Longitudinal study: definition and features of conducting

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

The humanities and social sciences have a great methodology. Traditionally, the goals and objectives determine the depth of the study, it may consist of one or more stages. The number of repetitions of the process of collecting information is directly affected by the properties of the object. Longitudinal research is the most time-consuming method of obtaining data, but also quite effective. It is widely used in psychology when studying the patterns of changes in personality traits, as well as in the sociology of generations.

Characteristics of the method

Longitudinal study is a complex technique for studying certain features, properties of the test object for a long time. Its name comes from the English word longitude, which means "longitude". Among the founders of this method were V. Stern, A. N. Gvozdev, who kept diaries of observations of the growing up of the child.

The main purpose of a longitudinal study is to record changesmental and somatic development of personality. Analysis of the relationship of individual characteristics allows you to further establish and correct critical periods. Also, for example, student groups are studied during the period of study at a university or married couples from the moment of marriage to the stage of divorce or the termination of the existence of a family as a team. The number of objects of observation affects the reliability and accuracy of the information received. It is fundamentally important that the same people are studied, their mental state is analyzed and recorded at certain stages of life. Longitudinal research acts as a tool for predicting the dynamics of a person's mental development in the future and establishing relationships between individual characteristics, lifestyle, and genetic predispositions. The results obtained in this way allow us to draw conclusions for the long term.

Longitudinal Research Toolkit

Study of the object is usually carried out in the setting of a natural experiment. Psychography, observation, survey, conversation, interview, testing are the main methods, the use of which implies a longitudinal study. They are applied comprehensively at every stage of the study of a group of people. For a certain time, there is a systematic observation of the object; on the basis of slices in each period, information and data are collected and recorded. Therefore, a longitudinal study can be called the method of longitudinal sections, or the methodlong.

Classification of methods according to Ananyev B. G

The final and practical result, the research procedure depends on the choice of specific methods. The totality of various technologies and research methods is divided into four groups: methods of interpretation, data processing, empirical and organizational. Such a classification was first proposed by the Soviet psychologist B. G. Ananiev in 1977 in his work “On the Problems of Modern Human Knowledge”. In his opinion, it is the organizational ones that determine the research strategy, these include the method of cross sections, comparative, complex and longitudinal. It should be noted that B. G. Ananiev based the presented classification on the structural organization of psychological research. In its group of methods, longitudinal is the most effective.

Common and differences with the cross section method

The longitudinal method was created as an alternative to the common cross-sectional method used in developmental and child psychology. On the one hand, they are opposed to each other, on the other hand, they can be used as complementary. A cross-sectional study will require less time and money, and a larger number of people will be covered. At the same time, a longitudinal study makes it possible to fix individual characteristics that have escaped the attention of the scientist, and to process the results obtained in the context of each age period.

Advantages and disadvantages of the method

The advantages of this technology include the ability to predict development, the reliability of the results obtained and self-sufficiency. With its help, it will be possible to draw conclusions about changes in the phenomena and processes under study, to obtain more indisputable data. At the same time, psychological longitudinal studies are more labor-intensive and energy-intensive. The main disadvantages also include a significant amount of data that can duplicate each other, duration and high financial costs. In addition, at each subsequent stage, the process of collecting data on study participants is hampered by a change of residence or death.