Announcements

• Reminder: exam #1 a week from today

• Need to check with me regarding clinical paper topic. Deadline Oct. 3rd

• Upcoming assignment: parent interview. See handout.

Research Methods

Types of Investigations

1. Naturalistic or Observational Studies• (correlational studies; studies with quasi-

experimental designs)

A. Characteristics of correlational studies

B. Relationships/Causalitye.g. Harvard students/SATe.g. TV watching and aggression in children (see

next slide)

TV and aggression

• Headlines:“TV Time Yields Violence” (The Boston Globe)

“Just an hour of TV time a day leads to violence” (Reuters)

Relationships/Causality

• Three ways that relationships can work:1. TV causes aggression2. Aggression causes TV watching

(e.g. no friends, time to kill)

3. Third variable causes them both

Example: health of babies born to smoking and nonsmoking parents

Classic Experimental Studies

Need to meet two conditions:1. Random assignment to groups

2. Experimental control

Steps to design an experimental study1. Operationalize independent and dependent

variables

2. Randomly assign participants to groups

Classic Experimental Studies

Conclusions/limitations:

1. Greatest strength is causality

2. Main problem is inability to use random assignment

3. generalizability

Single Subject Design

(Case studies and within subject designs)1. Case studies

• Used to figure out what might be important• Used when situation or disorder is very rare

2. Single subject designs• Used to assess change in behavior related

to an intervention• A – B – A –B design

Time Frame of Studies

1. Cross sectional research• Cheaper, easier but can’t look at change over

time

2. Prospective longitudinal design• Capture developmental processes but time-

consuming

3. Accelerated longitudinal design• Cohort sequential design

Pedro-Carroll & Cowan divorce intervention study

Intro.:• Establishes importance of research• Reviews prior research• Highlights gaps, builds

Didn’t address developmental impact of divorceDoesn’t address divorce vs. prior conditionsWhy chose particular areas??

Divorce intervention study cont’

Methods:strengths:

1. Low dropout rate2. Control group and random assignment3. Range of sources of info./measurements

weaknesses:1. Expectancy effects2. Variability in post divorce time3. No attention control group – reactivity?4. No info. on measures used

Review for exam

Know everything• Developmental psychopathology model• Risk/resilience/protective factors• Several questions on research methods and

interpretation of findings– Be able to design a study– Be able to interpret results from each method (what

can you know and not)• Divorce article and discussion in class• Importance of development in child

psychopathology