Cross Sectional Research

7 Key excerpts on "Cross Sectional Research"

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  Research Methodology in the Social, Behavioural and Life Sciences

  Designs, Models and Methods

  • Herman J Ader, Gideon J Mellenbergh, Herman J Ader, Gideon J Mellenbergh(Authors)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 7 Cross-sectional Research J elke Bethlehem 7.1 Cross-sectional surveys 7.1.1 About sample surveys Studies can be carried out in several ways. On the one hand, you have experimental studies, in which you have control over some of the variables to be observed. This makes it possible to detect and check relationships be-tween variables. There are also study designs in which control over variables is not required or not possible. This is the area of observational studies. The aim of this type of study is to explore and establish possibly existing re-lationships between variables by systematically measuring the same set of variables for all elements ( or a subset of elements ) in a population. When measuring variables is carried by means of asking questions of persons, we call the observational study a survey. The target population of survey need not necessarily consist of persons. It could, for example, also consist of households, farms, or companies. Typ-ically, in surveys information is collected by means of questionnaire forms. The questions on the form are presented to and answered by representatives of the elements in the population in a systematic way. A cross-sectional survey investigates the state of affairs in a population at a certain point in time. To study changes over time, the survey must be repeated at a number of different points in time. This is the area of longitudinal surveys, and it is treated in the next chapter. This chapter concentrates on methodological and practical aspects of cross-sectional sur-veys. One way to carry out a survey is to collect information on all elements in the target population. Such a survey is called a census or a complete enumeration. This approach has a number of disadvantages. In the first place, collecting information about a large population is very expensive. In the second place, the survey is very time-consuming, and this affects Copyrighted 1&)aterial

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  Research Design in Social Research

  • David de Vaus(Author)
  • 2001(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  11 Issues in Cross-Sectional Design

  Cross-sectional designs are probably the most widely used designs in social research. One reason for this popularity is that they enable the researcher to obtain results relatively quickly. Since data are collected at one point of time there is no need to wait for various follow-up stages or interventions before analysing the data. It is also true that, other things being equal (e.g. sample size, population, sample type), cross-sectional designs are more cost effective than comparable experimental and longitudinal designs. This is because cross-sectional designs do not entail the cost of repeated data collections, tracking respondents or of experimental interventions.

  Cross-sectional designs can be ideal for descriptive analysis. If we simply want to describe the characteristics of a population, their attitudes, their voting intention or their buying patterns then the crosssectional survey is a most satisfactory way of obtaining this descriptive information. But cross-sectional designs are not restricted to descriptive analysis. As will be argued below, proper analysis that uses statistical controls enables cross-sectional data to provide valuable information about causal processes and for testing causal models.

  There are, however, a number of methodological and practical issues of which we need to be aware when using cross-sectional designs. An awareness of these issues should help minimize the shortcomings of this design.

  Methodological Issues

  Internal Validity

  We encounter problems with internal validity when the logic and structure of the design does not enable us to choose unambiguously one explanation of our results over another explanation. Campbell and Stanley (1963) have identified a number of factors that threaten internal validity and these have been discussed in detail in Chapters 5 and 8

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  Understanding Abnormal Child Psychology

  • Vicky Phares(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  The behavioral genetics design allows the development of psychopathology to be explored through twin studies and through adoption studies. Time Frame of the Research Study. There are a number of ways to con- ceptualize research when the time frame of the research is taken into account. Cross-sectional research is conducted when data are collected at one point in time. Prospective longitudinal research is conducted when children are fol- lowed over a period of time and data are collected at two or more points in time. Accelerated longitudinal research combines cross-sectional and prospective longitudinal research by collecting data from different groups of children at one point in time and then following all of those children over a period of time. The Actual Process of Research. The majority of researchers conduct pro- grammatic research, which means that they have a research program that attempts to answer related research questions (e.g., the study of child abuse could be studied in a variety of different ways by the same research group). Most researchers use a p-value (probability value) of p < .05 when referring to statisti- cally significant research findings. Choosing Appropriate Samples of Participants. It is imperative that researchers attempt to recruit representative samples of participants that can be generalized to the broader population. In order to identify representative samples, researchers must consider the various sites of research on developmental psycho- pathology, including schools, clinics, hospitals, communities, and laboratories. Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research. Quantitative research utilizes the empirical process in order to address issues within developmental psychopathology. The majority of studies described in this chapter and in this textbook are quantitative in nature. Qualitative research utilizes a less numeric approach to understand developmental psychopathology.

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  Research Methodologies of School Psychology

  Critical Skills

  • Ryan J. Kettler(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Cross-sectional surveys and longitudinal surveys are the two design types defined by the frequency with which the surveys are administered. Cross-Sectional Surveys Cross-sectional surveys provide a snapshot in time, with data collected at one moment from selected individuals. For example, a researcher may survey elementary, middle, and high school principals regarding a new program at a given moment in time, with the sample including both novice and experienced administrators. Such a design would provide data relatively quickly to describe each group’s views, attitudes, behaviors, demographics, and experiences (e.g., novice and experienced educators’ implementation of support behaviors or attitudes toward the program). Lane, Carter, Jenkins, Magill, and Germer (2015) conducted a statewide survey of 365 site-level administrators. The purpose of the survey study was to inform professional development in a state committed to designing, installing, and evaluating comprehensive, integrated, three-tiered (Ci3T) models of prevention to meet students’ academic, behavioral, and social needs (www.ci3t.org). In this study, researchers employed a cross-sectional design in which the primary investigators randomly selected half of the administrators in one state to participate in a survey of their knowledge and use of components constituting Ci3T models of prevention. Following approvals, half of the 1,777 public schools listed in the state Department of Education database were invited to participate. One district declined to participate, resulting in a total of 876 administrators being extended the opportunity to complete the survey. The response rate was just under 42%. This survey yielded information at one point in time. The survey did not allow for monitoring how these views shifted over time

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  The Study of Behavioral Development

  • Joachim F. Wohlwill, David S. Palermo(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  146 VII Longitudinal versus Cross-Sectional Methodology ceeding 4 or 5 years. Conversely, by limiting himself to a shorter time period, the researcher finds a much more problem-focused type of longitudinal re-search emerging, which also promises to yield a much higher return on the in-vestment, in terms of the gratification of the investigator as well as the advancement of his discipline. Yet the argument just suggested cannot be accepted as entirely valid; indeed, the advances which shortterm longitudi-nal research are making at present will undoubtedly themselves bring to the fore new problems demanding more long-term investigation, as insights into the operation of developmental processes multiply. But as we will see in the next section, compromises that may enable the developmental researcher to eat his cake in short-term fashion and still have it in the long-term sense, by an appropriate combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional methodolo-gies are possible. 2. TEST-RETEST EFFECTS One of the vexing problems facing longitudinal investigators is that of dealing with possible effects which may result from subjecting individuals to repeated tests or measures of some behavioral variable. The uncertainty principle which to some extent plagues all behavioral assessment—that is, the influence on the object of measurement of the act of measuring itself, or the experience of being examined, observed or tested—can become partic-ularly severe where a relatively large number of observations is to be ob-tained from the same individual. The obvious approach to determining the magnitude and direction of such effects consists in comparing longitudinal with cross-sectional data.

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  Child Psychology

  A Canadian Perspective

  • Alastair Younger, Scott A. Adler, Ross Vasta(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Longitudinal research allows researchers to study changes as children age, examining the stabil- ity of behaviour over time and the effects of early experiences. Limitations of the longitudinal approach include attrition, the effects of repeated testing, the possibility that the research issues and instruments may become outdated, and the fact that the method is time-consuming and expensive. 2. What are the strengths and limitations of cross-sectional research design? In cross-sectional research groups of children of different ages are compared at one point in time. The method is a relatively quick and low-cost way to examine for age differences, and there are no problems with attrition or repeated testing. The drawback of this approach is that it cannot be used to examine stability and change. Additionally, cohort effects (unique events experienced by a particular generation) can influence the findings. 3. What are the strengths and limitations of cross-sequential research design? Cross-sequential research combines cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Children of different age groups are followed longitudinally, allowing both cross-sectional and longitudi- nal comparisons to be made. It also allows researchers to examine cohort effects. However, it can be a time-consuming and costly procedure. 4. What are the strengths and limitations of microgenetic research? Microgenetic research is an intensive study of a small number of children over a brief period of time. The strength of this design is that it allows examination of developmental changes that are discontinuous, in which abrupt change occurs from one level of development to another. The limitation of this type of research is that repeated testing can influence results. LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.4 Understand the uses of cultural research, comparative research, and psychophysiological methods.

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  Psychology Around Us

  • Ronald Comer, Nancy Ogden, Michael Boyes, Elizabeth Gould(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Truly random selection can be elusive. The members of your population who do not play video games include, for example, 3-year-olds, who probably are not interested in gaming (yet!) and probably are not capable of making the same kinds of choices about aggressive behaviour that 18- or 25-year-old persons might make. Thus, you may decide to narrow your sample to include adolescents or young adults only. Of course, such a choice would mean that your findings will be relevant to adolescents or young adults only, rather than to adults or to the entire human population. Researchers in psychology often try to choose samples that make their results relevant to the broadest possible segments of their populations of interest.

  Pick a Research Method

  Researchers have several options when designing studies to test their hypotheses (McGrath, 2011). Research methods differ in their goals, samples, and the ability of researchers to generalize their results (suggest that they might apply) to a population. Most of the methods we describe next, including case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys, are known as descriptive research methods . They allow researchers to pursue the goal of description: to determine the existence (and sometimes the strength) of a relationship between the variables of interest. In addition to such descriptive methods, we will also describe experiments, which allow researchers to explain the causes of behaviour (see

  Figure 2.3

  ). Understanding the differences between descriptive, also called correlational, studies and experimental studies, and particularly understanding what each can or cannot say about the causes of the behaviour each observes, is critical to properly understanding psychological research.

  FIGURE 2.3 Descriptive versus experimental research Because descriptive methods and experimental methods each serve particular purposes and have different advantages and disadvantages, psychological research includes both kinds of approaches.

  Adapted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Carpenter, S., & Huffman, K. (2012). Visualizing Psychology , Third Edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, p. 15.

  Case Studies

  A case study focuses on a single person. Medical and psychological practitioners who treat people with problems often conduct case studies to help determine whether therapeutic interventions affect their client’s symptoms (Lee, Mishna, & Brennenstuhl, 2010). A case study can be a good resource for developing early ideas about phenomena. One disadvantage of a case study, however, is that it can be affected greatly by researcher bias

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