Human development final

Development is best defined as

The systematic changes and continuities from conception to death

What characteristic belongs mainly in the cognitive domain of development?

Language acquisition

Traditionally, growth has been defined as

Physical changes that occur from conception to maturity

The term “age grade” refers to a

Socially defined age group, with culture-specific assigned roles, privileges, and responsibilities

Research on the effects of high and low socioeconomic status found that

Measurable differences in brain development exist between high and low socioeconomic children

Development of the idea of adolescence occurred as

more industrialization and an educated labor force required laws that restricted child labor and made schooling compulsory

Which of the following reflects the principle that human development is a lifelong process?

Understanding adult choices requires looking back at how these choices took shape in childhood

Which best exemplifies the concept of neuro plasticity

the foundation of new brain cell connections as the result of reading a book

A theory is best defined as a

set of ideas proposed to describe and explain certain phenomena

A good scientific theory should

be falsifiable

A question of how biological and environmental forces impact development is referred to as the

Nature-Nurture issue

Nature is to Nurture as

Maturation is to learning

The basic premise of Jean Piaget’s theory is that

Children think differently than adults do

The major goal behind random sampling is to ensure that the

sample is representative of the population.

The greatest advantage of the naturalistic observation method is that it

can tell us what people do in everyday life.

The main limitation of physiological measures is that

it is not always clear what is being assessed.

The main limitation of the case study method is that

results may not generalize to others.

The fundamental question addressed by the correlational method is

“Are two or more variables related in some systematic way?”

Random assignment helps ensure

similarity of participant groups prior to the treatment.

What is the defining characteristic of experimental control? 

managing unrelated factors

Psychosocial development includes

motives, emotions, and personality traits.

The person most often cited as the founder of developmental psychologist is Erik Erikson.

False, it’s Jean Piaget

The germinal period ends when the

blastocyst becomes fully embedded in the wall of the uterus.

The outer layer of the blastocyst forms the

amnion and chorion.

The fetal period is best defined as

the period from the ninth week of pregnancy to birth.

The term “age of viability” refers to the point at which

survival outside the uterus might be possible.

In the final months of pregnancy, the fetus’ neurons

grow larger and develop an insulating cover.

The most dangerous time for a baby to be exposed to most chemical teratogens is

when organs are growing rapidly.

Maternal postpartum depression

tends to occur in persons with a history of depression.

The fetus is surrounded by a protective structure called

Amniotic sac

The same teratogen may have different effects on different fetuses.

True

Which is the most genetically complex structure?

zygote

Concerning the genetic code, genes consist of many

DNA strands.

DNA is made up of sequences of four chemicals known by the letters 

A, C, G, T.

Heritability refers to

the proportion of the differences in a trait among a large sample of people that is due to genetic differences.

The concept of gene–environment correlations states that 

people with different genes have different experiences.

The heritability of IQ scores appears to increase

between infancy and adulthood.

The activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired and problems are solved is called

cognition

Piaget often used a flexible question-and-answer technique to discover how children think about problems. Piaget’s technique is called the

clinical method.

According to Piaget, a scheme would best be described as 

an organized way of thinking or acting that allows us to interpret our experiences.

Which is an example of a behavioral schema?

grasping a block or a bottle of milk

Assimilation is best defined as the process in which

we interpret new experiences in terms of existing schemes.

Accommodation is best defined as

the process of modifying existing schemes to better fit new experiences.

According to Piaget, humans progress through four distinct stages, which

are qualitatively different and occur in the same order for every person.

Vygotsky believed that 

children acquire mental tools by interacting with their parents or other adults.

Which is an example of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development?

being able to complete your math homework with guidance from a tutor

Which is the best example of the process of perception?

realizing that the odor you smell is vanilla

Which process is occurring when you recognize a sound as your mother’s voice? 

perception 

One-month old infants

spend more time scanning at the edges of a human face.

Different taste sensations produce distinct facial expressions in the newborn with newborns licking their lips and sometimes smiling when they are tasting

sweet solutions.

Research on olfaction have shown that

bottle-fed babies cannot recognize their mothers by smell, while breast-fed babies can.

Who is demonstrating a fine motor skill?

Nancy, who is grasping a pencil

Cross-modal perception is the ability to

recognize with one sense an object that was learned through another sense

Newborns just hours old recognize … what from the womb

vowel sounds from their native language that they were exposed too

Is writing letters of the alphabet is a gross motor skill.

No, it is a fine motor skill

Constructivists believe that we need experience in order to learn what?

how to interpret our sensory experiences.

The endocrine glands

secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream.

Neurons communicate with one another

by releasing neurotransmitters into the synapse.

The human developmental journey from zygote to a collection of specialized organs demonstrates which principle of growth? 

orthogenetic

Neuroplasticity refers to the fact that the 

brain changes in response to experience.

A reflex is best described as

unlearned and involuntary.

The right brain hemisphere controls the

left side of the body and is skilled at simultaneous processing.

Lateralization refers to the

specialization of the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.

Body mass index (BMI) is a marker of

body fat calculated from a person’s height and weight.

Newborns spend half of their sleeping time in REM sleep.

sleep maxxing

Motor-vehicle accidents are the leading cause of accidental deaths in childhood

from ages 5 to 9 years.

As you read this exam question, which option would be classified as information in your long-term memory?

the information you can access from last night’s study session

The first step in learning and remembering something involves

encoding

The process of getting information out of memory when it is needed is called

retrieval

A memory that occurs unintentionally, automatically, and without conscious awareness is called 

an implicit memory.

Which memory strategy is being used when a long number is memorized by breaking it into manageable subunits each containing three digits?

chunking

The best example of elaboration is

noting that the red chair and the green table remind you of Christmas.

To improve your memory when studying, you should

overlearn the material.

Negative reinforcement occurs when a

behavioral tendency is strengthened because something unpleasant or undesirable is removed from the situation.

Which theory states that six factors (intellectual skills, knowledge base, thinking style, personality style, motivation, and a supportive environment) must come together for creativity to emerge?

Sternberg’s investment theory

On the first intelligence tests, the level of age-graded problems that a child could solve was called their:

mental age (MA).

Gardner’s theory of intelligence:

links distinct types of intelligence to specific areas of the brain.

Which factor is a reliable predictor of a child’s intelligence quotient (IQ)? 

the mother’s IQ

Nativists believe that

children are biologically programmed for language acquisition.

Which best reflects the nurture-based research on language acquisition?

Frequent caregiver conversation involving questions encourages language development in children.

Individuals with dyslexia

show a different pattern of response to speech sounds during infancy than those without dyslexia.

Research shows that in effective classrooms, teachers 

regularly assign homework and demand a lot from their students.

Research has shown that a student with the best teachers for 2 years in a row will progress

3 years

An organized combination of attributes, motives, values, and behaviors unique to each individual is called

personality

Trait theorists believe that

there is continuity in personality over the years.

According to the Big Five trait theory, what are the key characteristics of someone who scores high on the personality dimension of agreeableness?

trustworthy and compliant

The social learning perspective assumes that

personality development is highly influenced by environmental experiences.

At what age do most infants first display self-recognition?

18 months

Self-awareness in infancy depends on cognitive development, social interaction, and 

cultural influences.

Regarding the influences on self-awareness in infancy, research has shown that

toddlers who have formed secure attachments with their parents know more about their age and genders than toddlers with less secure attachments.

The slow-to-warm-up temperament is characterized by

relative inactivity and mild reactions to a change in routine.

In Thomas and Chess’s longitudinal study of temperament, the largest number of infants were classified as having which type of temperament?

easy

Goodness-of-fit is best defined as

the extent to which the child's temperament is compatible with the social world.

Genetic males typically 

have more gray-matter volume in the subcortical temporal structures than genetic females.

Genetic females typically 

have fewer physical disorders than genetic males.

A person’s internal awareness of their gender is called 

gender identity.

Social cognition is best defined as

thinking about how people think and behave.

Which situation best reflects a theory of mind?

Jorge sees his brother go to a kitchen cabinet and thinks, “He must want a cookie.” 

Why is pretend play important for the development of social cognition?

It involves distinguishing pretense from reality. 

Which provides the best example of a perspective-taking skill?

understanding that the person across the table has beliefs in direct opposition to yours