methodological issues with age studies

?
  • Created by: BKW
  • Created on: 20-05-19 16:39
View mindmap
  • methodological issues with distinguishing between healthy and pathological ageing
    • why is it hard to study?
      • Diagnostic criteria can change over time
      • there is no specific cognitive decline threshold
      • should we look at individual decline or compare elderly people to those of similar ages
      • cognitive impairment can hide pathological conditions vice versa
        • eg someone may have dementia but we blame it on just getting old
      • old age extremely hard to separate from cog decline in advance - will never know
      • biologically hard to distinguish between brain abnormality in normal ageing and alzheimers
    • Longitudinal studies
      • pros
        • Identifies age related changes
        • Unnaffected by cohort effects
      • Cons
        • drop outs
        • expensive, complex & time consuming
        • Practice effects
        • time of measurement effects - eg stress, bereavement, exams ect at certain testing points
    • cross sectional design
      • pros
        • identifies age group differences
        • inexpensive, quick and simple to repeate
          • Better replicability = reliability
        • no time of measurement effects
        • no practice effects
      • cons
        • cant  age changes only age differences
        • cohort effects
    • sequential design
      • All the pros of cross sectional and longitudinal design
      • cons of the other 2, complex, expensive, time consuming

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Psychology resources:

See all Psychology resources »See all METHODS - AGE resources »