Longitudinal studies

• Longitudinal study


  A type of observational and correlational study that involves monitoring a population over an extended period of time
• Longitudinal study


  • Allows researchers to track changes and developments in subjects over time
  • Do not manipulate any variables or interfere with environment
  • Conduct observations on same group of subjects over a period of time
  • Can last as short as a week or as long as multiple years or even decades
• Longitudinal study design


  Longitudinal studies last beyond a single moment, enabling researchers to discover cause-and-effect relationships between variables
• Longitudinal study design


  • Beneficial for recognizing any changes, developments, or patterns in the characteristics of a target population
  • Often used in clinical and developmental psychology to study shifts in behaviours, thoughts, emotions, and trends throughout a lifetime
• Example of longitudinal study


  • A longitudinal study could be used to examine the progress and well-being of children at critical age periods from birth to adulthood
• Strengths of longitudinal studies

  • Allows researchers to look at changes over time
  • High validation as objectives and rules for long-term studies are established before data collection
  • Eliminates recall bias
  • Flexibility as variables can change throughout study
• Weaknesses of longitudinal studies

  • Costly and time-consuming
  • Large sample size needed
  • Participants tend to drop out due to selective attrition
  • Report bias is possible as they rely on surveys and questionnaires