Research Manual in Child Development, Second Edition
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Second Edition Research Manual in Child Development Lorraine Nadelman TLFeBOOK RESEARCH MANUAL IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT Second Edition TLFeBOOK TLFeBOOK RESEARCH MANUAL IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT Second Edition Lorraine Nadelman University of Michigan Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers 2004 Mahwah, New Jersey London TLFeBOOK Copyright © 2004 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, byphotostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430-2262 Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN 8058-4041-9 CIP information for this book can be obtained by contacting the Library of Congress. Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 TLFeBOOK To our grandchildren Aaron Noah Kara Jacob Max Micah Ryan Gabriel TLFeBOOK TLFeBOOK CONTENTS Preface 2003 ix ONE. INTRODUCTION—RESEARCH CONSIDERATIONS 1 A. A Primer of Scientific Research 3 Section 1. An Introduction to Psychological Research 3 Robert Wozniak Section 2. Developmental Research 11 Section 3. Children as Subjects 17 TWO. OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES 25 B. Infant Observation 29 C. Observation Projects 43 1. Methods 43 2. Exercises 45 Activity Preferences by Sex 45 Sex and Age Differences in Play 47 Television Programs as a Socialization Agent 49 THREE. EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES 75 D. General Experimental Research Procedures 77 E. Psychomotor and Perceptual Behavior—A Classic Experiment 87 Experiment 1. Age and Sex Differences in Two Reaction-TimeTasks 89 Keith Stanovich F. Cognitive Development 103 Background 103 Piagetian Research 111 Piaget’s Theory 111 Scott Miller Experiment 2. Spatial Perspective-Taking: The Three Mountains Task 125 Theory of Mind: False Belief 151 Background 151 Experiment 3. False Belief in Children’s Theory of Mind 157 Attention and Memory 169 Background 169 Experiment 4. Age and Sex Differences in Interference Proneness 171 Keith Stanovich Experiment 5. Semantic Processing in a Picture–Word Interference Task 187 Experiment 6. The Influence of Category-Blocked and Random Presenta- 211 tion in Free Recall and Clustering Cognitive Development and Language 239 Susan A. Gelman Experiment 7. Children’s Interpretation of the Word Big 245 vii TLFeBOOK viii Contents G. The Socialized Child 285 Self-Concept 289 Background 289 Experiment 8. Age and Sex Differences in Self-Esteem 299 Sex Identity 321 Experiment 9. Differential Recall of Sex-Typed Material 329 Experiment 10. Preference for Sex-Typed Material 349 Cooperation/Competition 369 Background 369 Experiment 11. Cooperation and Competition as a Function of Sex of 373 Dyads Sibling Relationships 397 Assessing Four Domains of the Childhood Sibling Relationship 403 Sandra A.Graham-Bermann Experiment 12. Sibling Relationships and Sibling Status: Older or Younger 415 H. A Final Project: Suggestions 429 FOUR. APPENDICES 435 Appendix A. Notes for the Instructor 437 Appendix B. List of Experiments 459 Index 465 TLFeBOOK Preface Goals for this book and its audience remain constant, so some of the earlier preface is repeated in this updated reprint/revision. Twenty years ago, student demand for research training courses in child development exceeded the supply of such courses. Today, that situation has improved, but not sufficiently. University faculty prefer to teach re- search by having students act as assistants in faculty research projects. College and Junior College instructors recognize the value of a traditional, comprehensive, hands-on laboratory course, but are reluctant to take on the hassle and workload which, indeed, are formidable: obtaining human subjects review approval, lining up subjects and signed permission slips, choosing projects, preparing lectures, and creating stimuli, instructions, data sheets, collation charts, bibliographies, and choosing appropriate statistics for each project. I can’t pro- vide the institutional review board approvals, or the children, but this manual does significantly reduce the “hassle” component and thereby encourage the addition of hands-on research experiences to students’ train- ing in child development. Students who have had actual experience with research processes and writing will derive a long-term benefit, regardless of their eventual career choice. The instructor can use this manual in a variety of ways. I have taught the lab course as an introduction to ex- perimental psychology, as an advanced undergraduate laboratory course, and as an early graduate course. It is not intended as a student do-it-yourself manual; supervision and feedback are crucial. Dedicated teachers are not yet out of style, and individualized attention continues to be the keystone of a superior training experience. Most programs tend to denigrate the data-collection process. Because our archival journals do not always include sufficient methodological detail to replicate published experiments, the Method sections in this book are meticulously detailed. An insistence on adherence to these details, much practice to establish reliability, and a critical discussion of each methodological detail in class may help to rid students of naive notions of the definition and collection of appropriate data. The projects that follow are grouped by topics similar in organization to the more heavily-used child psy- chology textbooks. The experiments cover different content areas, several theoretical paradigms, and various statistical techniques; the measures vary in validity and amount of inference; some effects are robust and oth- ers are not (as in real life). I should have liked to order the projects for the researcher from easiest to hardest, but the difficulty levels of the data-collection, the statistics, and the constructs often vary independently. For what it is worth, students seem to find the following projects the simplest to assimilate: self-esteem, the two sex-role studies, reaction time, and interference proneness. Appendix A (Notes for the Instructor), which is based on many years of experience, will help the researcher in deciding which projects best suit their varied purposes, and offers many practical suggestions. How many experiments are run in a term depends on one’s goals. We have varied between three and eight, with the number affected by decisions on number of subjects, amount and kind of statistics, kind of write up, and extent of student involvement in design modifications. For this edition, six experiments and the statistics chapter were dropped. Projects added include Theory of Mind, Language, Sibling Relationships, plus suggestions for cross-cultural and neuropsychology investiga- tions. The observation chapter was expanded with a TV project. Background essays, introductions, discus- sions, and bibliographies have been revised and expanded. Former contributors—Scott Miller, Keith Stanovich, and Robert Wozniak—are welcomed back, and joined by new colleagues—Sandra Graham-Bermann, John Coley and Susan Gelman. Perhaps a historical and autobiographical note is in order here. My first involvement with this course began in April, 1951, when the incoming chairman of the Psychology and Education Department at Mount Holyoke College, Stuart Stoke, interviewed potential assistant professors interested in initiating an Experimental Child Psychology course and program. The immediate rapport and challenge were irresistible, and four exciting and productive years followed. ix TLFeBOOK x Preface Influenced by my new Skinnerian and psychophysical psychology colleagues, the course was fairly “hard-nosed,” but broad. An eclectic rigorous point of view derived from the earlier and long association at New York University with Theodore Schneirla, Herbert Birch, Ralph Gilbert, Elsa Robinson, Presley Stout, and Marian Jenkins. Many fine honors projects and independent research studies conducted by the student “graduates” of that pioneer course added to the intellectual pleasure. After four years at Mount Holyoke College, I temporarily withdrew from academia to start a family, and re- sumed teaching at the University of Michigan seven years later. I introduced the laboratory course in develop- mental psychology at the University of Michigan in 1967, after a stimulating year as a National Science Foundation Fellow at Tavistock Clinic, London, under the sponsorship of John Bowlby. The developmental aspect was more strongly emphasized, and infant observation projects were added. The course continues to evolve, reflecting changes in the field of developmental psychology, but retaining some classic and historically important projects. With the aid of a small grant from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, I added elderly subjects and a life-span orientation, with the enthusiastic help of Ann Zubrick. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I am grateful to the hundreds of families in South Hadley and Ann Arbor who cooperated with this program over many decades. From 1970–1980, the University of Michigan had no laboratory nursery or school, and without the cheerful and steady aid of the children, families, and public schools’ administrators and staffs, training in developmental research would have been curtailed. Special thanks to Burns Park School families, and UM Children’s Center. Graduate students who acted