Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, & Correlational Designs

Cohort effect

Effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time

History effect/Secular trend

A change that is taking place in the general population over time

Time-lag effect

The effect resulting from comparing subjects of the same age at different times; shows secular trends

Autocorrelation

In a longitudinal design, the correlation of one variable with itself, measured at two different times.

Manifest content

The content of a text or photograph as indicated by measuring the frequency of some objective word, phrase, or action

Latent content

The content of a text or photograph as measured by the appearance of themes as interpreted by the researcher

Focus Groups

A strategy to obtain data from a small group of people using interview questions

Predictive

"Cause" before "effect"

Concurrent

"Cause" same time as "effect"

Postdictive

"Effect" before "cause"

Bivariate Correlations

Associations that involve exactly two variables