Deck 3: How We Study Development

Question 1

One important reason why a researcher might choose to collect data using observations is that

A) the data are easier to interpret than data collected using other research methods.
B) observations can capture behavior as it naturally occurs.
C) the conclusions can be more easily generalized to other groups of children.
D) we can draw causal inferences from our observations.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The norm for a standardized test represents

A) the average or typical performance of a child of a given age on a specific test.
B) the size of the sample that is used to develop the test items.
C) other tests that measure the same or similar qualities or characteristics.
D) the highest and lowest score that any child gets on the test.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Inter-rater reliability is established when:

A) many researchers have used the same measure in their research.
B) a measure has been used with a variety of different samples.
C) more than one observer looks at the same behavior and gets the same results.
D) a sample has the same characteristics as the population from which it is drawn.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

If we conduct a research study using a sample of 14- to 16-year old adolescents attending school in ethnically-diverse middle class communities, we could correctly generalize our results to

A) all adolescents between the ages of 14 to 16.
B) all middle class adolescents.
C) all middle class adolescents between the ages of 14 to 16.
D) adolescents who have characteristics similar to those of the sample.

Question 5

When a researcher conducts a clinical interview, the interviewer

A) asks everyone the same set of questions in the same order.
B) asks questions from a standard set of questions, but in random order from one respondent to another.
C) talks to a third party who is familiar with the experiences of the person who is the subject of the interview.
D) can ask additional questions based on the respondent's answers or ask the respondent to expand on an answer.

Question 6

As part of research study, a researcher decides that she will use the number of pieces of junk mail that a family receives each week as an indicator of how wealthy the family is. If we do not have a good reason to believe that these two things are related, her measure of family wealth is

A) unreliable.
B) not valid.
C) unstandardized.
D) multidimensional.

Question 7

When we use our observations to make a detailed record of everything that occurs in a stream of behavior, we can

A) carefully control and manipulate the variables we are interested in.
B) infer the causes of the behaviors that we are observing.
C) generalize our results to other children in similar circumstances.
D) use it to generate new hypotheses for future research.

Question 8

A researcher who is conducting observations to test her own hypothesis may see or pay more attention to behavior that tends to support that hypothesis, so she must guard against

A) premature interpretation.
B) causal references.
C) observer bias.
D) sampling bias.

Question 9

One of the advantages of using physiological measures when conducting research is that

A) they do not require that the participant be able to use language.
B) you can utilize multiple methods to collect the data.
C) data can be gathered quickly and efficiently.
D) the interpretation of the data is always clear and straightforward.

Question 10

Applied developmental research is research that:

A) has the primary purpose of adding to our theoretical understanding of the process of development.
B) provides information that is interesting and important.
C) uses the scientific method to try to reach valid conclusions.
D) is intended to help us make changes that will improve the lives of children.

Question 11

One of the advantages of doing research by using observations is that we can

A) determine the causes of behavior.
B) observe behavior as it naturally occurs.
C) compare a single individual to an entire group of individuals.
D) generalize our results to most populations.

Question 12

A controversy surrounding the use of intelligence tests by the U.S. Army during World War I and World War II centered around whether

A) the achievement items were better predictors of abilities than the performance items.
B) a larger number of items would improve the accuracy of the tests in placing recruits in specific jobs.
C) group differences in scores reflected inherent differences in mental abilities or were biased against members of certain groups.
D) the tests were useful for assessing individuals who were older than their mid-twenties.

Question 13

Research that has the primary goal of satisfying our curiosity and increasing our understanding of the world we live in is called:

A) fundamental research.
B) basic research.
C) scientific research.
D) primary research.

Question 14

If you were interested in studying what causes disagreements among friends in middle school and how those disagreements are resolved, an appropriate technique to use to study this topic would be

A) a time sample.
B) a case study.
C) a path analysis.
D) an event sample.

Question 15

You are interested in looking at the relationship between education and well-being. You decide that you will use the number of years of schooling completed as the way you will measure level of education. This step in the scientific method is called:

A) operationalizing the concept.
B) establishing the validity of your measure.
C) determining if your measure is reliable.
D) standardizing your measure.

Question 16

When we use observations to conduct research

A) we are able to identify the causes of the behavior we observe.
B) we can be certain that we are seeing behavior as it naturally occurs.
C) it does not tell us directly about the causes of the behaviors we see.
D) they cannot help us to formulate new hypotheses that we can later test.

Question 17

The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT) program are used by many colleges as part of the admissions process because

A) they are free from bias and give every student an equal chance of being admitted.
B) when taken together with high school grade point average (GPA) they predict college GPA better than high school GPA alone.
C) they are designed to give an advantage to traditionally underrepresented groups of students.
D) these tests are able to detect differences in inherent ability or aptitude between students.

Question 18

When Piaget was conducting his research, he might present a story and then ask children questions about it. There were some questions he asked every child, but there also were questions that were specifically tied to the child's initial response. Piaget was using a ____________ to conduct his research.

A) standardized interview
B) a modified interview
C) clinical interview
D) flexible interview

Question 19

Professor Tyrone is interested in studying how the use of media (such as having the television on, answering text messages, or listening to an I-pod) affects students' ability to study for their courses. It would be better if she got permission to look up the students' grade point average than to simply ask the students to self-report their grade point average because

A) they might not correctly report their grade point average in an attempt to make themselves look better to the researcher.
B) students don't pay much attention to grades, so many may not have this information in their memory.
C) grade point averages change so frequently that it is difficult for students to accurately recall what it is.
D) it won't be clear to students what information Professor Taylor is looking for when she asks about their grade point average.

Question 20

One of the disadvantages of using surveys to conduct research is that

A) respondents may not be able to accurately recall and report on the behavior covered by the survey.
B) it is a very expensive and time-intensive method of collecting data.
C) the researcher must develop norms for the responses and update those norms periodically.
D) the researcher must be sure that the groups of participants who answer the questions are comparable in as many ways as possible.

Question 21

In an experiment, the difference between the experimental group and the control group is that

A) the experimental group is always larger than the control group.
B) the control group knows what is being tested in the experiment, but the experimental group is "blind" to the purpose of it.
C) the experimental group gets the special treatment that the researcher is studying and the control group doesn't.
D) the control group is always tested before the experimental group is.

Question 22

Because the participants who drop out of a longitudinal study are likely to be different in some ways from those who remain until the end of the study

A) the conclusions drawn from longitudinal studies are seldom reliable.
B) the sample that is initially representative becomes increasingly biased over time.
C) there will be a cohort effect upon the final results.
D) attrition will make the sample more representative over time.

Question 23

Which of the following correlations is the strongest?

A) +.25
B) -.82
C) +.63
D) -.11

Question 24

Attrition is a problem for longitudinal studies because

A) all participants are not at equal risk of being lost from the study over time.
B) you cannot add new measures to the study as it goes on.
C) all groups in the study must be as much the same as you can possibly make them.
D) it creates a cohort effect among the participants.

Question 25

The __________ variable is the one that the researcher controls or manipulates in the experiment and the _________? variable is the outcome that is measured at the end of the experiment.

A) dependent; independent
B) independent; control
C) dependent; concluding
D) independent; dependent

Question 26

Research that has measured the event-related potentials (ERPs) of infants found that infants paid more attention to a stimulus when their caregivers

A) reacted to the stimulus in a negative way than in a positive way.
B) appeared to be ignoring the stimulus.
C) reacted to the stimulus in a positive way than in a negative way.
D) reacted in a neutral way to the stimulus.

Question 27

Participants are randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group in an experiment

A) to ensure that there will be an equal number of males and females in the experimental group and the control group.
B) so that the participants will not be able to figure out what is being tested in the experiment.
C) to help ensure that the two groups are not systemically different from each other at the start of the experiment.
D) so that the researcher will not know which group is being given the independent variable.

Question 28

Case studies are often used to study

A) individuals who are exceptional in some way.
B) large, representative groups of individuals.
C) group differences.
D) retrospective recall.

Question 29

When conducting a case study, it is particularly important that the researcher

A) gathers a representative sample for the study.
B) remains objective in her observations and interpretation of them.
C) carefully explains the purpose of the study to the subject.
D) uses valid, standardized tests in the assessment process.

Question 30

Children of mothers who are incarcerated are compared to children of mothers who reside with the children in their own homes on a number of cognitive outcomes. This is an example of a(n)

A) natural or quasi-experiment.
B) case study.
C) randomized trial.
D) archival study.

Question 31

When we have a negative correlation

A) there is no relationship between the two variables being studied.
B) the effect of the manipulation has a detrimental effect on the children.
C) the value of one variable increases as the value of the other variable decreases.
D) the strength of the correlation is minimal.

Question 32

When you find a positive correlation between two variables, it means that

A) these variables have a beneficial effect on the child's development.
B) changes in the first variable will cause a change in the second variable.
C) as the value of one variable goes up so does the value of the second variable.
D) these two variables can predict the value of a third variable.

Question 33

Changes that occur in the sample in a longitudinal study over time that make it less representative than it was at the start of the study create

A) a cohort effect.
B) perceptual bias.
C) sample bias.
D) generalization deficits.

Question 34

The unique advantage of experimental research is that it

A) can be used with large, diverse groups of participants.
B) relies on norms to determine what is typical or average.
C) can produce data that periodically is updated.
D) can identify the causes of behavior.

Question 35

In a natural experiment conducted in India that compared children of the same age who had different number of years of schooling, the researchers concluded that

A) schooling made a smaller impact on the children's competence than did the children's everyday experiences.
B) competence increased in direct relationship to the number of years of school the child had attended.
C) there was no difference for children in elementary school, but schooling became more important for older children.
D) the structure of the children's families had a bigger impact than did the number of years they had attended school.

Question 36

If you read that a correlational study has found that children who participate in more extracurricular activities have higher self esteem, you could conclude that

A) participating in extracurricular activities makes children feel good about themselves.
B) getting children to participate in more extracurricular activities will lead to increases in self esteem.
C) participation in extracurricular activities is associated with higher self esteem.
D) high self-esteem drives children to seek out activities at which they can excel.

Question 37

A disadvantage of using physiological measures in research on infants and young children is that

A) it requires expensive and sophisticated equipment.
B) these measures cannot be used with children who are too young to understand and follow complicated instructions.
C) the procedures are invasive and painful so parents don't want to consent to them.
D) they can give us a static picture of brain structure, but not brain functioning.

Question 38

Physiological tests (such as EEGs and ERPs) are particularly useful in research on

A) infants because their central nervous system is more responsive than the central nervous system of older children.
B) adolescents because they often are not aware of their true feelings and can't report on them.
C) infants and young children who are not yet speaking and therefore cannot answer questions or follow complex instructions.
D) adolescents because their hormones make their central nervous system more reactive to physical stimuli than to words.

Question 39

Children who have been the victims of child maltreatment are followed from early childhood through adolescence with their psychological and emotional well being assessed every 3 years during this time. This is an example of a

A) an archival study.
B) longitudinal study.
C) a correlational study.
D) a cross sectional study.

Question 40

We cannot determine the causes of behavior from a correlation because

A) a negative correlation means that the two variables are not related to each other.
B) the relationship may not hold for the control group.
C) we need more than two variables before we can determine the causes of behavior.
D) we do not have control over other variables that may affect the correlation.

Question 41

Using a large sample ensures that it will be a representative sample.

Question 42

It is important that the results from studies can be replicated because

A) it means that the findings have practical significance.
B) we can be sure that we have identified the cause of the behavior we studied.
C) it increases our confidence that the findings are valid.
D) we can then extend our conclusions beyond the characteristics of the samples used in the research.

Question 43

Statistical measures of how large the difference is between groups that are being compared is called

A) meta-analyses.
B) validity.
C) effect sizes.
D) reliability.

Question 44

Tests of _____ give us confidence that results from research are not accidents or chance occurrences.

A) effect size
B) microgenetic design
C) statistical significance
D) longitudinal design

Question 45

Which of the following precautions is specifically meant for children who are subjects in a research study?

A) They have the right to withdraw from participation at any point.
B) The expectation that the researcher will use the least stressful research procedures possible.
C) The data collected must be treated as confidential.
D) They must freely agree to participate.

Question 46

A study that has several groups of different ages that are followed over time and which has an overlap in the ages of the groups is a

A) multi-phasic study.
B) longitudinal study.
C) cohort study.
D) cross-sequential study.

Question 47

When a researcher combines data from different studies to determine whether there is a consistent pattern of findings across studies, she is performing a/an

A) meta-analysis.
B) cross-sectional study.
C) sequential analysis.
D) effect size.

Question 48

If a hypothesis is based upon a well-respected theory and the hypothesis logically follows from the theory, it is not necessary to do anything beyond that to test the hypothesis.

Question 49

A meta-analysis involves

A) combining results from different studies to identify patterns of findings that are consistent across studies.
B) increasing the size of a sample to include a wider range of child characteristics.
C) adding additional groups of participants to a study so it will represent a wider age range.
D) establishing a level of statistical significance that we can agree makes the results highly reliable.

Question 50

The statistical tests that we use to analyze the results of our studies always test

A) the null hypothesis of no difference between group.
B) the probability that we have made a mistake while doing our research.
C) the validity of the research we have conducted.
D) whether or not our research has any practical significance.

Question 51

A cohort effect is the biggest problem for

A) longitudinal studies.
B) experimental research.
C) observational research.
D) cross-sectional studies.

Question 52

When the results of a study are statistically significant, it means that

A) the results are not likely to have occurred by chance.
B) the differences found will have an important impact on children's development.
C) the research has been carefully conducted.
D) there is no other interpretation of the results of the study.

Question 53

In order to protect the rights of individuals who participate in scientific research, it is necessary to

A) pay participants for the time that they give to the study.
B) make the names of participants available to anyone who requests that information.
C) weigh the potential risks to the participants against the anticipated benefits of the research.
D) provide the participants with advice, based upon the results of the study, for how they can improve their lives.

Question 54

There is a cohort effect in cross-sectional studies when

A) the different groups in the study have had different life experiences.
B) the researcher uses different measures for the different groups in the study.
C) participants drop out of the study for various reasons over time.
D) the measures that are being used in the study change over time.

Question 55

One of the major challenges with conducting longitudinal research is that

A) it is very difficult to construct matched groups of subjects for your sample.
B) the groups of participants you are studying have had different life experiences.
C) you need to continually update the tests and measures that you are using.
D) it takes a great deal of time and money to conduct such research.

Question 56

When you conduct an observation in a laboratory rather than a natural setting, you gain greater control over the situation.

Question 57

You can be confident that the books and journals on child development that you find at your campus library will have accurate information because

A) all material has been reviewed by the library staff before it becomes part of the library's collection.
B) libraries only purchase books and journals that are best sellers.
C) libraries only purchase books and journals that are recommended by the government's Educational Resource Information Center.
D) the librarians conduct a peer review for each book or article.

Question 58

One of the challenges with doing a cross-sectional study is that

A) you must have groups that cover the entire age range from infancy through adolescence.
B) you must be certain that the different age groups you use are as similar to each other as you possibly can make them.
C) it will be hard to get the statistical tools that you need to adequately analyze your data.
D) your findings may no longer be relevant by the time your study is completed.

Question 59

Professor Alsmith looks at changes in self-esteem across adolescence by measuring the self-esteem of 11 year olds, 13 year olds, 15 year olds, and 17 year olds and comparing the results between the groups. This is an example of a(n)

A) archival study.
B) longitudinal study.
C) correlational study.
D) cross sectional study.

Question 60

When we are interpreting the results of a study, it is important to remember that

A) we must have practical significance, whether or not we have statistical significance.
B) most studies have only limited application to real world situations.
C) the conclusions are generalizations that apply to groups of people, not to every single individual.
D) a good study should confirm the null hypothesis of the study.

Question 61

Design a research study to test the hypothesis that having recess during the school day will promote better academic achievement. Be sure to describe the sample, measures and methods, and research designs.

Question 62

Describe four different methods that researchers might use to assess creativity in children.

Question 63

Dr. Brandow found that there was a statistically significant difference between boys and girls in his sample of 200 children in math ability. On a 100-item test the difference was 1.2 points. What would you conclude about how important this finding is and why?

Question 64

A test consisting of arithmetic problems is given to children. The researchers state that results of the test will show the level of artistic skill the children have. When given the test twice, one month apart, children score at about the same level. Explain and critique the reliability and the validity of this test.

Question 65

Well-constructed, reliable, well-standardized psychological tests are not bias against native-born American racial and ethnic minorities.

Question 66

Researchers found that children who were well behaved had parents who used positive parenting techniques. Is this research correlational or experimental? Can we conclude that positive parenting causes children to be well behaved? Why or why not?

Question 67

One of the advantages of doing a case study is that it is easy for the researcher to remain objective about his observations and interpretations.

Question 68

When observations are carefully done and include a representative sample of children, you can determine the causes of their behavior.

Question 69

How would you assess whether a website you had found concerning children's motor skill development had information you could trust?

Question 70

Using a cross-sequential research design eliminates the problem of sample attrition.

Question 71

When interviewing eight-year-old Shiloh, the interviewer asks, "How bad did you feel when your parents got divorced?" Is there bias in this question? How could you ask this question in an unbiased way?

Question 72

You want to study the development of mental reasoning. Describe (a) a cross-sectional design (b) a longitudinal design and (c) a cross-sequential design for doing so. What are the strengths and limitations of each research design?

Question 73

In a negative correlation, as the value of one variable goes down, so does the value of the second variable.

Question 74

Dr. Jordan studied 100 children from when they were eight-years-old until they were 13 years old. What is this type of research design called? She has concluded that children become more helpful to peers over this five-year age span. What limitations are there to this type of research design that might cause you to question whether her interpretation of her results is really accurate?

Question 75

A researcher does not have to collect her own data in order to conduct research.

Question 76

Children and adolescents are never asked to give consent for participation in research because they cannot understand what they are agreeing to.

Question 77

Describe what ethical precautions researchers must take when doing research that involves children.