Life-span Developmental Psychology Introduction To Research Methods

What are the changes we see over the life-span? How can we explain them? And how do we account for individual differences? This volume continues to examine these questions and to report advances in empirical research within life-span development increasing its interdisciplinary nature. The relationships between individual development, social context, and historical change are salient issues discussed in this volume, as are nonnormative and atypical events contributing to life-span change.

Contents: Part I:The Field of Developmental Psychology.Why Developmental Psychology? An Illustration of the Developmental Approach: The Case of Auditory Sensitivity. Part II:General Issues in Research Methodology.The Nature of Theories and Models. The Nature of Scientific Methods. The Internal Validity of Research Designs. The External Validity of Research Designs. Measurement. Data Analysis and Interpretation. Part III:Objectives and Issues of Developmental Research in Psychology.The Scope of Developmental Psychology. Targets of Developmental Analysis. Developmental Research Paradigms. Time and Change: The Basic Data Matrix. Part IV:Descriptive Developmental Designs.Simple Cross- Sectional and Longitudinal Methods. Sequential Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Strategies. Developmental Design and Change in Subject Populations With Age. Change in Populations and Sampling: Assessment and Control. Selected Issues in Developmental Assessment. Modeling Change Over Time: From Description to Explanation. Part V:Explanatory-Analytic Developmental Research.Toward Explanation: The Simulation of Developmental Processes. Cross- Cultural and Comparative Developmental Psychology. Heredity- Environment Research and Development. Developmental Research on Learning: Group Designs. Developmental Research on Learning: Single-Subject Designs. Structural Models: The Continuing Search for Causes.

Hayne W. Reese, Paul B. Baltes, John R. Nesselroade