| action research | Research conducted by teachers, administrators, and other change agents in the school to improve the educational environment for their students. The goal of action research is to understand a specific problem or to improve teaching practices within a specific classroom or school settings.
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| age norms | The estimated age, often established by cross-sectional studies, at which certain psychological or behavioral characteristics emerge.
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| behavioral genetics | Study of the degree to which psychological traits, such as sociability, aggression, and mental abilities are inherited.
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| case study | A research design for in-depth investigation of a person or small group of individuals; not a reliable source for generalized statements beyond those investigated in the study.
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| classical conditioning | A behavioral principle of learning by which a new response is learned through the pairing of two stimuli. The response that naturally occurs in the presence of one stimulus (food) which begins to occur following the presentation of a second stimulus (bell) when the two stimuli are repeatedly paired.
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| clinical interview method | An interview technique attributed to Piaget of probing children's reasoning processes; a way of combining performance assessments and interviews.
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| correlational study | A widely used design for developmental research studying what different factors influence one another or go together; such studies are not able to test cause-and-effect hypotheses.
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| correlation coefficient | The statistic that measures the strength of relations between two measures (e.g., self-esteem and school achievement); expressed in a positive or negative ratio from -1.0 to _1.0.
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| critical period | (1) Periods of development during which certain basic structures are formed or a child is most vulnerable or responsive to environmental influences. (2) Lenneberg's hypothesis that language development has a biological basis and there is a time in infancy when particular neurological faculties develop. It states that if certain internal or external conditions related to language development are missing, then a child will never be able to acquire language.
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| cross-sectional study | A study that gathers information simultaneously on one or more aspects of development among children of different age groups.
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| cross-sequential study | A study that follows a group of different-aged children for 2 or 3 years; can reliably identify antecedents and stability of behavior patterns during the course of the study.
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| development | The systematic and successive changes that follow a logical or orderly pattern over a long period of time and enhance a child's adaptation to the environment.
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| event sampling | A technique used to record observations of a certain selected behavior, such as aggression.
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| experimental study | After careful selection and matching on a number of variables, participants are randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group to measure any difference between the groups for a particular outcome, known as the dependent variable; any significant variance between the two groups' outcome measure would support the hypothesis that the treatment caused the outcome.
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| generalizability | An important determination, in judging the quality of a study, of whether or not the findings apply or do not apply to groups other than the one studied.
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| hypothesis | A statement of prediction derived from a theory that has not yet been tested.
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| longitudinal study | A study that collects different types of data (e.g., early experiences, education, personality characteristics) on a regular basis and tracks the development of a group of children over a number of years.
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| naturalistic observation | An observation situation that uses real life environments in which to collect data; see natural experiment.
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| operant conditioning | A behavioral principle of learning through which behavior is increased or extinguished by rewards and punishments; same as instrumental conditioning.
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| performance assessment | A method of collecting information that measures children's ability to perform specific cognitive or physical tasks correctly.
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| reciprocal determinism | Defined by Bandura's social learning theory as a bidirectional relationship between a child and his or her social environment; children have as much an influence on their environment as it has on them.
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| reliability | The consistency or precision of a measurement when repeated under similar circumstances; can be tested by administering the same test several times within a short interval of time (e.g., a few weeks) to check the consistency of results over time.
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| research design | The plan or structure of an investigation, which is determined in part by the investigator's research question.
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| self-report | A method of collecting information in which individuals being studied report on themselves through questionnaires, rating scales, or interviews.
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| social desirability | A tendency of individuals to overestimate desirable behavior and underestimate undesirable behavior on self-report measures.
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| structured observation | An observation situation that uses a carefully controlled setting and standardizes the conditions under which data are collected.
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| theory | A set of general rules, assumptions, propositions, and principles used to explain facts; a developmental theory provides a framework for observing, interpreting, and explaining children's changes over time.
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| time sampling | A technique used to record on a coding sheet all observations listed that happen within a predetermined length of time, say, within a 5-minute timeframe.
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| triangulation | The use of multiple data collect methods to compare findings across sources and find consistent patterns.
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| validity | The degree to which a research instrument or test accurately measures what it claims to measure.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education