the following descriptions is likely part of a microgenetic study?

A) A single observation of participants that are different ages
B) Multiple observations of one group of participants over a long period of time
C) Multiple closely spaced observations of one individual over a long period of time
D) Multiple observations of a group of participants in a short period of time

Question 24

A cross-sequential design generally requires which of the following?

A) No more than one age group
B) At least two age groups and no more than one observation per participant
C) At least two age groups and two observations per participants at different times
D) At least four groups of participants and two observations per participant at different times

Question 25

Aging, in the context of developmental research, usually refers to…

A) the part of life as infants become young children, teenagers, and finally adults.
B) the latter part of the lifespan.
C) the process by which genetic information guides change over time.
D) changes to the individual that enable them to learn new skills.

Question 26

based on the following description:
A team of researchers is interested in the way children's self-esteem changes during puberty and how it relates to parental warmth. They are particularly interested in how self-esteem changes within individuals over time. They recruit a sample of 50 11-year-olds and plan to examine them for the next 6 years.
-What kind of design would this be?

A) Cross-sectional
B) Cross-sequential
C) Longitudinal
D) Microgenetic

Question 27

based on the following description:
A team of researchers is interested in the way children's self-esteem changes during puberty and how it relates to parental warmth. They are particularly interested in how self-esteem changes within individuals over time. They recruit a sample of 50 11-year-olds and plan to examine them for the next 6 years.
-One of the researchers is making the argument that they need to determine the frequency at which they obtain data. What is this researcher trying to determine?

A) Generalizability
B) Sampling interval
C) Equivalent measures
D) Repeated sampling

Question 28

based on the following description:
A team of researchers is interested in the way children's self-esteem changes during puberty and how it relates to parental warmth. They are particularly interested in how self-esteem changes within individuals over time. They recruit a sample of 50 11-year-olds and plan to examine them for the next 6 years.
-If the researchers need to conduct this research in a shorter period of time, which of the following would be the best option to maintain their ability to answer their research question?

A) Microgenetic design
B) Cross-sequential design
C) Neuroimaging design
D) Cross-sectional design

Question 29

based on the following description:
A team of researchers is interested in the way children's self-esteem changes during puberty and how it relates to parental warmth. They are particularly interested in how self-esteem changes within individuals over time. They recruit a sample of 50 11-year-olds and plan to examine them for the next 6 years.
-Which of the following is not a challenge that the researchers are likely to face?

A) Working around subject attrition
B) Mitigating the influence of repeated testing
C) Having trouble determining processes of change
D) Effectively maintaining research personnel over time

Question 30

based on the following description:
A team of researchers is interested in the way children's self-esteem changes during puberty and how it relates to parental warmth. They are particularly interested in how self-esteem changes within individuals over time. They recruit a sample of 50 11-year-olds and plan to examine them for the next 6 years.
-Which of the following would be evidence that this research study was not well-motivated by past literature?

A) A body of literature did not find evidence that puberty impacts parental warmth.
B) A body of literature that suggests that puberty affects parental warmth.
C) A body of literature that did not find evidence that self-esteem impact how puberty progresses.
D) A body of literature that did not find evidence that self-esteem changes during puberty.

Question 31

Maturation is generally a catchall term for development, aging, learning, and change over time.

Question 32

Aging generally refers to the latter part of the lifespan.

Question 33

Cross-sectional designs generally take the longest to complete, compared to microgenetic and longitudinal.

Question 34

One weakness of a cross-sectional design is that they could have a difficult time distinguishing between different possible reasons that cause differences between age groups, including cohort effects.

Question 35

Cross-sectional designs tend to overestimate variability within an age group.

Question 36

Longitudinal research designs always recruit participants of various age groups and measures them at least on three different instances.

Question 37

Longitudinal designs can be heavily influenced by subject attrition, if the research is not able to effectively retain participants over the course of the study.

Question 38

A cross-sequential design incorporates aspects of both microgenetic and longitudinal designs.

Question 39

Cross-sectional designs can test directly for cohort effects.

Question 40

Seigler and Growley (1991) argue that one of the characteristics that defines a mcirogenetic approach is to have densely packed observations.

Question 41

One difference that microgenetic designs compared to longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches is that they are not influenced by repeated testing.

Question 42

Finding equivalent measures generally means to obtain measures equally valid for different participants in your study.

Question 43

Researchers using a cross-sectional design generally do not need to worry about determining appropriate sampling intervals between time points.

Question 44

Using payments is a method of retaining participants, although it might be difficult to determine the appropriate amount at times.