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Critical Thinking Case

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1. What factors might each of them think are most important to include in the research design?
Dr. Empiricist would consider experimental design and its features (independent/dependent variables, random assignment of groups, data collection) to be most important to include in research design because according to this perspective, knowledge comes from exposure and experience to a stimuli. He/She might pose an experiment in which a toddler with developed motor skills is compared to a toddler without motor skills in doing a specific task like picking up a block. Dr. Rationalist would consider observation and one-on-one questioning in order to grasp intricate behavior, feeling, and thought to be most important to include in research design because …show more content…

What would be some concerns of Dr. Sociohistorical and Dr. Dynamical when they evaluate the designs of the other two researchers?
Dr. Sociolohistorical may fear that Dr. Empiricist relies heavily on statistical procedures, consistent outcomes, and variable relationships and not enough on the “cultural, social, and historical factors” that impact development. Dr. Dynamical might criticize Dr. Rationalist’s dependency on natural observation rather than verifiable test results (brain scans, artificial simulation, etc) which could lead to inconsistent or unreliable conclusions.
4. Where would be the team’s points of agreement and of disagreement?
The team would agree that there must be a way to test subjects to generate research that either proves or disproves a select theory. Subsequently, the research and conclusions drawn from the study must add breadth to the discussion of human development. Finally, the team would agree that the research design must contain some element of problem solving that will assist in the confirmation or denial of listed predictions. The team may disagree on how to test the subjects (through survey, experimentation, clinical interviews, brain scanning/mapping, etc). The team may also disagree on how accurately the research results verify the

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