Q&A Hero

Q: Ethology, evolutionary developmental psychology, sociocultural theory, and the lifespan perspective all view development as A) primarily influenced by nature. B) primarily influenced by nurture. C) both continuous and discontinuous. D) one course with universal stages.

Q: Which of the following statements about learning research strategies is true? A) It is unimportant to individuals who work directly with children and should be left to research specialists. B) It is important in separating dependable information from misleading results. C) It is unimportant because schools and community agencies rarely collaborate with researchers in an effort to enhance development. D) It is unimportant because theories and hypotheses alone result in sound evidence on human development.

Q: Taking tests and answering questionnaires are examples of A) research designs. B) theories. C) hypotheses. D) research methods.

Q: Dr. George predicted that positive reinforcement would increase prosocial behavior in preschoolers. Dr. George's prediction is an example of a A) theory. B) research question. C) hypothesis. D) research design.

Q: A __________ is a prediction about behavior drawn from a __________. A) theory; research question B) hypothesis; theory C) theory; hypothesis D) hypothesis; research question

Q: Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory, information processing, and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory all stress A) nature over nurture. B) changes in thinking. C) unconscious motives and drives. D) the effects of punishment and reinforcement on behavior.

Q: Toby moved with his family just before he entered fourth grade. In ecological systems theory, the move represents a change in Toby's A) microsystem. B) mesosystem. C) exosystem. D) chronosystem.

Q: Bronfenbrenner's macrosystem consists of A) activities and interaction patterns in the individual's immediate surroundings. B) third parties that affect the quality of the parent"child relationship. C) cultural values, laws, customs, and resources. D) social settings that do not contain the developing person but nevertheless affect experiences.

Q: __________ can help prevent escalating demands on families that give way to chaos. A) Ethnographic research B) Absence of daily structure C) Compression of family routines D) High-quality child care that is affordable and reliable

Q: Family chaos is linked to A) warm, involved parent"child interaction. B) enhanced language development. C) economic disadvantage. D) time spent sleeping.

Q: According to ecological systems theory, interactions between Marina and her child occur in the A) microsystem. B) mesosystem. C) exosystem. D) macrosystem.

Q: Because a child's biologically influenced dispositions join with environmental forces to mold development, Urie Bronfenbrenner characterized his perspective as a(n) __________ model. A) sociocultural B) stagewise C) bioecological D) evolutionary

Q: Ecological systems theory views the person as A) a blossoming flower, and it regards development as a maturational process. B) developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment. C) a social being influenced primarily by observational learning or adult modeling. D) a computer-like system that actively codes, transforms, and organizes information.

Q: Cross-cultural research stimulated by Vygotsky's theory reveals that A) heredity and brain growth contribute significantly to social development. B) the stages of cognitive development are universal. C) children in every culture develop unique strengths. D) adults begin to encourage culturally valued skills as soon as children begin school.

Q: Unlike Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky viewed cognitive development as a __________ process. A) socially mediated B) genetically predictable C) preoperational D) neurological

Q: Lev Vygotsky's theory focuses on A) critical periods of human development. B) children's capacity to shape their own development. C) how behavior patterns promote survival. D) how culture is transmitted to the next generation.

Q: Evolutionary developmental psychology A) focuses on how the structures of the mind develop to better fit with, or represent, the external world. B) seeks to understand the adaptive value of specieswide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with age. C) views the human mind as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows. D) brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns.

Q: John Bowlby argued that A) behaviors such as smiling, babbling, and crying are innate social signals that encourage parents to interact with their infants. B) infants become attached to their parents because parents are associated with the reduction of primary drives, such as hunger and thirst. C) parents and infants are both instinctively attached to each other. D) attachment patterns are difficult to study in humans.

Q: A(n) __________ period is a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge. A) equilibration B) imprinting C) adaptive D) sensitive

Q: Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen laid the modern foundations for A) social learning theory. B) developmental cognitive theory. C) ethology. D) psychoanalytic theory.

Q: Dr. Singh studies the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns. She is part of a group of researchers from the fields of psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine. This approach to development is known as A) the information-processing approach. B) cognitive-development theory. C) behaviorism. D) developmental cognitive neuroscience.

Q: The information-processing approach A) overemphasizes nonlinear aspects of cognition, such as creativity and imagination. B) is better at analyzing thinking into its components than at putting them back together into a comprehensive theory. C) regards the thought processes studiedperception, attention, memory, planning strategies, categorization of informationas stagelike in their development. D) underestimates the individual's contribution to his or her own development.

Q: A major strength of the information-processing approach to development is its commitment to A) the study of imagination. B) flexible case study interviews. C) rigorous research methods. D) disproving other developmental theories.

Q: The information-processing perspective views development as A) continuous. B) discontinuous. C) a socially mediated process. D) marked by imagination and creativity.

Q: Unlike Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory, the information-processing approach A) uses clinical interviews to determine a child's stage of development. B) does not divide development into stages. C) characterizes each developmental stage by qualitatively distinct ways of thinking. D) views development as a discontinuous process.

Q: Lillian uses flowcharts to map the precise steps individuals use to solve problems and complete tasks. Lillian is a(n) __________ theorist. A) psychoanalytic B) information-processing C) dynamic systems D) social learning

Q: The information-processing approach views the mind as a A) symbol-manipulating system through which information flows. B) socially mediated process. C) collection of stimuli and responses. D) system of genetically programmed behaviors.

Q: Research on Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory indicates that A) he overestimated the competencies of infants and young children. B) he overemphasized the role of social and cultural influences on development. C) discovery learning facilitates learning better than adult teaching. D) children's performances on Piagetian tasks can be improved with training.

Q: Sydney, when faced with a problem, starts with a hypothesis, deduces testable inferences, and isolates and combines variables to see which inferences are confirmed. Sydney is in Piaget's __________ stage of development. A) sensorimotor B) preoperational C) concrete operational D) formal operational

Q: Jamar understands that a certain amount of liquid or clay remains the same even after its appearance changes and can organize objects into hierarchies of classes and subclasses. According to Piaget, Jamar is in the __________ stage of cognitive development. A) sensorimotor B) preoperational C) concrete operational D) sociocultural

Q: According to Jean Piaget, __________ is the balance between internal structures and information that children encounter in their everyday worlds. A) imitation B) adaptation C) cognition D) equilibrium

Q: Piaget's view of development was greatly influenced by his early training in A) physics. B) sociology. C) biology. D) kinesiology.

Q: According to Jean Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory, A) children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world. B) children's learning depends on reinforcers, such as rewards from adults. C) adult teaching is the best way to foster development. D) rapid development occurs during sensitive periods.

Q: Many theorists believe that behaviorism and social learning theory A) overemphasize the plasticity of cognitive development. B) overestimate people's contributions to their own development. C) offer too narrow a view of important environmental influences. D) overemphasize each individual's unique life history.

Q: Behavior modification eliminates undesirable behaviors by A) exposing children to group therapy. B) having patients talk freely about painful childhood events. C) improving children's social settings, such as school and home. D) combining conditioning and modeling.

Q: According to Bandura's revised social-cognitive theory, as children grow older they A) become more selective in what they imitate. B) become less selective in what they imitate. C) imitate more than they model. D) respond more favorably to punishment than reinforcement.

Q: Today, Albert Bandura's theory stresses the importance of A) behavior modification. B) punishment. C) cognition. D) reinforcement.

Q: According to __________ theory, children learn primarily through modeling. A) reinforcement B) operant conditioning C) social learning D) classical conditioning

Q: According to B. F. Skinner, __________ will increase the frequency of a behavior and __________ will decrease the frequency of a behavior. A) punishment; reinforcement B) reinforcement; punishment C) modeling; reinforcement D) punishment; imitation

Q: According to __________ theory, the frequency of a behavior can be increased by following it with a wide variety of reinforcers. A) classical conditioning B) observational learning C) operant conditioning D) psychoanalytic

Q: In a historic experiment with 11-month-old Albert, John Watson demonstrated that A) children cannot be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus. B) infants as young as a few months old will repeat a behavior to obtain a desirable reward. C) children can be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus. D) children have an innate, inborn fear of rats.

Q: Ivan Pavlov discovered A) observational learning. B) classical conditioning. C) the ego's positive contributions to development. D) the clinical method.

Q: Dr. Faulkner believes that directly observable eventsstimuli and responsesare the appropriate focus of the study of development. Dr. Faulkner probably follows the __________ perspective of development. A) psychosexual B) psychosocial C) behaviorism D) cognitive-developmental

Q: One reason that the psychoanalytic perspective is no longer in the mainstream of child development is because A) it tells us little about factors that contribute to personality development. B) its theorists were so strongly committed to the clinical approach that they failed to consider other methods. C) contemporary theorists have found that personality development does not take places in stages. D) it fails to recognize the role of the early parent"child relationship in personality development.

Q: In contrast to Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson A) viewed children as taking a more active role in their own development. B) pointed out that normal development must be understood in relation to each culture's life situation. C) minimized the role of culture in individual development. D) primarily focused on the importance of early life experiences.

Q: Freud's psychosexual theory was eventually criticized because A) it stressed the influence of the early parent"child relationship on development. B) it overemphasized the influence of sexual feelings in development. C) Freud had not directly studied adolescents or adults. D) it ignored personality development.

Q: According to Sigmund Freud, the A) ego develops through interactions with parents. B) superego is the conscious, rational part of personality. C) ego is the largest portion of the mind. D) id is the source of basic biological needs and desires.

Q: Sigmund Freud constructed his psychosexual theory A) on the basis of his adult patients' memories of painful childhood events. B) by conducting studies of animal behavior. C) on the basis of interviews with institutionalized children and adolescents. D) by carefully observing his own children.

Q: According to the __________ perspective, people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. A) normative B) behaviorism C) social learning D) psychoanalytic

Q: Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon's intelligence test was originally constructed to A) measure individual differences in IQ. B) document age-related improvements in children's intellectual functioning. C) identify children with learning problems who needed to be placed in special classes. D) compare the scores of people who varied in gender, ethnicity, and birth order.

Q: Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon addressed practical educational concerns by A) launching the normative approach. B) constructing the first intelligence test. C) writing the first parenting books. D) conducting child observations and parent interviews.

Q: Arnold Gessell A) was among the first to make knowledge about child development meaningful to parents by writing child-rearing books. B) is generally regarded as the founder of the child study movement. C) concluded that the development of the human child follows the same general plan as the evolution of the human species. D) constructed the first successful intelligence test.

Q: G. Stanley Hall and his student, Arnold Gesell, A) discovered that prenatal growth is strikingly similar in many species. B) launched the normative approach. C) constructed the first standardized intelligence test. D) were the forefathers of psychoanalytic theory.

Q: G. Stanley Hall regarded development as a __________ process. A) maturational B) nonnormative C) psychosocial D) social learning

Q: Charles Darwin's theory of evolution emphasized __________ and __________. A) the normative approach; survival of the fittest B) noble savages; physical maturation C) tabula rasa; natural selection D) natural selection; survival of the fittest

Q: Nonnormative influences A) are typical or average. B) affect large numbers of people in a similar way. C) do not follow a predictable timetable. D) include age-graded and history-graded influences.

Q: As a generation, baby boomers are A) healthier, but less educated, than any previous midlife cohort. B) more educated, but less wealthy, than any previous midlife cohort. C) more self-focused, but less healthy, than any previous midlife cohort. D) healthier, better educated, and financially better off than any previous midlife cohort.

Q: The splurge of births from 1946 to 1964 yielded a unique generation that today comprises nearly _____ percent of the U.S. population. A) 10 B) 20 C) 30 D) 40

Q: History-graded influences explain why __________ tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times. A) cohorts B) ancestors C) siblings D) descendants

Q: Which of the following is an example of an age-graded influence? A) Paul learned to play the violin at age 11. B) Frank got his driver's license at age 16. C) Martina got married at age 34. D) Jesse learned to use a computer at age 21.

Q: Research on resilience shows that A) heredity is more powerful than the environment in protecting children from the negative effects of stressful life events. B) the environment is more powerful than heredity in protecting children from the negative effects of stressful life events. C) interventions must attend to both the person and the environment to strengthen a child's capacity while also reducing hazardous experiences. D) plasticity is limited to infancy and early childhood.

Q: Although Betty grew up in a rundown neighborhood, had divorced parents, and rarely saw her father, she is a successful, happy, and healthy adult. Betty's ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development is known as A) assimilation. B) resilience. C) age-graded development. D) multidimensional development.

Q: Max, age 65, learned to play the piano at a local senior center. Max demonstrates that A) aging is an eventual "shipwreck." B) learning follows a predictable timetable. C) development is plastic at all ages. D) musical talent peaks in late adulthood.

Q: According to the lifespan perspective, __________ is supreme in its impact on the life course. A) the prenatal period B) early childhood C) adolescence D) no single age period

Q: The lifespan perspective on human development assumes that development is A) static and stable. B) multidimensional and multidirectional. C) continuous, rather than discontinuous. D) largely the result of heredity.

Q: The increase in the number of healthier, more active older adults suggests that human development is a A) controversial area of research. B) unidirectional system. C) dynamic system. D) biological, rather than environmental, science.

Q: Theorists who emphasize plasticity believe that A) change in response to influential experiences is possible. B) heredity, rather than the environment, influences behavior. C) individuals who are high in anxiety as children will remain so at later ages. D) early experiences establish a lifelong pattern of behavior.

Q: Theorists who point to early experiences as establishing a lifelong pattern of behavior emphasize A) stages. B) discontinuity. C) stability. D) continuity.

Q: Although Justin spent his first 18 months in an orphanage, his adoptive mother believes that sensitive caregiving will help Justin overcome his early experiences. Justin's mother emphasizes the role of __________ in development. A) nurture B) stages C) stability D) nature

Q: Tammy's father is an exceptional gymnast. When Tammy was just a toddler, her father believed that Tammy already showed great promise as a gymnast. Tammy's father probably believes that athletic ability is mostly determined by A) nurture. B) stages. C) nature. D) early experiences.

Q: Kim is interested in comparing the language development of shy versus outgoing preschoolers. Kim is most likely interested in __________ that shape development. A) genetic factors B) the contexts C) therapeutic techniques D) historical factors

Q: Dr. Kostel believes that development takes place in stages. This belief is consistent with the __________ perspective. A) nurture B) continuous C) discontinuous D) nature

Q: Within the __________ view of development, new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times. A) discontinuous B) nature C) continuous D) nurture

Q: The continuous view of development holds that A) infants and children have unique ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. B) infants and preschoolers respond to the world in much the same way as adults do. C) infants and children respond to the world quite differently than adults do. D) new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times.

Q: Theories are vital tools for developmental researchers because they A) ensure proper use of research procedures. B) illustrate the ultimate truth regarding human behavior. C) provide organizing frameworks for our observations of people. D) do not require scientific verification.

Q: Developmental science is __________ because it has grown through the combined efforts of people from many fields of study. A) interdisciplinary B) empirical C) applied D) theoretical

Q: While great diversity characterizes the interests and concerns of developmental scientists, they share a single goal: to identify A) genetic factors that contribute to longevity. B) environmental factors that contribute to disease and illness. C) those factors that lead to abnormal development in children and adolescents. D) those factors that influence consistencies and transformations in people from conception to death.

Q: Developmental science is a field of study devoted to A) proving contemporary theories of development. B) understanding abnormal development in children and adolescents. C) understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan. D) identifying genetic contributions to disease and illness.

Q: Nelson enjoys tasty food, and he will eat food even when he isn't hungry, if he is fond of that type of food. This eating pattern is most consistent with the _____ model. a. positive incentive b. psychodynamic c. setpoint d. behavior modification

Q: According to the positive incentive model of weight control, people a. will have difficulty weighing either much more or much less than their biologically determined setpoint. b. eat for pleasure. c. are rewarded for having fat children. d. are punished for having fat children.