PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Sex Organ, Prenatal Development

• School: Memorial University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Dr.Susan Walling

Document Summary

Developmental psychology: the study of changes in behaviour and mental processes over time and the factors that influence the course of those constancies and changes. Working with people who are growing and developing over time requires researchers to devise a research design that will allow them to assess how individuals change (or remain the same) over time, regardless of what they hope to assess. Researchers compare groups of different aged people to one another at a single point in time. For example, they might compare a group of 60 year olds to a group of 30 year olds on a memory task to see how memory changes over time. Benefit: easy and straightforward, convenient for both researchers and participants. Problems: assumes any changes found in a study are the result of age. It does(cid:374)"t (cid:272)o(cid:374)side(cid:396) the fa(cid:272)t that the 30 year olds are more familiar with and less intimidated by computers than some 60 year olds.