Consider this chapter’s discussion of research methods. Using what you’ve learne

Consider this chapter’s discussion of research methods. Using what you’ve learned in this chapter, design a research study. Be sure to include the goal of your study, as well as methods, measures, controls, and any other pertinent information.
Chapter 1 :
MY JOURNEY OF adulthood began early, as did that of many women of my generation, when I married shortly after high school and began a family. But unlike many women in my peer group, I spent more time reading than I did having morning coffee with the other moms. I always took a book along to read while the kids had music lessons, baseball practice, and orthodontist appointments. The library was important to me. It was as much a weekly stop as the grocery store. By the time my youngest child began kindergarten, I enrolled in college as a freshman—at the age of 29, which was much older than the average at that time. For the next 7 years, my children and I did our homework together at the kitchen table, counted the days to the next holiday break, and posted our grade reports on the refrigerator. Today, as adults, they tell me that they can’t remember a time in their childhood when I wasn’t in school. Just before I earned my master’s degree in developmental psychology, the marriage ended, and I spent some time as a single mother. I abandoned plans for a PhD and took a job at the university, teaching psychology courses and doing research on children’s memory development. And just as my children began to leave the nest, I married a man whose own journey of adulthood had brought him to fatherhood rather late, making me stepmother of a 5-year-old, who quickly became an important part of my life. Not too much later, the grandchildren began to arrive, and life settled into a nice routine. It seemed I had done it all—marriage, parenthood, career, single parenthood, stepparenthood, and grandparenthood; my life was full.
Suddenly, my 50th birthday loomed. It seemed to represent much more than turning “just another year older” and caused me to reevaluate my life. I realized that I wasn’t ready to ride slowly into the sunset for the next several decades; I needed to get back on track and move forward with my education. The next fall, I entered a PhD program in lifespan developmental psychology at the University of Georgia. It was an invigorating and humbling experience. Instead of being the teacher, I was the student. Instead of supervising the research project, I was being supervised. Instead of giving advice, I was asking where the bookstore was, where to park, and how to use the copy machine. But 3 years later I was awarded a red-and-black hood in a formal graduation ceremony with my children and grandchildren, parents, and siblings cheering for me from the audience.
Now I have an affiliate position at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, and I write college textbooks. My husband and I live in a rural community in southeastern Florida with a cypress stand in the front yard and a small pine forest in the back. Our neighbors have horses, and we wake to roosters crowing in the morning. The book club I started 13 years ago is still going strong, and I enjoy attending community lectures at the university.
One son and daughter-in-law live nearby with three of our grandchildren, and my typical day consists of early-morning writing followed by a water aerobics class. Afternoons I am on homework-help duty or driving grandkids from school to music lessons to home. One grandson is a budding chef at 15, and he comes to our house after school to cook with my husband. Recently, they have been trying to create the perfect French baguette. Another son and daughter-in-law live with their three children just an hour down the coast, and we visit each other often. Despite some typical family drama, in general, life is good.
Seven years ago, with three children and eight grandchildren ranging in age from 8 to 25, my husband and I felt that our lives had settled down. But then both sons, who had been divorced for some time, remarried and started new families. Within the last 5 years, we have added Lily Pearl (age 5), twins Wesley and Jane (age 4), and Sage (age 2). Our younger son married a woman with a 15-year-old son, Andrés, and we quickly added him to our list. As I write this, our 14th grandchild, Amelia, is getting ready to come home from the NICU, after making her entrance into our family a month ago at 3-1/2 pounds. Looking back, we can’t imagine how we felt our lives were complete without these six additions!
If there is a message to take from this text it is this: development doesn’t stop at 21, or 40, or 65. Your life will never stop surprising you until you breathe your last breath. My wish for you is that the surprises are mostly happy ones.
I approach the topic of this text both as a developmental psychologist and on a more personal level. Like many people, I am on this journey of adulthood with my sisters, my husband, my friends, my adult children, and my college-aged grandchildren who are in emerging adulthood, so my interest is both scientific and personal. I want to understand how it all works and why, both because that is what I have chosen for my career and also because it is what I think about a good deal of the time when I am not at work. My journey through adulthood is no doubt similar to yours, but it is also different in other ways. What I am searching for in this text are the basic rules or processes that account for both the similarities and the differences. I hope you can share with me the sense of adventure in the scientific search as well as in the personal journey.