Reference no: EM133923100 , Length: 1200 words
Developmental Psychology
Learning Outcome 1: Identify the culturally specific aspects of major psychological developmental theories and consider the implications of cross cultural applications of these theories.
Learning Outcome 2: Describe the major common characteristics of development of the individual through the lifespan giving particular attention to the integration of physical, cognitive, language, social and personality development.
Learning Outcome 3: Specify the advantages and disadvantages of the various scientific procedures of data collection used in developmental psychology. Get online assignment help-AI & plagiarism-free-now!
Learning Outcome 4: Identify the key characteristics of the study of growth and development through the lifespan.
Learning Outcome 5: Discuss the place of theory and models in child and adolescent psychology and adult development.
Step 1: This assessment consists of a research report based in the area of attitudes towards older adults.
The Research Report will involve you in collecting data in the area of 'views on older adulthood' using an online survey, and writing a research report on the findings. As some of you may not yet have completed any units on research methods, we will be analysing the data for you, and supplying you with Method and Results sections to cut and paste into your report (there are no marks associated with these two sections). Thus the report will involve you in writing up the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion sections of the study, together with the reference list.
The Research Report is based in the area of people's views of older adults and older adulthood. This is an important area in psychology, because we know that there are more stereotypes (not all bad!) of older age than of other stages in the lifespan. How we view older age can affect the way we deal with older people as psychologists, or in other professional roles. The Australian Psychological Society suggests that practitioners spend time reflecting on their own ideas about older adults as a way of informing and improving how they provide services to people in later life.
Step 2: In this study, we are looking at (1) whether people's age is related to how they view older adulthood, and (2) at how people in different cultural contexts think that their culture views older age (comparing our findings with those obtained in other countries).
The data for the study will come from the online survey completed by students in PSY2231, as well as participants recruited by the students. Four articles to get you started are available through the Reading List link available in the unit menu.
Step 3: Information for this assignment will be provided during tutorials dedicated to the Report.
Materials relating to the data analysis (and Method and Results sections), along with information about writing the report, will be posted below as we engage further with the research.
Data Collection:
We are asking you to complete a survey so that we can use the data in the for the Research Report, and what follows are some supporting documents (please note that in order to keep the this Assignment site as user friendly as possible, I have not included the recording on ethical issues associated with data collection here, but am including only materials most relevant to writing the report. However ALL recordings are located under the Tutorials Module in the Module section).
Case 1: Supposing you wanted to look at the extent to which people will follow orders given by authority figures, so you decide to design a study which assesses the degree to which people will obey instructions even if what they are asked to do is inconsistent with their conscience.
The study involves the ‘Experimenter', along with a ‘Teacher' and a ‘Learner'. In fact -unbeknownst to the ‘real' volunteers - the ‘Learner' will be a confederate of the experimenter and the volunteer/Teacher will think s/he is being randomly assigned to the Teacher role but will actually always given that role, whereas the confederate will always be the ‘Learner'
The Teacher will be instructed to teach the Learner (who is strapped to what seems to be an electric chair in a separate room) word pairs and will be instructed to administer electric shocks at an increasing voltage level to the Learner if s/he gets them wrong. There will be no actual shocks involved, although the volunteer doesn't know this.
Case 2: Supposing you want to look at the effects of power on people to help to explain conflict between prison guards and inmates, and the extent to which personality characteristics versus situational factors are influential in influencing behaviour under these circumstances. Your study will involve recruiting participants and assigning them to either a ‘Guard' or a ‘Prisoner' role in a mock prison, and encouraging Guards to engender de-individuation and powerlessness in their prisoners (without physically hurting them!).
These cases are based on Milgram's Obedience to authority studies and on Zimabardo's Stanford Prison Experiment.
What are some of the issues with these studies? Should they be permitted to go ahead?
Part 2: Data Collection
The second task for this tutorial is to get you ready for data collection for the Research Report (Assignment).
The study involves completing an online survey on views of older adults and older adulthood. There are no right or wrong answers, so please answer the questions honestly.
The survey is anonymous, so we won't actually know who has done it, but we really do need a good spread of data to give you something to write about in your research reports! As well, completing the survey yourselves will give you insight into how the study is conducted, and hence possibly some things to talk about in the Discussion section of your research report.
Collecting the data
So: we need each of you to complete the survey, and to recruit a second adult to do so as well.
In order to get a good spread of ages, please recruit someone over 50 if you are aged under 50, and someone under 50 if you are over 50. It doesn't matter whether they are men or women.
Recruiting an additional Participant
Please consider what we have talked about in terms of conducting studies ethically, and be respectful when asking someone else to complete the survey. A copy of the information letter for participants will be available on the Canvas site for you to print out or email. The information letter needs to be given to the participant - either in person or via email - before he or she does the survey. It describes the study and also gives participants the link that they can use to access the survey. Please assure them that we (and you!) won't know whether they have actually completed the survey, and don't forget to thank them warmly for their help!
Timelines for completing the survey
Don't forget that we will be analysing the data for you, and giving you the Method and Results sections to use in your research reports, so please have your responses to the survey (and those of your additional participant) completed by the beginning of Week 5 (Monday 25th August).