Exam 1: Introduction to Developmental Psychology and Its Research Strategies

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

Which statement best describes a cross-sectional study spanning an age range of four years?

What does ideographic development consist of?

Identify the three main ethical principles that have been adopted to protect the rights of children who take part in research studies.

In comparison to laboratory studies, what is the primary advantage of using a field experimental design?

Suppose that a researcher wants to study the impact of peers on a child's acquisition of a cognitive task.The researcher uses a computer task to measure the difference in performance between Grade 1, Grade 3, and Grade 5 students, depending on whether they work alone or in a pair.Which design does this research exemplify?

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?

During an experiment the researcher changes one of the variables and measures the impact of that change.What is name for the variable that the researcher changes? What is the name for the variable that the researcher measures?

What is the term for the procedure in which the investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviours during the brief time intervals that each participant is observed?

List three goals of developmentalists.

Michaela is 24 months old and she still has not spoken her first word.All four of her brothers spoke their first words at about 12 months of age, which is typical for most children.In this example, which general developmental concept does Michaela's lack of speech illustrate?

Contemporary developmentalists maintain that human development is a continual and cumulative process.Which statement most accurately expresses this viewpoint?

Which research method allows for the most appropriate conclusions regarding causality?

Briefly outline the views of the philosophers Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke with respect to the inherent tendencies of children.

Caleb is 10 years old and as part of an ongoing research study he has been assessed for "creativity" every six months for the past six years.Now that Caleb understands what is expected on the test, his answers have become more creative and he achieves higher scores.What accounts for Caleb's increased performance?

What is the term for a set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations?

Charles Darwin observed the early development of his son to develop a theory regarding which of the following?

Ivan, a father of three children, states that children are really no different from adults.He believes that the way to raise children is to have them take on adult responsibilities as soon as they are physically able.Which statement best describes Ivan's view?

Dr.Franz sets up an experimental study to investigate how self-esteem is affected by feedback from teachers.During the study, teachers of Grade 3 administer a short quiz where each child earns the same score (5 out of a possible 10 points).All the children are then given feedback.Half the children are told that this is a very good score, whereas the rest are told that it is an average score.In this study, what is the independent variable?

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?