While doing my reading of chapter
one, longitudinal study really caught my interest. While it certainly seems to
be a significant method of studying development over time, multiple questions
arose in my mind while reading. The most crucial one was: how exactly can they
possibly have an unbiased method of studying development longitudinally? Of
course participants are (most likely) aware of their development being traced,
so is there any chance that this knowledge is influencing their behavior? I
know that this was addressed very briefly in the text (Berger, 23), but I was a
very stubborn child and if I had been subjected to a test against my will
(however benign it may be) I would have intentionally given incorrect answers.
I wonder how experimenters in longitudinal studies deal with this, if they know
that children don’t wish to participate or if they are clearly aware that
participants are giving incorrect answers.
The second question that arose in
my mind was: how significantly would the research be impacted if one of the
experimenters were to die? Frankly, if someone were to be watching an
individual for the duration of his or her life, the chances of someone dying
during lifelong research is very high. My personal belief is that every
researcher and experimenter brings their own knowledge and perception to the
table, so it saddens me to think that a great loss could be made while
performing such a great study.
This a very interesting write up. I being a child that has had testing done for special needs and requirements testing for me was almost normal, though at the time I had no idea what it was for. It was only later it was to test my disability and keep track of I.Q also thought processes. I went along with testing but I understand why some may not like it. I think though for your second question has me thinking a lot and I do not have an answer or side to take. Its something that happens during researcher and the only thing that would be left if the experiment would be papers. The relationship and connection would have to start over. I will think on this and great job on looking at this subject.
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