Exam 1: Introduction to Developmental Psychology and Its Research Strategies

Identify the two general ways in which developmental changes can occur and provide examples that illustrate each of these processes.

What is the best way to start when beginning an intervention to optimize a child's development?

The holistic perspective is a dominant theme of human development.What does this perspective emphasize?

Dr.Lauterbach predicts that if the temperature of a room is increased,then individuals are more likely to act aggressively.What does Dr.Lauterbach's prediction exemplify?

Jason participated in a study designed to measure personality traits.A significant positive correlation was found between the personality traits of openness and extroversion.If Jason's score in openness is extremely low,what would be his score on a test that measures extroversion?

Which of the following methods of inquiry is a person using when recording careful observations of the ongoing development of his or her own child?

What is the term for the variable that is manipulated or changed by the researcher during the course of an experiment?

Dr.Bernstein kept a thorough record of her child's behaviour and progress throughout the first year of life,with careful attention to the sounds and noises her baby made that seemed to lead up to later language usage.She also kept notes on how her own behaviour affected her baby's vocalizing,in an attempt to learn how parent-child interactions influence language development.Later,in developing her own theory,she and her colleagues replicated the project on several dozen other children by observing them weekly throughout their first year of life. (a)What research methods were employed? What type of comparison was used? (b)Why was the research conducted on children other than Dr.Bernstein's? (c)If Dr.Bernstein observed that whenever she talked to the baby,the baby's rate of vocalizing increased,would this mean that her behaviour caused the baby's? Why or why not?

Which of the following is an example of developmental change that primarily reflects learning?

What is the term for the developmental process that underlies a change in response to experience?

Which question would a researcher who believes in the philosophy of tabula rasa find of particular interest?

What is the major disadvantage of the quasi-experimental approach?

What is the term for a systematic relationship between two measured variables?

What does John Locke's tabula rasa metaphor imply about the newborn infant?

When a correlation coefficient has a negative sign,what does it indicate?

Isaac is interested in studying the effects of maternal drug use during pregnancy on the developing fetus.He proposes recruiting pregnant volunteers from a local neighbourhood where numerous drug addicts are known to live.He argues that because all participants would be volunteers,it would not be unethical to administer controlled doses of various drugs to the pregnant women.Under current ethical guidelines,would Isaac's research proposal be accepted?

Yvonne is designing a research study to determine whether infants can discriminate between sounds of different frequencies.In order to answer her question,which research method should Yvonne use?

A team of researchers set out to study aggressive behaviour in preschool children in two different play settings,one where only large playground equipment was present,and another where only small toys were present.Aggressive behaviour was defined as arguing,taking toys by force,and fighting.The researchers hypothesized that the large playground equipment would produce more sharing,whereas the small toys would produce more aggression,due to the nature of the toys.To test their hypothesis,the researchers created two groups of children,one for each play area.More aggressive behaviour was observed in the small-toy play area. (a)What research methods and techniques were employed? (b)What procedures might have been employed to ensure accuracy in the observing of aggressive behaviour? (c)Can we say for sure that the small toys caused aggressive behaviour?

What conclusion do the textbook authors reach regarding the impact of culture and historical eras on the course of human development?

The confounding of age and cohort effects that occurs with the cross-sectional design is most likely to impact interpretation in a comparison between which of the following age groups?