Research Methods

This Assignment measures your ability to outline research methods. There are many research designs that are used in developmental research. As discussed in textbook Infants, Children and Adolescents, longitudinal, cross-sectional and sequential designs are used to assess developmental change and to explore developmental topics and changes over time.

This Assignment is composed of two parts:

Part 1: Think about what you would like to learn about developmental change; then create your own research question that would require using either a longitudinal, cross-sectional, or sequential design. In one page, write out your question and explain which design would be most appropriate to answer the question and why.

Part 2: Go to the Kaplan online Library and find one longitudinal, cross-sectional, or sequential research article that studies development in infants, children, or adolescents. Be sure that the article that you find is an empirical peer-reviewed article, with an abstract, purpose, methods, results, and a conclusion. If you are unsure about your article choice or have difficulty finding an appropriate article, please contact your instructor for help.

Write a two-page summary of the research. Be sure to address the following questions in your summary:

• What was the research question the author was investigating in the study?
• How did the author(s) conduct the research? What methods were used? Be sure to name the research design (longitudinal, cross-sectional, or sequential).
• What conclusions were made based on the research?