Cross-sectional + cross-cultural designs

Question 1

What are cross-sectional designs?

Answer 1

Researchers collect dats from many individuals at one singular point in time

Will look at different factors across different individuals to gain understanding of diff variables of interest, e.g. age, education, gender, income, health status

Question 2

What is a cross-sectional design an alternative to?

Answer 2

Longitudinal research = takes place over long time

Question 3

How are cross-sectional designs better than longitudinal designs?

Answer 3

Longitudinal designs require greater commitment since they’re time consuming + expensive (need to do repeats so more expensive)

Question 4

What do cross-sectional designs not allow?

Answer 4

The establishment of cause + effect, could be other factors than age that cause differences in MH conditions

Factors could also be temporary, however easy to spot trends + predict hypothesis

Question 5

How does cross-sectional designs cause cohort bias?

Answer 5

Different groups of people in same era may have variables that you cant control e.g. covid in secondary school

Question 6

How are cross-sectional designs more ethical than longitudinal designs?

Answer 6

They consider the intrusiveness of design

Question 7

How are cross-sectional designs low in validity?

Answer 7

Difficult to infer a casual relationship due to a short interaction

Question 8

What are cross-cultural designs?

Answer 8

Takes samples from different cultural groups + compares to assess similarities + differences

Same results = behaviour due to nature
Different results = behaviour due to nurture

Question 9

What is the emic approach?

Answer 9

Studying culture from within to find out about culture + norms

Question 10

What is the etic approach?

Answer 10

Studying culture from outside, looking at norms + ideas between them

Aims to remove ethnocentric views from within psychology

Question 11

What are cross-cultural designs useful for?

Answer 11

Researching diagnosis + treatment of MH patients

Cultures split into 2 types, individualist + collectivist

Question 12

What are some strengths of cross-cultural design?

Answer 12

• Allows psychologists to see whether behaviour is universal
• Reduces ethnocentrism in research
• Enables generalisations between cultures to build on clinical knowledge

Question 13

What are some weaknesses of cross-cultural designs?

Answer 13

• Communication difficulties may arise e.f. language barriers
• Observer bias is a problem e.g. emic vs etic approach
• Validity issues if features of culture are socially constructed, e.f. social norms