Methods in Attachment Research Flashcards
Why can’t the self-report technique be used on babies?
babies can’t talk.
What technique can be used to research attachment?
Observational technique.
What small details do researchers look at when researching babies/children?
- Where they are looking.
- what are their facial expressions?
What is an observational technique used for attachment research?
Frame-by-frame analysis.
Define frame-by-frame…
When researchers record behaviours of participants with a camera and make detailed observations of each frame.
What is an advantage of frame-by-frame video analysis?
Observations can be repeated + increasing reliability.
Define a longitudinal study…
When a researcher investigates the same participants at multiple timepoints to see how they change over time.
What are the strengths of a longitudinal study?
- Insights into behaviour and how it changes over time.
- Insights into how early experiences shape behaviour.
- More reliable results.
What is a weakness to a longitudinal study?
Attrition (across the study, the researcher may lose some participants).
Why do attachment researchers often conduct quasi and natural experiments?
As they often study IV that would be unethical to manipulate.
What are the limitations of a Quasi and Natural experiments?
Researchers cannot control all extraneous variables that could influence the DV -> can’t directly test cause and effect.
What could researchers use if they wanted to directly manipulate the IV?
Animal studies.
What are the advantages to animal studies?
- No need to rely on natural and quasi experiments that have lots of extraneous variables.
- Can still directly test cause and effect.
What are the limitations of animal studies?
- Results may not generalise because animals are different to humans.
- Unethical as they cause distress to animals.
- Others may argue that it doesn’t cause distress -> implying that animals are different to humans (limited generalisability).
What do other researchers say about animal studies?
- Benefits outweigh negative impacts.
EXAMPLE: if a bit of stress on the animals enables new drug treatments, then the research was worth it. - Even if animals are different to humans they have similar behaviours + genes for findings to be valid.
