Adolescent Development

• Questionnaire


  Written questions where participants typically select among answers chosen by the researcher. Could follow a closed or open ended questioning format.
• Storm and stress


  Theory promoted by G. Stanley Hall that asserts adolescence is a time of mood disruptions, conflict with parents, antisocial and risky behaviors, and disruptions
• Identity versus confusion(Erickson)


  Term for the crisis typical of the adolescent stage of life, which individuals may follow the healthy path of establishing a clear and definite sense of who they are and how they fit into the world around them OR how the unhealthy alternative of failing to form a stable and secure identity
• Identity formation(Erickson)


  1. Reflecting on your traits, abilities, and interests

  2. Sifting through the range of life choices available in your culture

  3. Trying out various possibilities

  4. Making commitments
• Key areas in identity formation(Erickson)

  • Love
  • Work
  • Ideology (customs, beliefs, values)
• Failure to establish identity within these key areas = identity confusion
• Ethnic identity (Phinney)


  Through research, conclusions regarding adolescents that are members of ethnic minority groups have four different ways of responding to their awareness of their ethnicity
• Assimilation


  • In formation of an ethnic identity, the approach that involves leaving the ethnic culture behind and adopting the ways of the majority culture
• Marginality


  • The option that involves rejecting one's culture of origin but also feeling rejected by the majority culture
• Separation


  • The approach that involves associating only with members of one's own ethnic group and rejecting the ways of the majority culture
• Biculturalism


  • The formation that involves developing a dual identity, one based in the ethnic group of origin and one based in the majority culture
• Ethnic identity responses(Phinney)


  • Assimilation (High in Identification with Majority culture, low in identification with ethnic culture)
  • Marginality (Low in Identification with Majority culture, low in identification with ethnic culture)
  • Separation (Low in identification with majority culture, high in identification with ethnic culture)
  • Biculturalism (high in identification with majority culture, high in identification with ethnic culture)
• Strengths of Questionnaire


  Closed-Q:

  1. makes it possible to collect and analyze responses from a large number of people in a relatively short time.
  2. Everything is standardized meaning every question and options are the same for everybody.
  3. They provide quantitative data = Data collected in numerical form. 
• Weakness of Questionnaires

  Closed-Q:

  1. Does not gather the full complexity or nuance of certain situations, especially given the diverse human experiences. There are already predetermined responses provided which does not reflect the whole complex relationship. 
  2. In general people may not remember information correctly or not fully understand their motives behind the behavior. 

  Open-Q:

  1. Coding responses could be time consuming.
• Survey 


  A study that involves asking people Q’s about their opinions, beliefs, or behavior. Closed ended Q’s are often used so there are predetermined sets of responses that could be easily compared. 
• Stratified sampling


  A sampling technique in which researchers select participants so that various categories of people are represented in proportions equal to their presence in the population. Categories used are often the age, gender, ethnic group, education, and SES.
• Random Sample:


  Technique in which the people selected for participation in a study are chosen randomly, meaning that no one in the population has a better or worse chance of being selected than anyone else.  
• Strengths of Surveys

  1. Random Sample: increases the likelihood the sample could be representative of the larger population and result in richer input to the research. 
  2. Can send survey to a mass number of people through the use of technology and have numerous participants.
• Weakness of Survey

  Social Desirability: Participants could respond in ways that they demonstrate desirable behaviors and under report behaviors that others may find objectionable.
• Interviews


  Spoken questions where participants typically provide answers in their own words. Interviews provide

  qualitative data: Data collected in nonnumerical form, usually in interviews or observations. Could also include other nonnumerical methods such as descriptive observations, video recording, or photographs. 
• Strengths of Interviews


  1. Provides individuality and complexity that questionnaires lack such that the person is given descriptions that could provide insightful information.
• Weakness of interviews

  1. Interview responses have to be coded and there needs to be some sort of classification or categorization.

  • Coding takes time, effort, and money
• Observations 


  Data collected by observing people and recording their behavior either on video or through written records. Afterwards, the data is coded and analyzed. Could happen in natural or laboratory environments. 
• Strength of Observations: 


  An advantage over aforementioned measurements because they involve the actual behavior rather than self-reports of behaviors. 
• Weakness of Observations

  1. Hawthorne Effect: subjects of an experimental study attempt to change or improve their behavior simply because it is being evaluated or studied.
  2. Demand Characteristics: are cues that might indicate the research objectives to participants. These cues can lead participants to change their behaviors or responses based on what they think the research is about. Demand characteristics are problematic because they can bias your research findings.
• Biological Measurement Method


  Research on hormonal functioning, brain functioning, and genetic basis of development. Involves measuring biological characteristics such as hormone levels, brain activity, and chemical structure of genes respectively.
• Advantages of Biological Measurements

  Gain knowledge into how biological aspects of development are related to cognitive, social, and emotional functioning. 
• Disadvantages of Biological Measurement

  1. Expensive equipment is needed to gather data, possible  bidirectional relationship between biological components and behaviors which could make it difficult to distinguish relationships..
  2. Data can be difficult to interpret and massive training is needed. 
• Reliability


  The extent to which a measurement generates consistent results
• Validity


  The truthfulness of a measure, that is, the extent to which it measures what it claims to measure
• Unreliable measurement

  Cannot be valid
• Reliable measurement

  May not be valid
• It is important for research methods to have reliability and validity
• Experimental Design 


  Commonly used in interventions: Programs intended to change the attitudes and/or behavior of the participants. 

  Compares an experimental group that received a treatment to a control group that did not receive the treatment. 
• Strengths of Experimental design

  1. Researchers have some level of control of participants’ behaviors by assigning them randomly into groups where they could receive the IV or not.
  2. The research is aiming to change “normal patterns of behavior”  
  3. Allows for a clearer and definite measure of the effect of a specific variable. 
• Elements of an experimental design

  Experimental group: The group that receives the treatment

  Control group: The group that does not receive the treatment. 

  Independent V: the variable that is different for the experimental group than for the control group. 

  Dependent V: the outcome that is measured to evaluate the results of the experiment. 
• Weakness of Experimental Designs


  It is difficult to say if the results would apply in normal life, given that participants’ behaviors might have been shaped by the experimental manipulation. 
• Natural Experiments Design

  A situation that occurs naturally but that provides interesting scientific information to the perceptive observer
• Natural Experiments

  • Adoption: adolescents in adoptive families are raised by adults who they do not share genetic relationships with
  • Twin studies: monozygotic (MZ) twins = twins with exactly the same genotype, also known as identical; dizygotic (DZ) twins: Twins with about half their genotype in common, the same for siblings, also known as fraternal
• Natural Experiments

  • Can examine the contributions of genes and environment (Nature vs. Nurture) to development