Deck 1: History, theory, and Research Strategies

Question 1

Developmental science is ___________ because it has grown through the combined efforts of people from many fields of study.

A)theoretical
B)empirical
C)applied
D)interdisciplinary

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The increase in the number of healthier,more active older adults suggests that human development is a

A)controversial area of research.
B)unidirectional system.
C)dynamic system.
D)biological,rather than environmental,science.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Theories are vital tools for developmental researchers because they

A)ensure proper use of research procedures.
B)illustrate the ultimate truth regarding human behavior.
C)provide organizing frameworks for our observations of people.
D)do not require scientific verification.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Max,age 65,learned to play the piano at a local senior center.Max demonstrates that

A)aging is an eventual "shipwreck."
B)learning follows a predictable timetable.
C)development is plastic at all ages.
D)musical talent peaks in late adulthood.

Question 5

Which of the following is an example of an age-graded influence?

A)Paul started babysitting at age 13.
B)Frank got his driver's license at age 16.
C)Martina got married at age 34.
D)Jesse learned to use a computer at age 21.

Question 6

Jackson,a professional baseball player,is convinced that his two sons will both be outstanding athletes.Jackson probably believes that athletic ability is mostly determined by

A)nurture.
B)stages.
C)early experiences.
D)nature.

Question 7

Within the ________________ view of development,new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times.

A)discontinuous
B)nature
C)continuous
D)nurture

Question 8

Dr.Kostel believes that development takes place in stages.This belief is consistent with the _________ perspective.

A)nurture
B)continuous
C)discontinuous
D)nature

Question 9

Although Betty grew up in a rundown neighborhood,had divorced parents,and rarely saw her father,she is a successful,happy,and healthy adult.Betty's ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development is known as

A)assimilation.
B)resilience.
C)age-graded development.
D)multidimensional development.

Question 10

Which of the following is a personal characteristic that could offer protection from the damaging effects of early stressful life events?

A)musical talent
B)hyperactivity
C)physical attractiveness
D)early puberty

Question 11

Which of the following is an assumption of the lifespan perspective?

A)Development is largely the result of heredity.
B)Development is primarily characterized by declines in functioning.
C)Development is a joint expression of growth and decline.
D)Plasticity is limited to early childhood.

Question 12

Although Justin spent his first 18 months in an orphanage,his adoptive mother believes that sensitive caregiving will help Justin overcome his early experiences.Justin's mother emphasizes the role of ____________ in development.

A)nurture
B)stages
C)stability
D)nature

Question 13

Theorists who believe that change is possible and even likely if new experiences support it emphasize

A)stages.
B)plasticity.
C)nature.
D)stability.

Question 14

Kim is interested in comparing the language development of shy versus outgoing preschoolers.Kim is most likely interested in ______________ that shape development.

A)genetic factors
B)the contexts
C)therapeutic techniques
D)historical factors

Question 15

Developmental science is a field of study devoted to

A)proving contemporary theories of development.
B)understanding abnormal development in children and adolescents.
C)understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan.
D)identifying genetic contributions to disease and illness.

Question 16

The ___________ view of development holds that infants and preschoolers respond to the world in much the same way as adults do.

A)discontinuous
B)nature
C)continuous
D)nurture

Question 17

Theorists who point to early experiences as establishing a lifelong pattern of behavior emphasize

A)stages.
B)discontinuity.
C)stability.
D)continuity.

Question 18

The lifespan perspective on development assumes that

A)development is static and stable.
B)events that occur during infancy and early childhood have the strongest impact on the life course.
C)development is affected by a blend of biological,psychological,and social forces.
D)individual development is continuous,rather than discontinuous.

Question 19

The field of developmental science is considered to be __________ because investigators often are interested in the practical implications of their research.

A)biased
B)applied
C)theoretical
D)interdisciplinary

Question 20

In the lifespan perspective,every age period of human development

A)has its own agenda and its unique demands and opportunities that yield some similarities in development across many individuals.
B)is met with a significant crisis that must be overcome prior to moving on to the next age period.
C)is unidirectional and marked by improved performance.
D)has a greater impact on the life course than the previous age period.

Question 21

Baby Max begins to cry as soon as he sees his mother pick up her car keys.Max probably does this because he learned to associate the car keys with his mother leaving.This example demonstrates

A)modeling.
B)operant conditioning.
C)observational learning.
D)classical conditioning.

Question 22

_____________ was among the first to make knowledge about child development meaningful to parents by writing child-rearing books.

A)G)Stanley Hall
B)Charles Darwin
C)Arnold Gesell
D)Alfred Binet

Question 23

Research on the baby boomers showed that starting in the mid-sixties,

A)marriage rates declined,age of first marriage rose,and divorce rates increased.
B)marriage rates increased,age of first marriage declined,and divorce rates stabilized.
C)fewer young people entered college in favor or marriage and parenthood.
D)young adults experienced higher rates of unemployment and financial insecurity than in previous generations.

Question 24

G.Stanley Hall regarded development as a _____________ process.

A)maturational
B)nonnormative
C)psychosocial
D)social learning

Question 25

Today,__________ are the largest generation ever to enter middle age.

A)emerging adults
B)African-American adults
C)the baby boomers
D)college educated women

Question 26

In a historic experiment with 11-month-old Albert,John Watson demonstrated that

A)children cannot be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus.
B)infants as young as a few months old will repeat a behavior to obtain a desirable reward.
C)children can be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus.
D)children have an innate,inborn fear of rats.

Question 27

Research on resilience shows that

A)heredity is more powerful than the environment in protecting children from the negative effects of stressful life events.
B)the environment is more powerful than heredity in protecting children from the negative effects of stressful life events.
C)interventions must attend to both the person and the environment to strengthen a child's capacity while also reducing hazardous experiences.
D)plasticity is limited to infancy and early childhood.

Question 28

Behaviorism focuses on

A)unconscious impulses and drives.
B)stimuli and responses.
C)natural selection and survival of the fittest.
D)clinical case studies.

Question 29

As a generation,baby boomers are

A)healthier,but less educated,than the previous generation.
B)more educated and less self-focused than the previous generation.
C)healthier,better educated,and more self-focused than the previous generation.
D)more self-focused,but financially worse off,than the previous generation.

Question 30

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution emphasized ______________ and _______________.

A)the normative approach;survival of the fittest
B)noble savages;physical maturation
C)natural selection;survival of the fittest
D)tabula rasa;natural selection

Question 31

According to _______ theory,the frequency of a behavior can be increased by following it with a wide variety of reinforcers.

A)classical conditioning
B)observational learning
C)operant conditioning
D)psychoanalytic

Question 32

Charles Darwin's theories led other researchers to study all aspects of children's behavior and,therefore,Darwin is considered the forefather of

A)psychoanalysis.
B)the mental testing movement.
C)psychosocial theory.
D)scientific child study.

Question 33

The increasing role of ______________ in the life course adds to the fluid nature of lifespan development.

A)age-graded influences
B)nonnormative events
C)history-graded influences
D)stagewise transformations

Question 34

According to Sigmund Freud,the

A)ego develops through interactions with parents.
B)superego is the conscious,rational part of personality.
C)ego is the largest portion of the mind.
D)id is the source of basic biological needs and desires.

Question 35

In classical conditioning,

A)a neutral stimulus is paired with another stimulus that produces a reflexive response.
B)an innate reflex is extinguished.
C)unconscious impulses and drives support healthy development.
D)a reflexive response is paired with a new stimulus that produces a nonreflexive response.

Question 36

Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon's intelligence test was originally constructed to

A)measure individual differences in IQ.
B)document age-related improvements in children's intellectual functioning.
C)identify children with learning problems who needed to be placed in special classes.
D)compare the scores of people who varied in gender,ethnicity,and birth order.

Question 37

In contrast to Sigmund Freud,Erik Erikson

A)viewed children as taking a more active role in their own development.
B)pointed out that normal development must be understood in relation to each culture's life situation.
C)minimized the role of culture in individual development.
D)primarily focused on the importance of early life experiences.

Question 38

G.Stanley Hall and his student,Arnold Gesell,

A)discovered that prenatal growth is strikingly similar in many species.
B)launched the normative approach.
C)constructed the first standardized intelligence test.
D)were the forefathers of psychoanalytic theory.

Question 39

History-graded influences explain why ___________ tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times.

A)siblings
B)coworkers
C)cohorts
D)friends

Question 40

Which of the following is an example of a nonnormative influence?

A)Steve reached puberty at age 14.
B)Melina was born during the baby boom.
C)Madison learned to talk at age 2.
D)Patty learned to speak Spanish and French in college.

Question 41

According to social learning theory,as children grow older they

A)become more selective in what they imitate.
B)become less selective in what they imitate.
C)imitate more than they model.
D)respond more favorably to punishment than reinforcement.

Question 42

__________ is concerned with the adaptive value of behavior and its evolutionary history.

A)Ethology
B)Developmental cognitive theory
C)Social learning theory
D)Psychoanalytic theory

Question 43

According to ___________ theory,children learn primarily through modeling.

A)reinforcement
B)operant conditioning
C)social learning
D)classical conditioning

Question 44

Behavior modification eliminates undesirable behaviors by

A)exposing children to group therapy.
B)having patients talk freely about painful childhood events.
C)improving children's social settings,such as school and home.
D)combining conditioning and modeling.

Question 45

Because a child's biologically influenced dispositions join with environmental forces to mold development,Urie Bronfenbrenner characterized his perspective as a(n)______________ model.

A)sociocultural
B)stagewise
C)bioecological
D)evolutionary

Question 46

Research on Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory indicates that

A)he overestimated the competencies of infants and young children.
B)he overemphasized the role of social and cultural influences on development.
C)discovery learning facilitates learning better than adult teaching.
D)children's performances on Piagetian tasks can be improved with training.

Question 47

Lev Vygotsky's theory focuses on

A)critical periods of human development.
B)children's capacity to shape their own development.
C)how behavior patterns promote survival.
D)how culture is transmitted to the next generation.

Question 48

Dr.Marx believes that early childhood is a sensitive period for language development.Dr.Marx's belief is consistent with

A)social learning theory.
B)Freud's theory.
C)ethology.
D)Piaget's theory.

Question 49

John Bowlby argued that

A)behaviors such as smiling,babbling,and crying are innate social signals that encourage parents to interact with their infants.
B)infants become attached to their parents because parents are associated with the reduction of primary drives,such as hunger and thirst.
C)parents and infants are both instinctively attached to each other.
D)attachment patterns are difficult to study in humans.

Question 50

Lillian uses flowcharts to map the precise steps individuals use to solve problems and complete tasks.Lillian is a(n)__________ theorist.

A)psychoanalytic
B)information-processing
C)dynamic systems
D)social learning

Question 51

According to Jean Piaget,___________ is the balance between internal structures and information that children encounter in their everyday worlds.

A)modeling
B)maturation
C)cognition
D)equilibrium

Question 52

A major weakness of the information-processing perspective is that it

A)overemphasizes nonlinear aspects of cognition,such as creativity and imagination.
B)virtually ignores aspects of cognition that are not linear and logical.
C)fails to use rigorous research methods.
D)underestimates the individual's contribution to his or her own development.

Question 53

Albert Bandura is unique among behaviorists because he

A)combined psychoanalytic principles with operant conditioning theory.
B)emphasized cognition and granted people an active role in their own learning.
C)emphasized the role of the unconscious on people's learning.
D)emphasized the importance of early child-rearing experiences.

Question 54

A(n)_________ period is a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge.

A)equilibration
B)imprinting
C)adaptive
D)sensitive

Question 55

Which of the following questions would an information-processing theorist ask?

A)How do unconscious drives contribute to personality development?
B)How do cultural values shape development?
C)Are declines in memory during old age evident on all types of tasks or only some?
D)Why are some individuals more aggressive than others?

Question 56

Garrett hits a playmate in the same way that he has been punished at home.This is an example of

A)behavior modification.
B)classical conditioning.
C)operant conditioning.
D)modeling.

Question 57

__________ brings together researchers from psychology,biology,neuroscience,and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person's cognitive processing and behavior patterns.

A)The information-processing approach
B)Cognitive-development theory
C)Developmental cognitive neuroscience
D)Behaviorism

Question 58

The information-processing approach views the mind as a

A)symbol-manipulating system through which information flows.
B)socially mediated process.
C)collection of stimuli and responses.
D)system of genetically programmed behaviors.

Question 59

Dr.Symington studies male-to-male aggression in animals and humans.Dr.Symington probably focuses on

A)dynamic systems theory.
B)developmental cognitive theory.
C)sociocultural theory.
D)evolutionary developmental theory.

Question 60

_______________ theory views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the environment.

A)Social learning
B)Ethological
C)Sociocultural
D)Ecological systems

Question 61

The ethnographic method assumes that ______________ will allow researchers to understand beliefs and behaviors.

A)entering into close contact with a social group
B)bringing together a wide range of information on one person
C)setting up a structured laboratory experiment
D)using a flexible,conversational interviewing style

Question 62

____________ interviews do not yield the same depth of information as ___________ interviews.

A)Clinical;naturalistic
B)Clinical;structured
C)Structured;clinical
D)Structured;naturalistic

Question 63

Dr.George predicted that positive reinforcement would increase prosocial behavior in preschoolers.Dr.George's prediction is an example of a

A)theory.
B)research question.
C)hypothesis.
D)research design.

Question 64

Which of the following is supported by research on immigrant children in the United States?

A)Recently arrived high school immigrants report lower self-esteem than those who came at younger ages.
B)Compared to their agemates with native-born parents,adolescents from immigrant families are more likely to miss school because of illness.
C)Adolescents from immigrant families endorse their parents' value of education more strongly than agemates with native-born parents.
D)Adolescents from immigrant families are more likely to be obese than their agemates with native-born parents.

Question 65

A __________ interview is more efficient than a _________ interview because researchers can obtain written responses from an entire group simultaneously.

A)clinical;naturalistic
B)structured;naturalistic
C)clinical;structured
D)structured;clinical

Question 66

A major limitation of systematic observation is that it

A)provides little information on how participants actually behave.
B)underestimates the capacities of individuals who have difficulty putting their thoughts into words.
C)tells investigators little about the reasoning behind responses and behaviors.
D)ignores participants with poor memories,who may have trouble recalling exactly what happened.

Question 67

Dr.Anodyne found a correlation of +.49 between illegal drug use and levels of adolescent delinquency.This correlation is

A)moderate and positive.
B)low and positive.
C)high and negative.
D)low and negative.

Question 68

One limitation of the ethnographic method is

A)investigators' cultural values sometimes lead them to misinterpret what they see.
B)it provides little information on how children and adults actually behave.
C)it relies on unobtrusive techniques,such as surveillance cameras and one-way mirrors.
D)it provides little information about the reasoning behind participants' responses.

Question 69

A(n)_______________ is a number that describes how two measures are associated with each other.

A)correlation coefficient
B)independent variable
C)dependent variable
D)random assignment

Question 70

Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory,information processing,and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory all stress

A)nature over nurture.
B)changes in thinking.
C)unconscious motives and drives.
D)the effects of punishment and reinforcement on behavior.

Question 71

One major limitation of the clinical,or case study,method is

A)that researchers' theoretical preferences may bias their observations and interpretations.
B)that it must be conducted with large groups of people at the same time.
C)it provides little information on how children and adults actually behave.
D)it provides little information about the reasoning behind responses and behaviors.

Question 72

Professor Pedagogy's research shows that participation in extracurricular activities is correlated with grades in school.Based on this study's findings,what can Professor Pedagogy conclude?

A)Participation in extracurricular activities causes grade differences.
B)Grades cause differences in participation in extracurricular activities.
C)Participation in extracurricular activities is related to grades.
D)A third variable,such as intelligence,is causing both participation in extracurricular activities and grade differences.

Question 73

The __________ method yields richly detailed case narratives that offer valuable insights into the many factors influencing development.

A)naturalistic observation
B)clinical
C)ethnographic
D)structured observation

Question 74

Bronfenbrenner's macrosystem consists of

A)activities and interaction patterns in the individual's immediate surroundings.
B)third parties that affect the quality of the parent-child relationship.
C)cultural values,laws,customs,and resources.
D)social settings that do not contain the developing person but nevertheless affect experiences.

Question 75

Jessica asked each of 21 children in a kindergarten classroom to explain where rain comes from.She asked the same set of follow-up questions to each participant.This is an example of a

A)field experiment.
B)naturalistic observation.
C)structured interview.
D)structured observation.

Question 76

Compared to their agemates,adolescents from immigrant families are

A)more likely to commit delinquent and violent acts.
B)more likely to use drugs or alcohol.
C)more likely to have early sex.
D)less likely to commit delinquent or violent acts.

Question 77

Jade spent two years in a Mexican-American community studying communication between parents and children.Jade is using the ___________ research method.

A)naturalistic observation
B)ethnographic
C)self-report
D)structured observation

Question 78

Toby moved with his family just before he entered grade 4.In ecological systems theory,the move represents a change in Toby's

A)microsystem.
B)mesosystem.
C)exosystem.
D)chronosystem.

Question 79

Dr.Wiren observes children's responses to bullying by watching them play in a park.This is an example of a(n)

A)ethnographic study.
B)naturalistic observation.
C)structured observation.
D)clinical interview.

Question 80

Ethnographic research is directed toward understanding a culture through _____________ observation.

A)naturalistic
B)participant
C)systematic
D)structured