CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTAL-Chaney Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is the background to Chaney’s study?
In Australia, every 1 in 4 children have asthma. Common inhalers such as the aerochamber were deeveloped, but proper breathing technique was hard to achieve.
What did Chaney aim?
Chaney aimed to see if positive reinforcement could be incorporated with an inhaler.
What was the sample used by Chaney?
22 boys and 10 girls from Australia aged 1.5-6.
They were recruited from seven GP clinics spanning all across Australia
What were the stages of Chaney’s study like?
Stage 1:
Parents were contacted by phone, before being visited in person. They were given a questionnaire including a consent form, which asked about their previous inhaler.
Stage 2
They were given the funhaler to use for 2 weeks. Parents had to accompany their child while using it.
Stage 3
On a random basis, parents were contacted and asked if they had used the funhaler the previous day. They were then given another questionnaire.
What was the funhaler like?
It involved a spinning disk and whistle, which activated upon correct use.
What were the results of the questionnaires?
50% of children achieved four or more breath cycles using the regular inhaler, compared to 80% using the funhaler.
19% of children had a strong fear of the regular inhaler, whereas 0 feared the funhaler.
What did Chaney conclude?
The funhaler led to increase in use, and increase in correct use. This is because of the operant conditioning theory, which leads to the behaviour being more likely to be repeated
How does this study relate to ethics?
It can be assumed that all ethical guidelines were adhered to.
How does this study relate to validity?
The study may lack construct validity because of social desirability. A parent may lie about forgetting to use the funhaler.
The study may contain ecological validity as the study takes place in the natural home of the child
The study may lack population validity as there was a narrow age so may lack generalisability, but it can be argued that it is appropriate to their target population
How does this study relate to reliability?
The study was standardised because the questionnaire was the same, and length of time using the funhaler was the same.
There was a limited sample size of 32, so may not be large enough to ensure a consistent effect.
How does this study relate to ethnocentrism?
All of the children were from australia, and so is ethnocentric as it isnt obvious that the funhaler would appeal to all cultures.
