research methods in developmental psychology and ethics (5)

beneficence and nonmaleficence

take care to do no harm or minimize harm

fidelity and responsibility

establish relationships of trust with those with whom they work

integrity

promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness

justice

fairness and justice entitle all persons to access to and benefit from the contributions of psychology and to equal quality in the processes, procedures, and services

respect for people’s rights and dignity

respect the dignity and worth of all people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination

respect for the dignity of persons and peoples

respect for all human beings, diversity, culture, and beliefs; privacy, fairness, and justice

competent caring for the well-being of persons and peoples

working for the benefit of individuals and communities while doing no harm

integrity

honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy in all psychological activities

professional and scientific responsibilities to society

upholding ethical standards in research, practice, and education, contributing to the welfare of the community

descriptive

aims to observe and record behavior

case study

study of a certain individual or group; useful in rare cases, in-depth information; cannot generalized to other population, and cannot make strong causal statements

ethnographic studies

seek to describe the pattern of relationships; customs, beliefs, technology, arts, and traditions that make up a society’s way of life; case study of the culture; open to observer bias; help overcome cultural biases in theory and research and debunks the logic of western developed theories

correlational study

examine the relationship between two or more variables; it determines the strength and direction of an association, but not necessarily a causal link

experiment

establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables; permits replication; and involves manipulation of the independent variable

quasi-experiment

natural experiment; compared people who have been accidentally assigned to separate groups by circumstances of

cross-sectional design

this design compares different age groups at a single point in time; provides immediate information about age-related differences; and can study multiple age groups simultaneously

cohort effects

differences between age groups may be due to unique experiences of their generation rather than actual developmental changes

longitudinal design

follows the same group of individuals over an extended period, measuring their characteristics or behaviors at multiple time points; can directly measure individual developmental changes; eliminates cohort effects because the same individuals are studied; and can examine the stability of traits and the impact of early experiences on later development

practice effect

may perform differently on repeated measures due to familiarity with the tests

participant’s attrition

individuals may drop out of the study over time, potentially leading to a biased sample

sequential design

combines elements of both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches; can separate age effects from cohort effects by comparing different cohorts at the same age and the same cohort at different ages; provides information about both age-related changes within individuals and age-related differences between groups