Imagine that you had an unlimited amount of funds in which to conduct a study on the psychosocial development, meaning the social development and the emotional development, of individuals in middle...

Imagine that you had an unlimited amount of funds in which to conduct a study on the psychosocial development, meaning the social development and the emotional development, of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of age 40 to age 65.  Create a research project using one of the three classic developmental research designs, focusing on psychosocial development in middle adulthood, narrowing the study question to one of the following topics:  Erik Erikson’s seventh stage of psychosocial development, the midlife transition, friendships, occupation, marriage, or parenthood.

Here are the Classic Developmental Research Designs.

Cross-sectional design

Longitudinal design

Sequential design

With the information from Chapter 16 (Looking at the Life Course in Middle Age, Change at Midlife: Theoretical Approaches, The Self at Midlife: Issues and Themes, Relationships at Midlife, Consensual Relationships, Relationships with Maturing Children, Other Kinship Ties) in mind.

Tasks:

1. State the classic developmental research design you would use to create a research project on the psychosocial development, meaning the social development and the emotional development of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of age 40 to age 65, using one of the classic developmental research designs.


2. State the topic of your study of psychosocial development of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of 40 to 65, by choosing one of the following topics: Erikson’s seventh stage of psychosocial development, or the midlife transition, or friendships, or occupation, or marriage, or parenthood.


3. State what you would be interested in discovering in your study of psychosocial development of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of 40 to 65. State who would be the participants in your study of the psychosocial development of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of 40 to 65.  State what you would have the participants do in your study of the psychosocial development of individuals in middle adulthood, which is the age range of 40 to 65.

Sample

1.  A longitudinal research design could be used to study the psychosocial development of individuals in middle adulthood.

2.  The topic of the study would be on the occupations that the middle adults chose.

3.  The study would focus on discovering if the participants were emotionally satisfied with the occupations in which they worked, irrespective of the amount of money they earned. The participants in the study would be 600 adults, who were age 40. The participants would be given a questionnaire at the beginning of the study, which would run for 20 years until the participants were age 60, to see what their level of satisfaction was with their occupation, and what their level of income was.  The participants would be tracked for 20 years, once a year, to see if there were correlations between income level and satisfaction with the occupation they chose.