Deck 1: A: The Science of Child Development

Question 1

Self-reports are children's answers to questions about a topic of interest.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

When investigators can't observe a behaviour directly in a natural context, they are unable to study that behaviour.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A strength of correlational research is that it can be used to determine cause and effect.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A correlation coefficient of .85 indicates that two variables are positively related (e.g., children who watch many violent TV shows are more aggressive).

Question 5

A researcher wanted to study the growth rates of infants in Canada. He collects information from 120 infants at a very expensive day care centre in a wealthy neighbourhood in Vancouver. This constitutes a representative sample of the population he is interested in.

Question 6

A variable is a factor which may be different from person to person.

Question 7

Reliability refers to whether or not a test is really measuring what it is supposed to measure.

Question 8

Gregory knows that hitting his sister is wrong. When a researcher asks Gregory how many times he has ever hit his sister, Gregory's answer is much lower than the real number. This is an example of response bias.

Question 9

A researcher wants to study children's behaviour in the playground, so he follows children around with a camera crew, recording their behaviour. This research is likely to suffer from an observer influence.

Question 10

In structured observation, the researcher goes out of his/her way to create a situation where they are unlikely to observe the behaviour they are studying.

Question 11

A correlation coefficient of -.85 indicates that there is no relationship between two variables (e.g., children's aggressive behaviour and watching violent TV shows are not related).

Question 12

Observer bias is the tendency for people to notice new things when they look at familiar situations.

Question 13

In an experiment, the researcher manipulates the dependent variable and measures the independent variable.

Question 14

Naturalistic observation involves observing children's behaviour in carefully controlled conditions.

Question 15

Joseph is interested in studying political attitudes of Canadian adolescents. He collects information from 500 high school students in Toronto. These students are the population he is interested in.

Question 16

Children can "get used to" the presence of a researcher observing them, and exhibit their usual behaviour patterns.

Question 17

Response bias occurs when children change their answers to questions based on what they believe is more socially acceptable.

Question 18

Systematic observation involves watching children and carefully recording what they do or say.

Question 19

A strength of correlational research is that investigators can examine relationships between variables as they exist naturally in the world.

Question 20

In order to avoid observer bias, researchers establish firm behavioural definitions and observation guidelines prior to the observations.

Question 21

The null hypothesis states that a child has no knowledge of what the experimenter is expecting.

Question 22

In cross-sectional studies, children are tested repeatedly over the course of months or years.

Question 23

A microgenetic study is a particularly long type of longitudinal study.

Question 24

A quasi-experimental design involves random assignment of participants into groups.

Question 25

Meta-analysis is a tool that allows researchers to synthesize the results of many studies in order to estimate relations between variables.

Question 26

Converging evidence from many research studies leads to increased confidence in research findings.

Question 27

Children's names should be linked with their data so that they are easy to identify.

Question 28

A strength of field experiments is that the results are more likely to be representative of behaviour in real-world settings than results obtained in a laboratory.

Question 29

Inferential statistics allow researchers to draw conclusions.

Question 30

Applied developmental science uses developmental research to promote healthy child development.

Question 31

Children are not legally capable of giving informed consent to participate in research, therefore their parents or guardians must be asked for consent as well.

Question 32

One strength of longitudinal studies is that they allow researchers to chart an individual's development.

Question 33

Research participants do not need to be told if deception is part of an experiment.

Question 34

One disadvantage of cross-sectional studies is that repeated testing may change participants' behaviours.