Deck 2: Theory and Method in Studying Aging and Older Adulthood

Question 1

Professor Jones wants to conduct a study on a sample of 60-year-old adults who expect to retire from their jobs in five years.He will administer a questionnaire that asks them what they plan to do once they do retire.Then he will locate these same people every five years (until they are age 75) to find out whether they followed their original plans for retirement.Which research design is Professor Jones using for his study?

A)Cross-sectional
B)time-lag
C)Experimental
D)Longitudinal

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Age is a(n)________ variable.

A)independent
B)dependent
C)experimental
D)organismic

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which method of research is best for keeping track of age-related changes over time in an individual person (intraindividual variability)?

A)Cross-sectional
B)Longitudinal
C)time-lag
D)Quasi-experimental

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In which research design is attrition the most obvious issue to consider?

A)Longitudinal
B)Cross-sectional
C)Time-lag
D)Experimental

Question 5

When a measurement instrument is reliable that means it is _________.

A)valid
B)consistent
C)heterotypic
D)flawed

Question 6

In studies with an extreme age groups design,________.

A)young adults are compared with adolescents.
B)young adults are compared with older adults.
C)young-old adults are compared with old-old adults.
D)young,middle-aged,and older adults are compared.

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT an important aspect of the lifespan developmental perspective?

A)Development is plastic.
B)Development is embedded in historical,social,and cultural contexts.
C)Development proceeds in only one direction.
D)Development continues throughout life

Question 8

According to the organismic metamodel,__________________.

A)behavior is the product of lawful associations between single environmental events
B)it is best to isolate and study the simple aspects of development
C)development has no particular direction,goal,or end point
D)the developing organism acts upon rather than reacting to the environment

Question 9

Which developmental research design confounds (is unable to separate) age and cohort?

A)Longitudinal
B)Cross-sectional
C)Independent samples
D)Time-lag

Question 10

Which statement is closest to the lifespan development perspective?

A)There are gains and losses over the life span with a shift in proportion in older adulthood toward more gains than losses.
B)Up to the point of young adulthood there are only gains,after which there are losses in every aspect of functioning.
C)People make steady gains from young to older adulthood and there are never any losses.
D)There are gains and losses over the life span with a shift in older adulthood toward a greater proportion of losses than of gains.

Question 11

Sequential designs are used in order to ________________.

A)complete research studies quickly and efficiently
B)disentangle the effects of age,cohort,and time of measurement
C)test people from only one age group
D)follow the same group of people over time

Question 12

The most commonly used developmental research design that attempts to study age-related differences is ________.
A)

A)time-lag
B)longitudinal
C)cross-sectional
D)cohort-sequential

Question 13

Which metamodel views the organism and the environment as being in continuous interaction?

A)Contextual
B)Mechanistic
C)Organismic
D)Heterotypical

Question 14

The longitudinal research design confounds (is unable to separate) ________.

A)age and time of measurement
B)age and cohort
C)cohort and time of measurement
D)age,cohort,and time of measurement

Question 15

A developmental scientist with a mechanistic metamodel ______.

A)emphasizes that development is multidirectional and adaptive
B)views development as a series of stages
C)focuses on quantitative differences between age groups
D)emphasizes that the w hole is greater than the sum of the parts

Question 16

Which two factors are confounded (unable to be separated) when measures of computer attitudes made today on a sample of 70-year-olds today are compared with measures of computer attitudes made 10 years ago on a sample of 70-year-olds?

A)Cohort and time of measurement
B)Age and cohort
C)Age and time of measurement
D)Nothing is confounded in this study

Question 17

Which metamodel places the heaviest emphasis on the nurture (extrinsic,or environmental) side of the nature-nurture debate?

A)The ecological model
B)The organismic model
C)The contextual model
D)The mechanistic model

Question 18

Which metamodel views development as a progressive sequence of stages which are internally generated?
A)Organismic

A)mechanistic
B)Contextual
C)Ecological

Question 19

Professor Adams is interested in comparing the attitude today's 70-year-old adults have toward using computers with the attitude that 70-year-old adults had 10 years ago.Assuming that she has computer attitude measures from a group of 70-year-old adults taken this year and computer attitude measures from a group of 70-year-old adults made 10 years ago,which type of research design does Professor Adams have?

A)Sequential
B)Longitudinal
C)time-lag
D)Cross-sectional

Question 20

In an extreme age groups design,_________________.

A)age is a continuous variable
B)age is an independent variable
C)individuals in young adult and older adult age categories are included
D)it is possible to determine whether there is a complex relationship between age and the variable that is being studied.

Question 21

Define what is meant by the reliability and the validity of a test that is used to measure intelligence.

Question 22

Describe the longitudinal research design and state which factors are confounded.What is the advantage of this design and what is the role of selective attrition?

Question 23

A developmental researcher asks young and older adults to study a list of words.Half of the young and half of the older adults are told to use visual imagery when they study the list and the other half are given no imagery instructions.After they study the list,all participants are tested for how many words they can remember.This research has a __________.

A)multifactor design
B)completely experimental design
C)single-factor design
D)invalid design

Question 24

Which correlation shows the strongest association between two variables?

A).55
B).20
C)-.75
D).01

Question 25

Being able to generalize the findings obtained from a sample of research participants to the population from which this sample was drawn refers to the ___________ of a research study.

A)factorial purity
B)experimental control
C)internal validity
D)external validity

Question 26

A researcher measures the amount of time older adults spend each week engaging in mentally challenging activities and also the scores they earn on a test of intelligence.The researcher finds that the more time older adults spend engaging in mentally challenging activities,the higher their scores on the intelligence test.On the basis of this finding,which of the following conclusions would the researcher be justified in drawing?

A)Engaging in mentally challenging activities causes intelligence test scores to increase.
B)Spending too little time engaging in mentally challenging activities causes intelligence test scores to decline.
C)Amount of time spent engaging in mentally challenging activities and intelligence test scores are positively related (positively correlated).
D)Amount of time spent engaging in mentally challenging activities and intelligence test scores are negatively related (negatively correlated).

Question 27

Which type of study is best for identifying cause and effect?

A)An experimental study
B)A correlation study
C)A case study
D)A cross-sectional study

Question 28

Many traditional psychometric tests of intelligence measure abilities that children or young adults use in school.Some psychologists have argued psychometric tests are not appropriate for measuring the kinds of cognitive intellectual abilities older adults use in their everyday lives.These psychologists are worried about the _________ when these are used for older adults.

A)ecological validity of psychometric tests
B)reliability of psychometric tests
C)longitudinal gradient of psychometric tests
D)dropout during the administration of psychometric tests

Question 29

In which kind of research studies are participants randomly assigned to levels of an independent variable?

A)Correlation studies
B)Quasi-experimental studies
C)Experimental studies
D)Time-sequential studies

Question 30

Dr.Perkins places rats that always lived in a deprived environment into a new "enriched" environment with an exercise wheel and toys to stimulate the rats' problem-solving capabilities.After two weeks in the enriched environment,the rats seem more alert than they were before.Dr.Perkins decides to try the same thing with a new sample of rats,which also seem more alert after spending two weeks in the new environment.This means that Dr.Perkins replicated his findings on the second sample of rats.However,when Dr.Perkins wants to know whether the rats became more alert because of the exercise wheel or because of the toys,he is concerned with the issue of _____________.

A)reliability
B)measuring gradients
C)internal validity
D)ecological validity

Question 31

Describe the cross-sectional research design.Which factors are confounded in this design and why is this design the most commonly used in developmental research?

Question 32

What does the lifespan developmental perspective propose about gains and losses over the life span?

Question 33

As far as the ethics of conducting research,which guideline(s) is (are) important?

A)Obtaining informed consent from study participants or their caretakers if they are unable to give it.
B)Safeguarding the privacy of the study participants.
C)Insuring that the benefits of the findings outweigh any temporary discomforts participants may experience.
D)All of the above

Question 34

The best way to compare a sample of young and older adults on how they perform on a memory test is to test a group of young adult undergraduates and a group of older adult nursing home residents.

Question 35

A group of young adults and a group of older adults are instructed to study a list of words and then are given a memory test.The researcher conducting the study finds that,on average,the memory test scores of the older group are lower than the memory test scores of the young group.This study is an example of a _________.

A)true experimental approach
B)correlational approach
C)multi-factor approach
D)quasi-experimental approach

Question 36

Compare the viewpoint of a behavioral scientist who approaches the study of behavior with mechanistic metamodel and the viewpoint of a scientist who approaches the study of behavior with an organismic metamodel.

Question 37

What are the three factors that must be considered when researchers conduct developmental studies?

Question 38

Professor Sanchez conducts a memory study in which young and older adults are randomly assigned to one of two different levels (or conditions) of an instruction variable.Those assigned to one instruction condition are just told to study a list of words,which they will later be asked to recall.Those assigned to the other instruction condition are told to use visual imagery when they study a list of words which they will later be asked to recall.Professor Sanchez finds that,on average,the young and older adults given visual imagery instructions recall more words than do the young and older adults just told to study the words.In this study,what is the independent variable?

A)Age group
B)Instruction condition
C)Number of words recalled
D)Time of measurement

Question 39

The _______ of a study refers to whether there can be accurate identification and interpretation of the factor(s) responsible for an observation.

A)test-retest reliability
B)interobserver reliability
C)external validity
D)internal validity

Question 40

_______ refers to whether a measure used to assess an underlying characteristic (for example,depression) has the same degree of internal validity for different age groups.

A)Reliability
B)Heterotypic continuity
C)Time-lag
D)Factorial purity

Question 41

Define what is meant by the ecological validity of a test that is given to young and older adults.Give an example.

Question 42

What are the defining characteristics of an experimental research study?

Question 43

What is the difference between a true experimental and a quasi-experimental research design?

Question 44

What is meant by a descriptive approach to research and what role does correlation play?