Exam 1: The Science of Human Development

A correlation does not indicate that one variable causes the other to occur; rather, it indicates that there is a _____ between the two variables.

If a researcher finds that there is a correlation between secondhand smoke and children's asthma, he can be certain that _____.

Imagine that you are interested in the relationship between age and reading ability for children at 8 and 12 years old. Briefly define a cross-sectional research design and summarize how you could test this relationship using that design.

Name and define the three main research designs for studying age-related changes. Explain the problems associated with each.

The more Hank eats, the less hungry he feels. The correlation between Hank's food intake and his hunger is _____.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) determines whether a research project follows certain _____ guidelines.

According to the dynamic-systems approach, human development is a static process.

Define nature and nurture and give an example of each. Also, describe the nature-nurture debate.

A positive correlation between how long parents stay when dropping off their children at day care and how long it takes their children to become engaged in the toys and their friends means that longer parental lingering is associated with longer delay in engagement by the children.

Dr. Tucker wanted to learn how aggression changes across development. He designed a study in which he assessed aggression among 100 children who were 3 years old and then reassessed aggression among these individuals every three years until the participants were 21 years old. Dr. Tucker's research design was cross-sectional.

Which of the following is one of the problems associated with survey research?

Developmental researchers agree that nature is much more important than nurture in determining psychological outcomes such as intelligence and personality.

Cross-sequential research is a combination of a cross-sectional approach and a longitudinal approach.

When a researcher wants to determine the cause of a particular behavior, the appropriate research method to use is a(n) _____.

Social scientists are convinced, based on genetic analysis, that race is a(n) _____.

Jack observed his coworker Jane crying when she was called into the boss's office. Jack thinks that crying at work is a sign of weakness that makes women unfit for employment in his industry. Jack is displaying _____.

Which term is associated with Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological-systems approach?

The ecological-systems approach was proposed by _____.

Human development is plastic, which means that traits _____.

Friends Jill and Susan both experienced poverty as children. In addition, they were raised by single parents and went to a poor quality school. By the time they were in late adolescence, Jill had dropped out of school and had two children. Susan, in contrast, was academically ranked number one in her graduating class and had a full academic scholarship to Harvard. This example illustrates the concept of differential susceptibility.