Module 1: Research in Lifespan Development

Question 1

correlational research

Answer 1

research that formally tests whether a relationship exists between two or more variables, however, correlation does not imply causation

Question 2

descriptive studies

Answer 2

research focused on describing an occurrence

Question 3

evaluation research

Answer 3

research designed to assess the effectiveness of policies or programs

Question 4

experimental research

Answer 4

research that involves randomly assigning people to different conditions and using hypothesis testing to make inferences about how these conditions affect behavior; the only method that measures cause and effect between variables

Question 5

explanatory studies

Answer 5

research that tries to answer the question “why”

Question 6

qualitative research

Answer 6

theoretical ideas are “grounded” in the experiences of the participants, who answer open-ended questions

Question 7

quantitative research

Answer 7

involves numerical data that are quantified using statistics to understand and report what has been studied