The humanities and social sciences have a great methodology. Traditionally, goals and objectives determine the depth of research, it can consist of one or more stages. The number of repetitions of the information collection process is directly affected by the properties of the object. Longitudinal research is the longest way to obtain data, but also quite effective. It is widely used in psychology in the study of the laws of change in personality traits, as well as in the sociology of generations.
Method Description
Longitudinal research is a comprehensive methodology for studying certain characteristics, 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 goal of longitudinal research is in registering changes in the mental and somatic development of personality. An analysis of the relationship of individual characteristics allows the further establishment and correction of critical periods. Also, for example, student groups are studied during the period of study at the university or couples from the moment of marriage to the stage of divorce or the termination of the existence of the 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. A longitudinal study acts as a tool for predicting the dynamics of the mental development of the personality 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
The study of the object is carried out, as a rule, in the setting of a natural experiment. Psychography, observation, questioning, conversation, interviews, testing are the main methods, the use of which involves longitudinal research. They are applied comprehensively at each stage of the study of a group of people. Over a period of time, an object is systematically observed; on the basis of slices in each period, information and data are collected, recorded. Therefore, longitudinal research can be called the method of longitudinal slices, or the method of length.
Classification of methods according to Ananiev B. G.
The final and practical result, the research procedure depend on the selection of specific methods. The set of different 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 the work "On the problems of modern human knowledge." In his opinion, it is the organizational ones that determine the research strategy, they include the method of cross sections, comparative, integrated and longitudinal. It should be noted that B. G. Ananiev The classification presented was based on the structural organization of psychological research. In its group of methods, longitudinal is the most effective.
Common with the cross-sectional method and differences
The longitudinal method was created as an alternative to the common cross-sectional method used in the field of developmental and child psychology. On the one hand, they are opposed to each other, on the other, they can be used as complementary. A cross-sectional study will require less time and money and will reach more people. At the same time, longitudinal research allows us to fix individual characteristics that have escaped the attention of a 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 and self-sufficiency. With its help, it will be possible to draw conclusions about changes in the phenomena studied, processes, to obtain more conclusive data. At the same time, psychological longitudinal studies are more time-consuming, energy-intensive. The main disadvantages can also include a significant amount of data that can duplicate each other, the 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.