CHILD PSYCHOLOGY-METHODS

OBSERVATIONS
Watching and recording behaviour as it is seen.
Child psychology it involves watching children in setting such as, home,
nursery or school or in a staged environment.
Collect qualitative data (Detailed descriptions)
Collects quantitative data (Numerical form)
Can be Overt or Covert
For children its mainly non-participant studies (observer watches from a
distance without being involved)
Evaluation
+ No manipulation of the Independent Variable
+ Can establish a cause and effect
-Unreliable due to researcher bias (to overcome this problem, they need to
establish inter-rater reliability)

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Conducted in a natural setting
Captures natural behaviour

+ No demand characteristics
+ High ecological validity
-No control over the Extraneous
variables
-Difficult to replicate

STRUCTURED OBSERVATION
Takes place in a staged environment
Coding system used so all observers
note the same behaviours in the same
way
+ Less susceptible to demand characteristics
+ Standardised procedures so its replicable,
therefore reliable
+ Controlled environment
-Lacks ecological validity
-Staged situation so its artificial

ETHICAL ISSUES WHEN CHILDREN ARE PARTICIPANTS

Need parental consent as childs consent is not the same as an adults due
to comprehension level and vulnerability
Have the right to withdraw, researchers should have competence to
enforce this withdrawal
Should be permitted to ask questions and be fully informed
Information kept confidential
Information disclosed which affects childs well-being must be referred to
expert (may follow up with parents)
Incentives (e.g. Sweets) should not be given in exchange for participation
General ethical guidelines must be adhered to

CASE STUDIES
Detailed investigations of a single person/groups of people
Qualitative and Quantitative data
Used as a research method for rare and unique cases, or when it would be
inappropriate to use experimental methods
EVALUATION:
High in validity
Gather rich information
Use different techniques to measure the same variable
Not generalisable as they are about unique individuals
Researcher bias can occur so not reliable
Reliability needs to be established by triangulation (using a range of
different techniques to test same concept)
Not ethical
Violate confidentiality, informed consent and the right to withdraw

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH
Carried out over a long period of time
Used to understand development of
behaviour better

CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH
To see if behaviour is universal
Important psychological insight into
whether behaviour is due to biology
or socialisation

+ Shows genuine development over the

natural time course
+ Avoids the cohort effect (difference in
social and cultural changes that exist
between age groups due to a
time/generation gap)

+ Same conclusions drawn in different

cultures, it is said to be reliable and
universal
+ Helps us understand the basis of
behaviour

-Time Consuming and Expensive

-Difficult to replicate due to time constraints
and generational differences
-Needs a large sample
-Participant attrition can occur

-Ethnocentrism might occur (researcher

may interpret in terms of their own belief)
-Researcher Bias

CONTENT ANALYSIS
Method used to investigate behaviour that is usually measured using
qualitative methods
Changes Qualitative data into Quantitative data (for ease of analysis)
Makes data more reliable
Numerical form and can be analysed statistically
+ Useful when analysing data that cannot be analysed using other methods
+ Useful for showing trends in behaviour, gives a valid picture
+ Can be reliable once data has been analysed using quantitative methods (if
consistency is assured)

-Can often be subjective: due to individual researchers (may interpret data

differently)
-Very Time Consuming- lot of data to work with
-Lack reliability unless inter-rater reliability is assured