Longitudinal Study: Definition and Features of Conducting

Humanities and social sciences have a great methodology. Traditionally, goals and tasks determine the depth of the research, it can 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 study is the longest method of obtaining Data, but also quite effective. It is widely used in psychology in studying the patterns of personality traits, as well as in the sociology of generations.

Characteristics of the method

Longitudinal study is a comprehensive method of 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. Shtern, A. N. Gvozdev, who kept a diary of observations of the child's growing up.

The main goal of the longitudinal study is In the registration of changes in the mental and somatic development of the individual. The analysis of the relationship between individual characteristics allows us to further establish and adjust the critical periods. Also, for example, student groups are studied during the period of study at a university or married couples from the time of marriage to the stage of divorce or the termination of the family as a collective. The number of objects of observation affects the reliability and accuracy of the information obtained. It is of fundamental importance that the same people are subjected to the study, their mental state is analyzed and recorded at certain stages of life. Longitudinal study acts as a tool for predicting the dynamics of a person's mental development in the future and establishing interrelationships between individual characteristics, lifestyle, and genetic predispositions. The results obtained in this way allow us to draw conclusions for the long term.

Longitudinal survey toolkit

The study of the object is carried out, as a rule, in an atmosphere of 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 studying a group of people. During a certain time there is a systematic observation of the object; On the basis of sections in each period, collection, registration of information and data are carried out. Therefore, the longitudinal analysis can be referred to as the longitudinal slice method, or the long-distance method.

Classification of methods by B. Ananyev

The final and practical result, the procedure of investigation depends on the selection of specific methods. The set of different technologies and methods of research is divided into four groups: methods of interpretation, data processing, empirical and organizational. Such a classification was first proposed by the Soviet psychologist BG Ananiev in 1977 in his work "On the Problems of Modern Humanistics." In his opinion, it is the organizational ones that determine the research strategy, which includes the method of cross sections, comparative, complex and longitudinal. It is necessary to note that BG Ananyev In the basis of the presented classification put the structural organization of psychological research. In its group of methods, longitudinal treatment is most effective.

General with the method of cross-sections and differences

Longitudinal method was created as an alternative to the common method of transverse sections, applied in the field of age and child psychology. On the one hand, they are opposed to each other, on the other, they can be used as complementary. The study, carried out by the method of cross sections, will require less time and money, they will be covered by a larger number of people. At the same time, longitudinal analysis allows us to fix individual features that escaped the attention of the scientist and make the processing of the results obtained in the context of each age period.

The advantages and disadvantages of the method

The advantages of such a 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 the changes in the phenomena and processes being studied, and to obtain more conclusive data. At the same time psychological longitudinal studies are more labor-intensive, energy-consuming. The main shortcomings can also be attributed to a significant amount of data that can duplicate each other, duration and large financial costs. In addition, at each subsequent stage, the process of collecting data on participants in the study is difficult because of a change of residence or death.