Exam 1: Introduction to Developmental Psychology and Its Research Strategies

Kayla started walking at 12 months of age, just like her three brothers and her seven cousins.Most children start walking at about this age.What type of development does this example illustrate?

Inherent in the cross-sectional method is the possibility that age and cohort will be confounded.In a cohort effect what other variable, other than the age of the subjects, could influence the results?

Of the following, which correlation coefficient indicates the strongest relationship between two variables?

Describe three 17th- and 18th-century philosophical controversies about the nature of the child.

Distinguish an experiment from a natural (or quasi-) experiment.

Identify three potential shortcomings of structured interviews and questionnaires in obtaining information about development.

Which of the following statements regarding optimization is accurate?

Sometimes to best answer a research question, the investigator would have to ask children to participate in a potentially harmful situation.In this situation, what would ethical guidelines suggest?

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

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

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

Jean Piaget observed the development of his three children to develop a theory regarding which of the following?

Provide one example of normative development and one example of ideographic development.

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

Lena wants to know whether young children can be taught to have certain phobias.She argues that previous research has indicated that phobias can be taught and that there is nothing unethical about continuing such research.Do current ethical guidelines support Lena's position?

What does normative development consist of?

Why was Darwin interested in child development?

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

Donovan wants to determine whether the timing of standing is affected by malnutrition.He plans to check the age at which malnourished and adequately nourished toddlers first pull themselves to standing.What would be the most appropriate research method for Donovan's study?

Lexis is conducting research related to moral development in children of different ages.She asks each participant in her study the same set of questions, in the same order.Which research method is Lexis using?