Culturally-specific caregiving practices:

1

• Culturally-specific caregiving practices
• North Germany Parental encouragement of infant
  independence when infants become mobile
• Israeli kibbutzim Infants cared for by
  professional caregivers during the day and
  sometimes at night
• Japanese infants Encouragement of dependence
  (physical contact, anticipating needs, focus on
  social versus nonsocial aspects of the
  environment)

2

• Use of a culturally-biased measure (Strange
  Situation)
• Failure to capture the meaning and goals of
  parent-infant relationships in different cultures
  (Rothbaum et al., 2000)
• Attachment theory privileges individualism or
  autonomy over relatedness
• Using the parent as a secure base for exploration
  is characteristic of infants classified as
  secure in the Strange Situationexploration
  believed to lead to self-reliance

3

• In Japan, dependence is considered an integral
  part of the attachment relationshipdependence
  believed to lead to the ability to integrate
  successfully into a social group
• Behaviors widely regarded as adaptive in Japan
  are similar to behaviors characteristic of
  insecure-ambivalent attachment classifications
• Exs extensive clinging and proximity-seeking,
  extreme expressions of need for care (e.g., high
  distress), failure to engage in exploration

4

• Developmental Psychology Research Issues
• Intractable Variables
• Difficult or impossible to manipulate
• Heredity/Genes
• Environment
• Age
• Age is a proxy for causal variablesi.e., age
  co-varies with these causal agents, but it is not
  a causal variable

5

• Measurement Equivalence
• When constructs change with development, measures
  that are appropriate at one age (time) may be
  inappropriate at another age
• Ex Assessment of attachment in preschoolers
• Is a separation-reunion procedure appropriate?

6

• Self-report data are limited
• Parents, teachers, and other adults often
  complete self-report measures of childrens
  behavior
• Greater reliance on observational techniques
• Inferring the meaning of behavior is difficult
• Ex Infants understanding of object permanence

7

• Complexity of causal influences
• Ethical concerns preclude manipulation of many
  variables
• Ex maltreatment and childrens development
• Laboratory analog studies may compromise external
  validity
• Ex Marital conflict and childrens development

8

• Direction of causation
• Biases/assumptions about the direction of
  influence
• Ex parents influence children rather than the
  reverse
• Bidirectional influences are more likely than
  unidirectional influences

9

• General Research Designs
• Experimental Designs
• Manipulation of hypothesized independent variable
• Random assignment of participants to different
  conditions (between-subjects designs) OR
  participants serve as their own controls
  (within-subjects designs)
• Allow strong inferences about causal relationships

10

• Non-experimental (Correlational) Designs
• No manipulation of variables
• No random assignment or other control procedures
• Not possible to make causal inferences

11

• Developmental Designs
• Designs in which age-related change is examined
• Normative changes in development
• Individual differences in developmental change
• Nonexperimental

12

• Variables Involved in Developmental Designs
• Cohort Groups of participants who are born or
  experience some other common event in the same
  time period
• Ex children born in 1980 are a cohort
  individuals growing up during the Great
  Depression are also a cohort
• Age
• Time/Point of Assessment

13

• Simple Developmental Designs
• Longitudinal Designs
• A single cohort is examined at multiple ages (and
  thus at multiple points of assessment)
• Age and time of assessment are confounded
• An event may occur between points of assessment
  that produces differences in the dependent
  variable
• Ex Sept. 11 may affect rates of psychological
  disorders in children
• If we see increases in psychological disorders in
  a longitudinal design, are they due to age or to
  time of assessment differences?

14

• Cross-sectional Designs
• Multiple cohorts (and multiple ages) are examined
  at a single point of assessment
• Cohort and age are confounded
• Differences across cohorts may produce changes in
  the dependent variable
• Ex Cohorts born in 1970 and 1990 are likely to
  differ with respect to early child care
  experiences
• If we see differences in social competence in a
  cross-sectional design, are they due to age or to
  cohort differences?