Exam 1: The Science of Child Development

According to maturational theory,parents should carefully construct their children's environments so that behaviours like speech,play,and reasoning will all emerge.

The symbol for correlational coefficient is

Which of the following is a variable?

A researcher wanted to study the growth rates of infants in Canada.He collects information from 120 infants at a very expensive day care centre in a wealthy neighbourhood in Vancouver.This constitutes a representative sample of the population he is interested in.

A variable is a factor which may be different from person to person.

A consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behaviour that it follows is called

A microgenetic study would best be described as

In 1999,Hall and Kail investigated age differences in arithmetic performance in 8- to 12-year-olds.Based on the information given,what can you conclude about the type of approach Hall and Kail used? It was

Describe the problems of observer bias and observer influence.Using concepts from our textbook,discuss how these problems can be avoided.

Both Plato and Aristotle believed that too much self-discipline would stifle children's initiative and individuality,making them unfit to be leaders.

Amanda noticed that whenever other children asked a question in class,their teacher seemed to get mad at them.Amanda decided not to ask her teacher for help,even though she needed it and her teacher had never seemed to be angry with her.Amanda's behaviour was shaped by

Jackie feels that superior genes are the primary reason her daughter Jacqueline is intellectually gifted.Jackie believes in the importance of

In order to avoid observer bias,researchers establish firm behavioural definitions and observation guidelines prior to the observations.

Your neighbour tells you about his little boy who is always manipulating objects "just like a scientist trying to test his theory about the world." Having just read the first chapter of your child development textbook,you reply,"You sound just like

A theory is supported when research results match the theory's predictions.

Johan conducts a study where he follows the same children over a course of five years to see how the use of electronics impacts their vocabulary.He doesn't implement any manipulations into his research study;he simply observes the children's use of electronics and how it relates to their vocabulary development.What type of research design is Johan likely using?

The belief that outgoing five-year-olds become outgoing adults is consistent with the belief that development is discontinuous.

Jack has designed a method of evaluating aggressiveness.He has found that a child who scores high in aggressiveness on one day is likely to score low on aggressiveness another day.This is a problem of:

Naturalistic observation involves observing children's behaviour in carefully controlled conditions.

Pepler,Craig,and Roberts (1998) used __________________ to study prosocial and aggressive behaviour on Toronto's playgrounds.