Essay Sample on Infant Temperament: Parent Report & Direct Observation

Introduction

The article, "Infant Temperament Measured by Multiple Observations and Mother Report" was written by Seifer, Sameroff, Barrett, and Krafchuk in 1994. It is a longitudinal study that researches and analyzes infant temperament through parent-report questionnaire and direct observation. The four researchers achieved the objectives of their research by randomly selecting fifty-first-time mothers of the age of twenty to voluntarily observe the temperament of their babies who were aged between 4-14 months and record them every week on the provided questionnaires. The results of the study were then analyzed and compared with the direct observation in which disparities were noted between the two methods of data collection. The differences were attested to wrongful information that is at times provided by mothers which leads to an incorrect conclusion.

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The study clarified the developmental process of temperamental behavior in children and how different methods of data collection would yield different results. The results of the study are coherent with my opinion on one of the ways of data collection used in the study. Parent report questionnaire was reported to be in inconsistent with direct observations, and more downfalls were attached to the former. I understood that the mothers of the kids would not provide the right information about them, and this led to the inconsistencies in the findings.

The article, "Infant Temperament Measured by Multiple Observations and Mother Report" was chosen since it analyzes two methods of data collection and provides the differences in the results and why such dissimilarities exist. This gives a reader a chance to understand the limitations that occur in a study which in most cases are not presented in the report and which makes one embrace the final report of the study. The conclusions invoke skepticism in a reader, and through deep awareness, one gets to understand the causes and control of a child's temperament.

The article is very educative as it uses two methods of data collection on a child's temperament, namely; direct observation and parent-report questionnaire. Through the analysis of the two methods of collecting data and their impact on the study, I learned that temperament of an infant is observable, the most effective number of direct observations in such a study is eight for useful measurements of different dimensions to be achieved in the study, and the challenges posed by parent report questionnaire in the survey can be mitigated by aggregated multiple parents report. The information gained from the article is useful since it helps one in understanding the temperamental developmental process of a kid. The article majorly focused on the methods of data collection, but one would have opted to learn more about the causes of temperamental behaviors in infants and how they can be controlled.

The information presented in the article is instrumental in my professional life as a nurse since it enables me to understand the effects of different types of data collection when researching on infant behavior, especially temperament. After learning the data collection methods on infant temperament, one would develop the interest of wanting to know more about the causes of temperamental behavior in an infant and how to control it.

Conclusion

The topic was the most favorable since over the recent past, there has been an upsurge on the number of children being involved in crime at a tender age. With the topic of infant temperament, one could understand whether the current problem stems from early childhood behavior or via subsequent societal influences. The article is meticulous in the discussion of the two methods of data collection on infant temperament. It offers advantages and disadvantages of the two methods of data collection and how they might influence future research on the same topic.

References

Seifer, R., Sameroff, A. J., Barrett, L. C., & Krafchuk, E. (1994). Infant Temperament Measured by Multiple Observations and Mother Report. Child Development, 65(5), 1478. doi:10.2307/1131512