CLEP Human Development 2025

Which of the following findings is often cited as evidence for the evolutionary perspective?

Men’s reproductive capabilities lost until later in life than women’s

If reinforcement is to be most effective in the learning of a new behavior, the reinforcement should be:?

Provided soon after the desired behavior occurs

A mother nags her son until he cleans his room. A few weeks later, the son spontaneously cleans his room because he does not want to be nagged, The mother’s nagging is an example of:?

A negative reinforcer 

A behaviorist who is studying the link between parenting style and childhood aggression would be most likely to focus on:?

How parents punish their children’s aggressive behavior

Every morning 4 yr old Marta watcher her mother put on a suit, pack a lunch, and put her lunch and a briefcase by the front door while preparing for work. One day Marta wakes up, puts on one of her mother’s suits, puts snacks in a lunch bag, and puts the lunch bag and a backpack at the front door. She runs to her mother and says,”I’’m ready for work!” Marta’s behavior can best be explained by which of the following theories?

Social learning

A researcher is evaluating the effects of three different types of parent-education programs on adolescent mother’s interactions with their toddlers. What is the independent variable in this investigation?

Type of parent education program

Which of the following is a cause-and-effect pair that could be tested in a research study using an experimental design?

Music lessons.. Intelligence

A researcher was interested in determining the heritability of a specific trait. He measured the trait in a group of same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins and a group of monozygotic (MZ) twins. Half of the pairs of twins in each group were reared together, and half were reared apart. The figure above shows the correlations between the measures of the trait for the DZ and MZ twins by rearing condition. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the impact of genes and environment on the trait? (upload picture)

Both genes and the environment influence the trait

When there is an extremely weak relationship between two behavioral variables, the correlation coefficient will be:?

close to zero

Studies in which the same people are tested at different ages are called:?

longitudinal

A researcher compares hobby preferences between people born in the 1950’s and people born in the 1970s. The groups of people called:?

cohorts

Which of the following research methods would likely be used when examining the behavior of a group of children on the playground?

Observational

Red-green color blindness is best described as:?

A sex-linked recessive trait

Amniocentesis is a prenatal test conducted to determine:

genetic anomalies 

In which of the following stages of development do tissues develop into the endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm germ layers?

Embryonic

A developing organism is most vulnerable to the effects of teratogens during the period of the:?

embryo

Proximodistal development is exemplified by which of the following?

Control of gross arm movements prior to fine motor control of the fingers

What two developmental milestones occur around the age of one year?

Walking and speaking first words

Which of the following is true of menopause in men?

Menopause is physically impossible because males do not menstruate.

An infant who is fed a balanced diet yet is not gaining enough weight would most likely be diagnosed with:

non-organic failure-to-thrive

Hardening of the eye lens will cause which condition?

Presbyopia

With regard to sexual maturity, females generally mature:

two years earlier than males do

According to some researchers, what is the most likely reason that the age of menarche has been decreasing from past decades?

An increase in young women’s' consumption of nutrients and fatty foods

Newborn infants were given either smooth or knobby pacifiers to suck on. The infants were later allowed to look at both types of pacifiers. They looked longer at the type of pacifier on which they had previously sucked. This finding indicates that newborn infants have:

intermodal perception

Which of the following cues is most useful to an infant in determining which elements go together to form a coherent object?

common movement

The visual cliff is a tool developed by Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk to study:

depth perception

Which of the following is most central to the concept of sensitive period?

Particular experiences are especially influential at a certain time in development.

Research on newborn infants' hearing shows that they:

react most strongly to their mothers' voices

According to Jean Piaget, cognitive development begins with which of the following?

Sensorimotor activities

The stage of formal operations is characterized by:

abstract thought and hypothetical problem solving

Katie, a preschooler, sees a llama at the zoo for the first time and calls it a sheep. This is an example of:

overextension

A cognitive-developmental-stage theorist like Jean Piaget would expect which of the following to be true?

Children in different cultures go through the same stages in the same order.

Which of the following types of problems should both a three-year-old child and a nine-year-old child show equal mastery?

Object permanence

A child explains a creaking door by saying "It's sad." This is an example of

animism

According to Lev Vygotsky, the range between what a child can do alone and what a child can do with assistance is referred to as:

the zone of proximal development

Order the types of play below from the least cognitively mature to the most cognitively mature.

I. Cooperative play

II. Pretense/symbolic play

III. Constructive play

III. Constructive, II. Pretense/Symbolic, I. Cooperative

Two young boys sitting next to each other, each drawing a separate picture with his own set of crayons, are engaging in which type of play?

Parallel

Information-processing theorists argue that one of the major changes that takes place from two to five years of age is:

an increase in the complexity and power of working memory

Over summer vacation, Gwen sees a boy she knows from school, but she has difficulty remembering his name. Which of her memory processes is failing in this situation?

Retrieval

Five-year-old Sophia struggles to pronounce words with complex sounds, such as "play" or "stay," pronouncing them as "pay" and "tay" instead. Sophia's difficulty involves which component of language?

Phonology

According to Janet Werker's research, the oldest age that children can discriminate phonemic differences in all languages is about:

6-12 months

The nativist theory of language development proposes that language acquisition is dependent on which of the following?

A language acquisition device

Eighteen-month-old Michael sees his mother about to put his juice away, and he yells out, "More juice!" Michael's expression is an example of:

telegraphic speech

In accounting for the rapid expansion of a child's early vocabulary, Susan Carey argued that a major role must be played by the child's own active cognitive processing. Adults simply cannot teach a child exactly what referent every word picks out. Carey coined which of the following terms to denote this concept?

Fast mapping

Keisha politely asks her teacher to please pass her the scissors but at home demands that her little brother give them to her immediately. Keisha is demonstrating her understanding of which aspect of knowledge?

pragmatics

Jorge is keenly aware of his friends' and family's emotions and tries to accommodate everyone's shifting moods. Jorge appears to have high levels of which intelligence in Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences?

Interpersonal

Research suggests that which of the following types of intelligence may increase throughout the life span?

Crystallized

A child who has an IQ of 55 to 70 and delayed social development is classified as having a:

mild intellectual disability

Intelligence tests are most appropriately used to answer which of the following questions?

What are a student's cognitive strengths and weaknesses?

In Harry Harlow's experiments, infant monkeys raised with only wire or cloth "mothers" were LEAST fearful in strange situations in the presence of:

the “mother” who has provided contact comfort

A toddler with a secure attachment to a primary caregiver is most likely to:

cry when the caregiver leaves the toddler with a babysitter

Which of the following statements about attachment is most accurate?

Childcare is unlikely to impact attachment as long as it is not of poor quality.

Bethany stacked several blocks, and then they fell. She looked at her mother, who shrugged her shoulders and smiled. Then Bethany shrugged and smiled, too, and started stacking blocks again. Bethany is exhibiting:

Social referencing 

Two seventh graders spend most of their time together talking about difficulties involving either their parents or their history class. These discussions bring them closer in friendship, but their focus on negative aspects tends to lead to them both being more troubled. These students' behavior is an example of:

co-rumination

Greer is a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). She is likely to be rated by peers as which of the following peer status categories?

Rejected aggressive

According to Robert Sternberg's triangular theory, which of the following are the three major components of adult love?

Intimacy . . commitment . . passion

Fifteen-year-old Tabatha sees someone steal something from a convenience store. She decides to tell the clerk because she knows that it is important to uphold the laws of society in order to help maintain social order. According to Lawrence Kohlberg's theory, Tabatha is at a level of moral reasoning known as:

Conventional

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, parents can best foster their children's moral development by:

exposing their children to advanced moral reasoning by discussing both sides of moral/ethical issues

Paul has been diagnosed as having "hostile aggression." You might see him exhibiting which behaviors?

Hitting or harassing peers without provocation

In the United States, marital satisfaction is at its lowest at which stage of life?

When children are very young

Timothy is an 8-year-old who gets into a lot of fights at school, does not do well academically, frequently breaks rules and is self-centered. If Timothy's behavior stems from a particular parenting style, his parents' style of parenting is most likely to be:

Permissive

Elizabeth's seven-year-old son wants to play in a soccer league and take gymnastics lessons. She insists that he choose one or the other. She explains that he will be too tired to do well in school if he has too many after-school activities. But she promises to respect his choice and even allow him to change his decision once. Diana Baumrind's classification for Elizabeth's parenting style is which of the following?

Authoritative

Which of the following statements about ethnicity and intelligence test scores is most accurate?

There is greater variation in intelligence test scores within ethnic groups than there is between them.

According to researchers, ethnic identity or a sense of identifying with one's own ethnic group:

changes throughout the life span

Both Stunted growth and delayed menarche are strongly influenced by:

malnutrition

Differences between children in vocabulary development results from social-class differences in the amount of:

verbal stimulation

One of the major criticisms of the stages of dying identified by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is that:

not everyone goes through the stages in the order she describes

A community decides to improve its healthcare system by creating hospices that provide support to families with terminally ill family members. This type of hospice program is an example of:

palliative care

Which of the following dimensions of infant temperament has the strongest positive correlation with antisocial behavior later in life?

irritable distress

The first negative emotion clearly exhibited during infancy is:

distress

Which of the following is a basic emotion?

Disgust

Jimmy saw his favorite candy for sale in the store. He had no money, so he planned to steal it. However, he changed his mind and decided not to do it, because stealing is wrong. According to Sigmund Freud's theory, which part of Jimmy's personality prevented him from stealing?

superego

The psychodynamic theory describes development as being dependent on:

the unconscious mind and early experiences with parents

Charles is a businessman who made a great deal of money over the past 20 years. Throughout his life he has always been self-absorbed and competitive in his business dealings and in social settings. He is now 48 years old and has no spouse or children. Charles has decided to start a charitable foundation for the benefit of needy children. Charles is most likely in Erik Erikson's stage of:

generativity versus stagnation

A man insists on a divorce and buys a red sports car on his 40th birthday. On the same day, his teenage son is forced to choose between his "geek" friends and his athletic friends. Which one is going through an identity crisis as proposed by Erikson?

only the son, due to his age

Which occupation is best suited for an individual with a conventional personality in John Holland's personality-type theory?

bank teller

According to research on the Big Five model of personality, which personality trait tends to increase for both men and women over their life spans?

Conscientiousness

Steve is 63 years old and attends professional meetings and conferences. Though he used to focus on developing his expertise at the meetings, he now directs his energy toward spending time with close colleagues rather than learning about advancements in his field. Which of the following theories best explains Steve's shift in focus?

Socioemotional selectivity

John tends to be hardworking, ambitious and persevering. He rates high on which of the following Big Five personality dimensions?

Conscientiousness

Carlos is currently taking science, literature, sociology, and history courses. He is doing volunteer work to help identify and develop his interests. He thinks about his values and goals but has not chosen a career path. His identity status is referred to as:

identity moratorium

Anxiety over performance can positively motivate school achievement in children as long as the degree of anxiety is:

moderate

Teachers who employ Piagetian principles would most likely use which of the following?

Active experimentation and exploration of material

Which of the following should a mother say to her daughter to encourage her to keep doing well (achieving) in school?

"You're doing so well; it must be gratifying to you. Keep up your hard work."

A parent who is helping a child with math adjusts the level of support to match the child's growing competence in solving word problems. Which of the following concepts best describes the parent's behavior?

Scaffolding

Which of the following theorists did NOT develop a stage theory?

B. F. Skinner

Time out is a disciplinary technique that is based on the principles of:

operant conditioning

A preschool teacher wants to use behaviorist management strategies. Which of the following is most likely to extinguish annoying (not dangerous) behavior?

Ignoring it so that the child does not receive any reinforcement for it

Which of the following is the symptom most closely associated with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease?

Loss of memory

Which of the following is the most commonly diagnosed among individuals in very late adulthood?

Dementia