My Own Personal Research (Question)

I would focus on the impacts handedness might have on a child's learning development. Handedness has been attributed to genetic factors as well as asymmetrical brain development, and hand-dominance seems to have some sort of connection with language processing in the brain's hemisphere's; right handed people generally have a left-hemisphere preference for language processing/function and left handed people have right-hemisphere or bilateral preference for language processing/function. It would be interesting to see if these differences impact learning, and in what ways. I hypothesize that hand-dominance would impact a child's learning, with right-handed children developing faster than left-handed children as left handed children must often adapt to a right-handed world.

To give operational definitions to the hypothetical constructs of handedness and learning development, I would define handedness as a strong preference for either the left or right hand, as exhibited through a child's daily activities, such as writing or eating. For learning development, I would focus on test scores on standardized tests such as the MontCAS, which screens for understanding of reading/math.

I would use a cross-sectional research design with participants' ages ranging from 5-10 in order to study learning development at different stages in their education. I would select 25 left and 25 right handed kids from each age group. I would utilize Teacher/Parental reports for additional information on a child's learning patterns/abilities, in addition to the data that could be gleaned from test scores.

I'm on vacation, so these calories don't count.

I've always been quite intrigued by the paranormal - I would love to test the idea that children are more open to the phenomenon of past lives and/or presence of energy until we scholastically beat it out of them.  I don't have a revolutionary method of testing it (as I'm sure you all know it's been an unprovable venture), but I'd definitely pay someone else to do it.  I'd be a handsome benefactor, standing in the wings with a furrowed brow.  I also don't have an actual method of compensation, so maybe let's just say that I'll just insist that I know it's real and call it a day.  

Developmental Study: Response to Sept 9 Blog Post

I think it would be very interesting to study assumed locus of control at varying stages of development and across gender. Locus of control refers to what a person percieves as causation of a personal outcome or event. Those with an internal locus of control tend to hold the belief that they are in control of their own life or destiny wheras those with an external locus of control believe that their decisions and situations are controlled by environmental factors or things that they cannot influence. I would like to study whether people of different age groups tend to, in general, have the same locus. Locus of control is definitely not something that can be measured with observation or really very well by experiment so I would test this by using a self report survey. This survey would contain 50 personality questions and 50 situational questions. These questions would be somewhat of short stories or vignettes describing a character and a situation in which some life change or event happens to that character. The subject would then respond by circling one of two answers that is closest to their feeling about the outcome of the short story. One answer would be heavily themed to the way someone with an internal locus of control would react, the other, the way someone with an external locus of control would. Such a survey could even be simplified and shortened to study children. The survey would be quantitatively scored using a point system. Different responses to the personality questions would be weighted in a manner which would give external locus responders more points, and internal locus responders zero or fewer points. The situation questions would be scored objectively as well, one point given for an answer that favors external locus and zero points for an answer that favors an internal locus. Using this point system it would be possible to numerically determine and categorize the extent to which someone holds each locus. From this point, it would be simple to graphically plot age distribution and percent of population holding each locus as well as gender versus locus. I hypothesize that older people would hold a stronger internal locus of control while youger groups would have a higher frequency of externalizers. It would be very interesting to see if there was any correlation between age and locus, then to examine the possibilities of why that phenomena exists. Does advancing age and the wisdom that comes with it favor one locus? Do younger generations with less life experience, developing in a more globally connected and overwhelming world give preference to one locus? Are males and females the same or quite different in their perceptions and concequently, their loci?

Prompt for September 9th

I would choose to study the social skills of children who are home schooled compared to children who attend public schools. Do children who socialize more with older individuals on a regular basis mature at a faster pace than kids who spend a greater amount of time with their peers?

My hypothesis would be home schooled children would act older than the actual age.

For my study I would use the naturalistic observation of specifically selected groups of children comparing their social skills and maturity level under each circumstance. Recording my data and prepare a bar graph to represent my findings!

Research method and topic

If I could choose a subject to study for development it would be, if a child has an absence of a father figure or a mother figure early in life will it affect how they treat and respect the same sex of the absent figure. With the absence of a parent sometimes it is noticed that they treat a specific sex in a disrespectful manner. For example if a male child didn't have his mother in his life how will he treat a could be girlfriend in a relationship later in life. Will he be more respectful? Less respectful? Or unaware of how to properly respect the girl? The sample would be from a selected few who took a survey asking if they had a parent missing. Have one female "actor" who would go on a date with one guy with only one parent and then have the same girl go on a date with a man who had both parents. Also do it the other way around with a male actor. The method used in the experiment would be to the naturalistic approach, letting the participants just be their normal self with their normal behavior. Answers would come from observation and supplying a survey to find one and two parent participants.

My hypothesis would be that with an absence of a parent that treatment and respect would be lagging or a little behind. Not saying that there would be no respect at all, but rather that participants would be I guess behind when it came to respect. The absence of a mother to a little boy could later lead to that boy not being able to or understand completely how to properly treat a future female girlfriend in his life. The female side could be that with an absence of a father in her life she may just not find a boyfriend the best thing for her, could come off guarded and not sure how to approach a male figure in a way that is abundantly respectful.

Study

If i had my choice i would study the development of empathy, when it starts what influences it's development, and why some people don't develop it at all. One of the ways I would go about figuring it out would be looking at the past of the subjects, asking the parents, teachers, councilors, etc... "Was he/she home a lot? Did they have many friends? Where they bullied at school?" and questions of the like to gather information. Then take the information from one subject and compare it with another to see if there is a correlation. If there is a common factor between all the subjects in the development it could be considered a concrete cause more then likely one of many. That's just one way maybe it was more simple then the environment from when the child grew up. Abusive parents, head trauma, chemical, not socialized right, bad role models, bad nutrition or maybe the child just snapped.  Try to test all the other variables and weed out the possibilities in the long run.

there are so many different variables and ways to go about this it's a bit over whelming but fascinating at the same time.  This is the one i would try if i had a choice. If anyone can think of other ways to test this please by all means let me know.

Research Question

My research question is can diet effect behavior. I hypothesize that a healthier diet will decrease aggression in SED (severally emotionally disturbed) youth. I would test this on youth that are already in lock down treatment facilities that are already at a higher risk of becoming violent. In the study there would be two groups one having a diet change. This diet would included no processed food or canned food. Most of the food would be as fresh as possible and also follow federal diet guide lines. The second group would continue the diet as before. The study would take place at various treatment facilities through out the US to get a representative population of of youth in treatment facilities with the same number of kids in each group at each facility. The research study would be done through structured observation and an experimental design.  The reactions would be observed through video recordings if aggression took place the staff at the treatment facility would be there to end it. Survey would also be given to the youth to evaluate how they feel the diet has effected their behaviors. 

Prompt for Sept 9th

My personal choice for a Developmental Psych study would have focused on the language development of children in a household with older siblings and children in a household without older siblings.  Both sets of children would have to be in families with both parents living at home with a median income of approximately $45,000-65,000.  
The study type would be a longitudinal study and interviews with parents.  Selected children would be examined once a month in a controlled environment as well as the parents monthly reports.  Information would be compiled from 6 months until 5 years.  
Language development has been an interest of mine as my biggest issue with small children is the inability to communicate.  It's incredibly frustrating to attempt to calm a small child or toddler when words are truly useless.  The more information I can compile on the topic, the more it will help me understand their difficulties.

a study on a possible cause of male parenting skills

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24016988

Maybe next time.

Prompt for September 9th (Due Friday evening)

You have all been thinking about research recently, but have been "forced" to think about particular research questions as groups. If you could pick your own, what variables or phenomena would you have studied? Once you have picked a topic, which of the research methods and designs would you use?