The aim of the study for this assessment was to compare two peoples view of child development. Firstly, against each other but also against Hess’s study of 1980 and OU study of 1995. Would they reproduce similar results to the 1980 study.
Method
Design The test was a replica of Hess’s 1980 study into child development. Two participants were chosen for the test. Their answers were recorded and compared.
Participants. Participant one, was a 19 year old female student. Participant two, was a 47 year old father of three.
Materials There were 29 cards with development goals printed on them. These were piled up. There was an example card with ‘ can brush teeth’ printed on it. This was placed to one side. There was a paper gird with three boxes drawn on it. One box was marked ‘ before 4 years’. Another, ‘4, or 5 years’. And another ‘over 6 years’. These were placed on a table. There was a summary data sheet. The development goals were split into six groups. Comprising emotional maturity, compliance, politeness, independence, social skills, and verbal assertiveness.
Procedure Before completing this procedure it was tested on a pilot to ensure there would be no problems. The pilots score is shown alongside the participants scores. Neither participant was shown this before the test. The participants were interviewed separately. They were informed of the BPS ethical code and principles and assured the test would be run under these guidelines. They were told they would be shown some cards with development goals on them. They were informed there were no right or wrong answers. These were merely their interpretation of what age certain tasks could be achieved. The participants were shown the test card. The card was put in the box the participant thought most appropriate. For example, if the participant thought a child should be able to brush his own teeth at age 4, then the card should be put in the box ‘4 or 5 years’. The participants were then left to complete the test. No comment was made about any decision unless the participant had a question about the test. Neither participant had access to the others answers. When the participant had finished laying the cards they were sent out for a drink and the cards were then analysed.
Results
Using the same scoring sheet as Hess, every card in the group before four years scored three. Every card in the group four or five scored two and every card in the six or over group scored one. The scores were then transferred to the Summary Data Sheet (attached as resource C.) These were totalled and then divided by the number of categories in that group. These were then transferred to Table A (below) for comparison with the Hess test.
Table A The developmental goals of four samples of adults
This information was also illustrated as a graph (attached as Resource D). this is called the Data Profile Sheet. It shows the difference in answers between participant one, two, and the pilot. However, the pilot is not included in Table A nor is referred to in the analysis of the data.
In general, both participants had the lowest expectations of developments goals. Emotional maturity had the highest expectation of the Japanese mothers, yet had the lowest of both participants.
When asked the question “ what did you base your answers on?” participant one responded that she had based it on her younger siblings. Participant two remarked he had based his answers on his own children. Neither mentioned child care books or magazines.
When asked “did you have any difficulties with any of the questions?” participant one replied that she felt some of the things a child may have done at a younger age and then grown out of. For example helping mother might be appealing to a below four year old but not to six or over. Participant two felt that some questions he considered the health and safety angle rather than capabilities of a child. For example is it safe to leave a child under six in the house or garden unsupervised.
When asked the question, “how do you think parents acquire expectations of development goals. Participant one felt peer pressure was the most influence. She would probably rely on family advice. While participant two felt it was family history and childcare books that had the most influence on other parents. He himself had relied on the health visitors and social workers for guidance.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to find if testing on two people could reproduce the results of a previous analysis.
When interviewed, both participants were told that this was an assessment for the Open University. A main concern was that the candidate would give answers that would ‘please’ or appear to be intellectual. It was stressed that there was no wrong answer and no comment was made during the study unless guidance was required on interpretation of the card.
By using a man as one of the participants it was possible that he would not be so influenced by child books and more inclined to use his own experience and thoughts. That certainly seemed to be the case as these were not mentioned as influence in his decisions. This was also the reason for using a young girl in that it was unlikely that she would have read many child manuals.
From the interview with the participants it is clear that some of the things that influenced this study was cultural pressure (from grandparents of the children and media.) Health visitors and schools also influence expectations by having a guide as to how children in general should progress. This was as well as using their own experience with either their own children or siblings.
It would appear that participant one (no children) had lower expectations than participant two who did have children. Both of them had lower expectations than Hess’s study. Its possible this is due to a changing attitude of child expectations. Hess’s study was in 1980. In 1995 when data was collected for the OU mothers study nearly all of the answers showed a reduction in child expectations. It could be interpreted that opinion on child development has relaxed somewhat. It may also show that child manuals could give an unrealistic view of child rearing. Naturally this is a study of two individuals and not a comprehensive test. The highest scores of the participants were politeness and compliance. Whiting and Edwards point out that all adult carers have the same goals for their children – ‘caring for, socialising and transmitting culture to their children’ (Whiting and Edwards, 1998) it would seem that all categories place high expectations on politeness.
The difference in attitude between participant one and two was not as broad as expected. They seemed by and large to place similar values. There were even sections where they were broadly similar to the Hess and OU studies. It was a difficult theory to prove with such a small number of participants but it was interesting to note the results.
As mentioned before, it is difficult to know whether the participants were truthfully answering the questions or trying to make the study more interesting or intellectual. It may have been better for the participant to be unaware of what the experiment was about until afterwards. This would prevent subconscious influence on the outcome. If the experiment done again it may be better to have a wider more cross culture survey to see the difference that culture makes. It was a concern that the interviewer may have an influence in that interpretation of some of the cards may have made a difference. Would the results have been different if the card scoring had been done by a different person. Perhaps they would have been better to have done the test unobserved.
Conclusion
The findings of the study are that it is not possible to reproduce the Hess study of 1980 with only two people. Especially when the two people are of a different group to the original report. The results reflected a relaxation of goal attainment. But the results may be flawed, two is not an ideal number. Plus although the report was as close to Hess’s as possible it may have been compromised by the participants answering in an unrealistic way. Both were aware of the analysis being used for an OU assessment and this may have affected their answers.
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References
Whiting, B. and Edwards, C.P. (1992) ‘Reading A : Parents as teachers of social behaviour’, in Das Gupta (1994) pp 44-5
The Open University (2004) ED 209 Practical Assignments Booklet
Das Gupta, P (1994) ‘Images of childhood and theories of development’ in Oates, J (ed) The Foundations of Development, Oxford, Blackwell/The Open University
