Exam 1: Exploring Child Development

A theoretical approach focusing on how children perceive, store, and retrieve information is called _______________.

Which of the following theories of child development states that children adjust their own understanding as they explore and learn about the world?

John Watson's experiment with Little Albert and the rat demonstrated operant conditioning.

The preferred research method for asking questions about cause-and-effect relationships is _______________.

Due to confidentiality issues, researchers can never know the names of their research participants.

An advantage of cross-sectional over longitudinal studies is that they _______________.

Six-year-old Samantha is having serious physical and verbal altercations with her new stepmother, Pam. Choose two theories of child development and briefly discuss similarities and differences in how each theory would begin to explain these interactions.

Technological advances in recent decades have allowed for more direct observation of the brain and nervous system than was ever possible before. This has led to the emergence of neuropsychology, a growing field that has had a number of influential effects on the study of child development. First, define the field of neuropsychology studies. Then, explain the three new technologies that have helped us observe brain function in individuals: the CT scan, the PET scan, and the fMRI.

The three primary components of development are socioemotional, physical, and cognitive.

A researcher who is interested in how children make friendships watches two little girls playing together on the playground at their school. He records each activity that the two girls do together as a pair. What type of research is being conducted?

While doing research, it is up to the experimenter to determine the best research method to fully explore his or her chosen topic. In order to do so, a researcher must know what the advantages and disadvantages are in each type of study. Define the correlational method and the experimental method and then discuss at least one advantage and one disadvantage of each method of research.

Bouchard and McGue (1981) found that the IQs of identical twins are ______________ when the twins are raised together than when they are adopted and reared apart.

Sophia has become more aggressive following her parents' divorce. What developmental theory would attempt to account for her new behavior in terms of the complex interaction of elements from multiple levels both in and around her (e.g., culture and society, parental influences, genetic tendencies, etc.)?

Which example illustrates the challenge facing children during Erikson's second stage of development?

By using the ________ method, researchers investigate whether an observed behavior or a measured trait is related to another trait or behavior pattern.

While descriptive methods often help researchers develop hypotheses about what causes or affects a given behavior, they do not _______________.

A correlation coefficient can range from -1.0 to +1.0.

Erik Erikson believed that our identity develops as we _______________.

Which of the following stages of Erikson's theory occurs after adolescence?

Extending ethology to humans, researchers have investigated _______________.