Week 3: Aging Research Methods & Theory

Question 1

metamodels include 3 things

Answer 1

1. mechanistic (nurture)
2. organismic (nature)
3. contextual/interactionist (both)

Question 2

life-span developmental perspective

Answer 2

development:
- occurs over the entire life-span
- is related to societal and contextual influences
- is related to normative history-graded events
- multidisciplinary
- includes gains AND losses
- is plastic

Question 3

TB: what are the similarities between the SOC model and the life-span perspective?

Answer 3

• development is plastic and behaviour can change over time
• organisms have both gains and losses
• contextual –> can change environment and organism can be changed

Question 4

experimental research design

Answer 4

• independent and dependent variables
• manipulate independent variable
• random assignment of participants!!!!
• directional hypothesis
• cause and effect statements CAN be made

Question 5

quasi-experimental research design

Answer 5

• describes naturally occurring events
• exploratory hypothesis
• categorical factors (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
• NO random assignment of participants!!!!
• cause and effect statements CANNOT be made
• multiple groups (studied and control)

Question 6

cohort effects

Answer 6

social, historical, cultural influences present during childhood that influence behaviour

Question 7

time of measurement effects

Answer 7

social, historical, cultural influences presently influencing behaviour

Question 8

types of studies

Answer 8

1. cross-sectional
2. longitudinal
3. time-lag
4. sequential
5. single vs multi-factor
6. descriptive
7. meta-analytic

Question 9

cross-sectional

Answer 9

• observational
• quasi-experimental
• compare different population groups at a single point in time
• most commonly used design

Question 10

cross-sectional limitations

Answer 10

• measures age-related differences, but cannot disentangle factors of age and cohort
• sampling bias

Question 11

longitudinal

Answer 11

• observational
• quasi-experimental
• participants from one cohort are followed over time and tested/interviewed on two or more occasions

Question 12

longitudinal limitations

Answer 12

• cannot disentangle factors of age and time of measurement
• selective attrition (losing participants)
• practice effects
• tests becoming outdated
• expensive

Question 13

TB: what confounding factors could influence the results of the walking and stress study?

Answer 13

• environmental hurdles
• short-term vs long-term stress
• ability/inability to keep being mobile in older ages
• type of walking

Question 14

single-factor design

Answer 14

• one independent variable

- two groups/levels compared

Question 15

multi-factor design

Answer 15

• more than one independent variable

- manipulations of independent variables can be quantitative or qualitative

Question 16

interaction

Answer 16

effect of one variable depends on the value of another variable

• look for equal in one group and different for the other

Question 17

main effect

Answer 17

effect of one variable occurs regardless of the value of another variable

• look for patterns within different variables

Question 18

pros and cons of between-subjects design

Answer 18

pros:
- no carry-over effects
- subjects can be naïve to hypothesis

cons:
- large sample size
- inter-individual variability
- difficult to create equivalent groups

Question 19

pros and cons of within-subjects design

Answer 19

pros:
- smaller sample size
- more sensitive/powerful
- don’t have to worry about equivalent groups

cons:
- increased risk of contamination
- possible order effects

Question 20

descriptive

Answer 20

• non-experimental
• no manipulation of variables
• can study correlation (R-values) between variables

Question 21

descriptive limitations

Answer 21

• cause and effect statements CANNOT be made

Question 22

reliability

Answer 22

extent to which the outcomes are consistent when the experiment is repeated more than once

Question 23

validity

Answer 23

extent to which the instruments used in the experiment measure exactly what you want them to measure

Question 24

inter-rater reliability

Answer 24

degree to which different raters give consistent estimates of same behaviour

Question 25

test-retest reliability

Answer 25

stability of test over time

Question 26

internal validity

Answer 26

accurate identification and interpretation of the factor(s) or effect(s) responsible for an observation

Question 27

external validity

Answer 27

whether findings obtained from a sample of study participants can be generalized to the population of interest

Question 28

ecological validity

Answer 28

whether the results obtained with a particular test instrument reflect real-world functioning/behaviour

Question 29

TB: how can cohort sampling affect the outcome/validity of your study?

Answer 29

• different cohorts experience different life/historical events
• older adults are less flexible (more stress within lab setting) vs younger (less stress within lab setting)