Developmental Psychology

When ten-month-old Frances throws her toy out of sight, she looks to see where it falls. Developmental psychologists would say that Frances’ behavior indicates that she has developed

A) Reversibility

B) Conservation

C) Egocentrism

D) Object Permanence

D) Object Permanence

Five-year-old Mary watches while her teacher pours equal amounts of water into two similar glasses. The liquid from one of the glasses is then poured into a tall, thin container, and Mary is asked which contains more—the original glass or the tall, thin container. She says the tall, thin container contains more liquid. According to Jean Piaget, this example illustrates a lack of

Responses

A) Egocentrism

B) Conservation

C) Object Permanence

D) Preconventional Thought

B) Conservation

A nine-year-old girl first learning about her capabilities on the playground and in the classroom would be in which of psychosocial stage of development?

A) Industry vs. Inferiority

B) Identity vs. role confusion

C) Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

D) Integrity vs. despair

A) Industry vs. Inferiority

Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation paradigm is typically used to test young children’s

A) Intelligence

B) Reaction Time

C) Attachment

D) Incidental Learning

C) Attachment

Research indicates that a toddler with a secure attachment style is most likely to do which of the following when left with a caregiver, such as a babysitter, for the first time?

A) Show distress when left, calm down and play, and run to the mother when she returns

B) Cry when left and continue to cry until the mother returns

C) Not notice when the mother leaves and not seek attention from the mother when she returns

D) Show distress when the mother leaves and not seek attention when the mother returns

A) Show distress when left, calm down and play, and run to the mother when she returns

Maksym’s parents set moderate expectations about discipline, exhibit high levels of warmth, and have open lines of communication. Which of the following best describes the parenting style of Maksym’s parents?

A) Authoritarian

B) Permissive

C) Authoritative

D) Scaffolding

C) Authoritative

A child reading a book points to a picture on the page and calls to his mother in another room and says, “Mommy, who’s in this picture?” He expects that she will know what he is pointing at, even though she cannot see it. Which of the following concepts is illustrated in this example?

A) Animism

B) Assimilation

C) Egocentrism

D) Object permanence

C) Egocentrism

Benjamin is five years old. While his mother is making his lunch, he explains to her that he is very hungry and would like a lot to eat. His mother cuts his sandwich into four pieces, and he is very pleased. Benjamin’s pleasure at having four small pieces instead of one large piece is due to the fact that he lacks

A) Conservation

B) Object Permanence

C) Theory of Mind

D) Assimilation

A) Conservation

Which of the following examples best illustrates Piaget’s concept of conservation?

A) Seven-year-old William understands that when water is poured from a short, wide glass into a taller, thinner glass, the amount of water is the same.

B) Six-month-old Aubrey cries when her toy is covered by a blanket.

C) Three-year-old Wen says “No” when asked if her sister has a sister.

D) Seven-year-old Patrice sorts trading cards into groups by the type of superhero power the character possesses.

A) Seven-year-old William understands that changing the shape of an object does not change its amount.

Research on a critical period during the acquisition of second languages indicates that which of the following statements is true?

A) The older an individual is, the more difficulty he or she will have with second-language pronunciation.

B) Children have a more difficult time than adults understanding the grammar of the second language.

C) Articulation of difficult sounds in the second language is easier for adults than for children.

D) Adults acquiring a second language typically speak with less of an accent than children acquiring the same second language.

A) The older an individual is, the more likely they will struggle with second-language pronunciation due to brain plasticity changes.

Egocentrism, animism, and artificialism are characteristic of which of Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?

A) Sensorimotor

B) Preoperational

C) Concrete operations

D) Formal operations

B) Preoperational

According to the psychosocial theory of development, in late adulthood the individual reaches the eighth and final stage of the life span in which one reviews and evaluates one’s life and the choices one has made. The theory labeled this stage as which of the following?

A) Initiative versus guilt

B) Integrity versus despair

C) Generativity versus stagnation

D) Identity versus role confusion

B) Integrity versus despair

According to the psychosocial theory of development, individuals in early adulthood often seek a life partner with whom they will share their most closely held secrets and hopes. This psychosocial stage of development is called

A) Generativity Versus Stagnation

B) Intimacy Versus Isolation

C) Industry Versus Inferiority

D) Identity Versus Role Confusion

B) Intimacy Versus Isolation

Which of the following scenarios best describes what a psychologist who applies the psychosocial theory of development would think someone might experience in early adulthood?

A) Frances was a good student who socialized mostly with other good students, but recently she has started socializing with a different crowd and places less importance on her grades.

B) Liz has tried to do things independently but has not been successful, so now she feels bad about herself.

C) Mohammed has dated a few people but has not been very successful, so he has decided to give up on dating.

D) Jazmin feels like she is unfulfilled and living a mundane life.

C) Mohammed has dated a few people but has not been very successful, so he has decided to give up on dating.

The psychosocial theory of development assumes which of the following principles underlies development at all stages?

Responses

A) Principles of classical and operant conditioning shape personality throughout the life span.

B) Each stage in the life span presents the task of resolving a different conflict.

C) Maturation is the primary force that drives movement through stages.

D) Advancement within each stage is independent of experience in the prior stage.

B) Each stage in the life span presents the task of resolving a different conflict.

Experiments with baby monkeys who had to choose between a wire monkey "mother" who delivered food or a cloth monkey "mother" who did not demonstrate the importance of

A) Socialization To Neural Development

B) Environmental Stimulation To Cognitive Development

C) Contact Comfort To Attachment

D) Imprinting To Observational Learning

C) Contact Comfort To Attachment

Jeff always tells his children not to use bad language when something does not go the way they want. Unfortunately, Jeff uses bad language occasionally and his children have observed him do so. Now Jeff’s children use bad language. This can be explained by

A) Learned Helplessness

B) Social Learning Theory

C) Classical Conditioning

D) Self-Efficacy

B) Social Learning Theory

In homes where parents do not use correct grammar, their children tend to make more grammatical errors. Which of the following concepts identifies a type of error children might make?

Responses

A) Telegraphic speech

B) Babbling

C) Overgeneralization

D) Non-verbal manual gestures

C) Overgeneralization

In Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which of the following best exemplifies the concept of accommodation?

A) A newborn touched lightly on the right cheek turns his head to the right.

B) An infant stops reaching for a toy as soon as it is covered by a cloth.

C) An infant acquires a fear of heights after learning to crawl.

D) An infant trying unsuccessfully to suck her fist opens her mouth wider and is successful.

D) An infant trying unsuccessfully to suck her fist opens her mouth wider and is successful.

Which of the following scenarios best describes schema assimilation?

A) A child assumes she will not like broccoli because its shape is similar to that of cauliflower, which she does not like.

B) A woman sees a building on fire but does not call the fire department because she believes someone else will.

C) A salesperson persuades a buyer to purchase a small set of knives, hoping the buyer will upgrade to a larger set.

D) A father is able to remember only the last two items on a grocery list because they were added most recently.

A) A child assumes she will not like broccoli because its shape is similar to that of cauliflower, which she does not like.

During puberty, Ellis experienced many physical changes, including a significant broadening of his shoulders and a deepening of his voice. Which of the following concepts best describes these physical changes?

A) The stage of emerging adulthood

B) The development of gender identity

C) The development of secondary sex characteristics

D) Psychosocial development during adolescence

C) The development of secondary sex characteristics

Researchers want to study the effects of teratogens. They should conduct

A) An Experiment Using Pregnant Rats

B) Correlational Research On An Adolescent Rat And A Prenatal Rat’s Exposure To Teratogens

C) An Experiment Using Pregnant Humans

D) Correlational Research On An Infant’s Exposure to Teratogens And The Developmental Delays The Infant Experiences

A) An Experiment Using Pregnant Rats

Of the following cognitive milestones, which ability tends to be acquired last?

A) Telegraphic speech

B) Use of schemas

C) Hypothetical thinking

D) Assimilation

C) Hypothetical thinking

Which of the following research methods is being used if the same subjects are tested at two, four, and six years of age?

A) Longitudinal

B) Cross-sectional

C) Correlational

D) Projective

A) Longitudinal

Eleven-month-old Jason drops a toy from his crib. He immediately looks over the side of the crib to search for the toy. Jason’s behavior demonstrates that he has acquired...

A) Conservation

B) Habituation

C) Object Permanence

D) A Zone of Proximal Development

C) Object Permanence

A child’s sex is genetically determined by the...

A) Mother

B) Father

C) Paternal Grandmother

D) Maternal Grandmother

B) Father

Melissa reads in a parenting magazine that the average age at which children first walk on their own is twelve months old, and most children walk within the range of nine to seventeen months old. The article discusses the concept of...

A) Standardized Testing

B) Developmental Norms

C) Reliability

D) Inferential Statistics

B) Developmental Norms

Andi’s best friend always screamed when she was in high places, and now Andi also screams when she is in high places. Which of the following theorists would say that Andi screams because she saw her friend scream?

A) William James

B) Albert Bandura

C) Charles Spearman

D) Carl Rogers

B) Albert Bandura

Four-year-old Maria knows that she has eaten all her peanuts, but she also realizes that Robbie, who cannot see inside her bag, may not know the peanuts are gone. Her awareness demonstrates that Maria has...

A) A Self-Concept

B) Formal Operational Thought

C) Theory of Mind

D) Egocentric Thinking

C) Theory of Mind

Researcher Renee Baillargeon found that four-month-old infants will look longer at a ball if it appears to roll through a solid barrier, demonstrating that babies seem to grasp basic physical laws intuitively. Which of the following theories does this finding challenge?

A) Lev Vygotsky’s social cognition learning model

B) Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

C) Mary Ainsworth’s findings from the Strange Situation

D) Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

B) Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Which of the following is a parenting style that, among children raised in the United States, is most closely associated with the development of self-reliance and confidence?

A) Authoritarian

B) Authoritative

C) Permissive

D) Secure

B) Authoritative

A newborn child is irritable, intense, and unpredictable. A developmental psychologist describes this child as difficult. This categorization is most likely referring to...

A) Attachment Style

B) Maturation Level

C) Temperament

D) Theory of Mind

C) Temperament

The component of intelligence involving the ability to understand logical relationships, reason abstractly, and learn quickly is related to which of the following?

A) Intelligence quotient

B) Fluid intelligence

C) Emotional intelligence

D) Crystallized intelligence

B) Fluid intelligence

Crystal has three children she loves and cares for very much. Denise has two children that she neglects. Crystal’s children are very friendly and talk to people more often than Denise’s children. Which of the following is the likely result of the children’s attachment to their mothers?

A) Crystal used rewards and punishments more often than Denise.

B) Crystal’s children will have better socialization skills.

C) Denise’s children's schemas regarding parent-child relationships are quite strong.

D) Crystal’s children will have resolved the Oedipal complex, and Denise’s children will not have.

B) Crystal’s children will have better socialization skills.

In studying the behavior of five year olds in freeplay situations, a cognitive psychologist would be most interested in the children’s

A) Problem-Solving Strategies

B) Toy Preferences

C) Degree of Cooperative Behavior

D) Prosocial Play Activities

A) Problem-Solving Strategies

Being able to perform a complex action after watching another person perform it is an example of which of the following types of learning?

Responses

A) Insight

B) Social

C) Latent

D) Operant conditioning

B) Social

Jean Piaget formulated his theory of cognitive development by observing his own children at play. What is a valid criticism of the case study approach that Jean Piaget used to collect research data to originate his cognitive development theory?

A) He failed to get permission from the parents of the children he studied.

B) He limited his observations to groups of children with mixed ages because he believed that group efforts would enhance learning.

C) He interviewed many children to achieve breadth when it would have been better to focus on a few children to achieve depth.

D) His observations may have been biased due to his relationship with the participants.

D) His observations may have been biased due to his relationship with the participants.

A psychologist works with the Temne people of Western Africa. The psychologist presents two equal balls of clay, both an inch in diameter. First, the child acknowledges that the balls of clay are equal. Then, the researcher flattens one of the balls, and the psychologist asks the child, “If your friend was given the clay shaped like a rice cake and you were given the ball, who would have more to eat?” The psychologist counted how many children said, “One of us cannot have more than the other.”

Which of the following cognitive concepts was the psychologist testing?

A) Animism

B) Conservation

C) Scaffolding

D) Object permanence

B) Conservation

Researchers are investigating the effects of a 20-minute antibullying video on adolescent helping behavior. Fifty-seven eighth-grade students from a middle school are participating.

What conclusion can be drawn from the graph?

A) Both male students and female students showed an increase in helping behaviors after watching the video.

B) Only female students showed an increase in helping behaviors after watching the video.

C) Only male students showed an increase in helping behaviors after watching the video.

D) Both male students and female students showed a decrease in helping behaviors after watching the video.

A) Both male students and female students showed an increase in helping behaviors after watching the video.

Four-year-old Ethan and his mother have the following conversation:

MOTHER: Ethan, do you have a brother?

ETHAN: Yes.MOTHER: What’s his name?

ETHAN: My brother’s name is Anthony.

MOTHER: Does Anthony have a brother?

ETHAN: No.

Which of the following concepts does this conversation illustrate?

Responses

A) Conservation

B) Animism

C) Object permanence

D) Egocentrism

D) Egocentrism

Which of the following types of intelligence is most clearly demonstrated by an individual’s knowledge of facts?

Responses

A) Fluid

B) Practical

C) Analytical

D) Crystallized

D) Crystallized

Which of the following is true about gender roles in children?

Responses

A) Children often develop traditional gender roles despite their parent's discouragement of such roles.

B) Children are often confused about gender roles when parents discourage them from avoiding traditional gender roles.

C) Children most often do not develop specific gender roles.

D) Research indicates there is a large biological basis for gender roles.

A) Children often develop traditional gender roles despite their parent's discouragement of such roles.

Jane is a five-year-old child who believes that her doll will be cold if not covered with a blanket at night and cannot understand why her older brother gets angry when she blocks his view of the television. According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Jane is in which of the following developmental stages?

A) Preconventional

B) Concrete operational

C) Preoperational

D) Sensorimotor

C) Preoperational

The results of experiments with infant monkeys who were placed in enclosures with mother monkeys made of cloth with no food or wire with food show which of the following?

A) Contact comfort was the primary basis of attachment for the infant monkeys.

B) Female infant monkeys are more obedient than male infant monkeys.

C) Food outranked all other factors in the development of the infant monkeys’ attachment to the mother.

D) Infant monkeys mimic the surrogate mothers' behavior.

A) Contact comfort was the primary basis of attachment for the infant monkeys.

Experiments with infant and mother monkeys suggest which of the following as most important for infants when establishing an attachment to their mothers?

Responses

A) The amount of time spent with the mother

B) The mother’s ability to protect the infant from physical harm

C) The mother’s ability to provide nourishment to the infant

D) The tactile characteristics of the mother

D) The tactile characteristics of the mother

Researchers hypothesize that the older a baby is when it begins to crawl, the longer it will take the baby to stop exhibiting earlier rocking behaviors. The researchers go into the infant room of a day care center every day for six weeks. Every time a baby rocks, the researchers record it. They document which babies are already crawlers and at what age each started crawling. What will help the researchers with their investigation?

A) Surveying 100 parents about prenatal care

B) Their knowledge that babies develop fine motor skills before they develop gross motor skills

C) Their knowledge that rocking behavior develops before crawling behavior and that rocking behavior eventually goes away once crawling behavior begins

D) Randomly assigning the babies to the crawling versus not-crawling conditions

C) Their knowledge that rocking behavior develops before crawling behavior and that rocking behavior eventually goes away once crawling behavior begins

Kelly, a first-year student at a local university, is surprised at how easily she can locate the building and classroom for each of her classes on the first day of school. Kelly attributes her success to the campus tour she took the previous spring. Which of the following concepts best supports Kelly’s belief?

Responses

A) Modeling

B) Spontaneous recovery

C) Stimulus generalization

D) Latent learning

D) Latent learning

Professor Whitmore conducted research to examine changes in cognitive development across the life span. He recruited 400 participants and then grouped them by age. The study included 20-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 60-year-olds, and 80-year-olds (100 in each group). Each group in the study took several different tests. Some of the tests were fact-based and drew upon knowledge from several different areas. Other tests required participants to solve new problems as quickly as they could. Based upon research on fluid intelligence, which of the following is a likely hypothesis for Dr. Whitmore’s study?

A) The 80-year-old cohort will likely outperform the 20-year-old cohort on all cognitive measures.

B) The 40-year-old cohort will likely perform the lowest on the section of the test where participants are solving new problems quickly.

C) The 60-year-old cohort will likely perform better than all other groups on tests of factual knowledge.

D) The 20-year-old cohort will likely outperform all other groups on the tests that involve solving new problems quickly.

D) The 20-year-old cohort will likely outperform all other groups on the tests that involve solving new problems quickly.