Deck 2: Theories of Development

Question 1

Which of the following is considered to be the major weakness of psychoanalytic theories?

A) They contribute more to our understanding of how learning occurs than to our knowledge of human development.
B) Such theories do not explain social, emotional, or personality development.
C) Few scientists have accepted or acknowledged their key principles.
D) It has been very difficult to test their key concepts.

Answer 1

It has been very difficult to test their key concepts.

Question 2

Carolyn is thinking of her children and what they are to become. She wants to see her children succeed and raise healthy families of their own. Carolyn spends more and more time thinking about how best to help her children be good people who contribute to society. Which of Erikson's stages would Carolyn most likely be experiencing?

A) Identity vs. role confusion
B) Integrity vs. despair
C) Intimacy vs. isolation
D) Generativity vs. stagnation

Answer 2

Generativity vs. stagnation

Question 3

Which of the following is the MOST correct statement regarding repressed memories?

A) Most adults who were abused as children have no recollection of the abuse.
B) The best way to get at repressed memories is for the therapist to suggest that such memories exist.
C) It is highly unlikely that false memories will be retrieved because of the inaccuracy of human memory.
D) The perpetrators of abuse are more likely to forget the incidents than are the victims.

Answer 3

The perpetrators of abuse are more likely to forget the incidents than are the victims.

Question 4

Erikson's is a psychosocial theory because it involves which type of interactions?

A) Between internal drives and environmental consequences
B) Between internal drives and unregulated emotions
C) Between internal drives and cultural demands
D) Between internal drives and social instincts

Question 5

Freud arrived at his developmental theories through his work with which of the following groups?

A) His own children
B) Children who were orphaned
C) Male adult patients who had suffered traumatic events
D) Adults who were suffering from serious mental disorders

Question 6

According to Freud's theory of psychosexual development, which of the following occurs when an inadequate early environment fails to meet the needs of any particular stage of psychosexual maturation?

A) Defense mechanisms
B) Libido failure
C) Fixation
D) Extinction

Question 7

Freud is to psychosexual as Erikson is to ________.

A) reinforcement
B) psychosocial
C) dilemma resolution
D) psycho sensual

Question 8

Which of the following most accurately describes Freud's model of the personality?

A) Formal operations
B) Id, ego, and identity
C) Consciousness, preconsciousness, and reality
D) Id, ego, superego

Question 9

A self-absorbed, nongenerative adult who is not concerned with establishing and guiding a new generation will be at risk for which of the following?

A) Isolation
B) Stagnation
C) Inferiority
D) Mistrust

Question 10

Erikson's dilemma of intimacy vs. isolation is associated with what developmental age?

A) Birth to one year
B) 2-3 years
C) 18 - 30 years
D) 30 years to late adulthood

Question 11

Which factor is generally considered to be an essential aspect of an infant's first psychosocial task?

A) Learning to control bodily sensations or developing shame if unsuccessful
B) Becoming aware of pleasurable genital sensations and sharing these sensations with others
C) Becoming purposeful, goal-oriented, and assertive, which leads to conflicts with parents
D) Being treated lovingly and predictably by caregivers and learning to trust

Question 12

According to Erikson, what is the central issue of adolescence?

A) To develop a sense of autonomy, or become ashamed of one's inability to be independent of parents
B) To develop initiative and become purposeful and goal oriented, or to be guilty about inability to focus and achieve
C) To form intimate relationships, or to risk isolation and rejection
D) To examine one's identity and possible roles, or risk confusion about the future

Question 13

Which of the following best defines generativity?

A) A sense of wanting to give back to society and future generations
B) A sense of needing to make up for one's shortcomings
C) The need to resolve a midlife crisis
D) The need to establish intimate relationships

Question 14

Elsa was frequently neglected as a child. As an infant, she would be left in wet diapers, and she was not fed on a regular schedule. Which of the following crises was not properly resolved?

A) Industry vs. inferiority
B) Autonomy vs. shame and doubt
C) Trust vs. mistrust
D) Initiative vs. guilt

Question 15

Psychoanalytic theorists suggests that human development depends on

A) our ability to accommodate external stimuli.
B) our ability to modify our behavior based on the prospect of rewards or punishment.
C) the influence of internal drives and emotions upon behavior.
D) social relationships.

Question 16

Which of the following theories relies on the understanding of internal drives and emotions to answer the "whys" of human development?

A) Psychoanalytic
B) Humanistic
C) Biological
D) Cognitive

Question 17

Which aspect of our personality demands to be satisfied in physically pleasurable ways?

A) Executive control of the ego
B) Moral guardian of the superego
C) Libido of the id
D) Reality principle of the superego

Question 18

Jada saw some money on the kitchen table. She really wanted to take it but her conscience kept her from it. Which part of Jada's personality is telling her that it would be socially unacceptable to take the money?

A) Superego
B) Ego
C) Unconscious
D) Id

Question 19

Watson believed that children could be trained to do anything through

A) manipulation of the environment.
B) sensory deprivation.
C) focus on meeting early basic needs.
D) biological conditioning.

Question 20

According to Freud's model of personality, which of the following best demonstrates the functioning of the id?

A) "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
B) Restraining your desire to have a hot fudge sundae
C) Stealing a CD because you really want it
D) Planning to seduce a sexual partner

Question 21

Classical conditioning plays an important role in which of the following?

A) Intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcements for learning
B) The development of social skills such as courtesy and patience
C) The development of emotional responses such as anxiety or embarrassment
D) Differentiated and effective strategies for problem-solving and negotiating a complex environment

Question 22

A boy is pestering his mother for candy in the grocery store, whining for ten minutes and saying things like, "I want candy! Please? Just this once! Oh, come on, Mom, please?" His mother ignores him for ten minutes, but finally gives in and says, "Oh, all right. Here it is. Just stop whining!" If the boy engages in more whining in the future, and the mother gives in even more easily, which of the following would apply to the mother?

A) Negative punishment
B) Positive punishment
C) Negative reinforcement
D) Positive reinforcement

Question 23

Niko plans to go to a good college. He seems unconcerned about competitive admissions policies because he believes that if he studies hard, he can get in wherever he wants. Bandura would consider this an example of which of the following?

A) A self-fulfilling prophecy
B) Delayed gratification
C) A positive self image
D) Self-efficacy

Question 24

Babies frequently engage in repetitive actions using their hands and their eyes. Which of the following statements best explains this behavior?

A) The theory that says that children are born with a mind which is a blank slate waiting to be written upon.
B) The theory that says that infants' brains are underdeveloped at birth and there is no purpose or meaning to their actions.
C) The theory that infants rely on their basic biological senses to explore and learn about the world.
D) Piaget's theory of accommodation.

Question 25

Which of these best illustrates the principles of social-cognitive theory?

A) Shelby misses her curfew by one hour and is grounded by her parents for one week, yet she continues to miss curfew.
B) When Marla responds angrily to a request from her daughter Bess, Bess' sister Treva, who observed this response, decides she will wait a day or two before asking for a new stereo.
C) Shea seeks advice from a chat forum on the internet about her recurring headaches.
D) As a result of the role conflict between her parental responsibilities and her need for personal development, Irina decides to drop out of college for a semester.

Question 26

Miguel is expected to clean his room and to empty all trash in the house. When Miguel forgets his chores, he is grounded. Which of the following has been appropriately applied if Miguel remembers to do his chores?

A) Punishment
B) Negative reinforcement
C) Positive reinforcement
D) Extinction

Question 27

If you are teaching a child to produce a reflexive response following a non-reflexive stimulus, which method of learning are you employing?

A) Observational learning
B) Classical conditioning
C) Response-reward learning
D) Operant conditioning

Question 28

Which of the following is a common mistake that parents make when trying to stop unwanted behaviors?

A) They forget to use continuous schedules of reinforcement.
B) They create intermittent schedules of reinforcement when they think they are punishing.
C) They use intermittent punishment, when they should be using intermittent schedules of reinforcement.
D) They use punishment too frequently.

Question 29

Which of the following results in behaviors which are difficult to extinguish?

A) Negative reinforcement
B) The application of conditioned stimuli
C) Continuous reinforcement schedules
D) Partial reinforcement schedules

Question 30

Which of the following would be considered a strength of social-learning theory?

A) It seems to give an accurate picture of the way in which many behaviors are learned.
B) It works well when trying to modify undesirable behaviors.
C) It explains unconscious, involuntary emotional responses.
D) It defines specific stages in which most humans pass through as they grow and develop.

Question 31

According to Bandura, which of the following terms best describes the expectancies we acquire about what we can and cannot do?

A) Self monitoring
B) Self evaluation
C) Self-efficacy
D) Self-evidence

Question 32

Which of the following is the best example of extinction?

A) You change to a different slot machine because the one that you've been playing doesn't pay very often.
B) You stop buying lottery tickets until the jackpot is greater than $10 million.
C) You stop buying lottery tickets after spending several hundred dollars and never winning.
D) You purchase mega bucks tickets instead of regular lottery tickets because the odds of winning are greater.

Question 33

Which of the following is credited with introducing the term operant conditioning?

A) Albert Bandura
B) B.F. Skinner
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Erik Erikson

Question 34

Which of the following theorists is primarily responsible for social-cognitive learning theory?

A) Albert Bandura
B) Ivan Pavlov
C) B. F. Skinner
D) John Thorndyke

Question 35

According to the principles of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, how you act at a party depends upon which of the following to guide and direct your behavior?

A) Scheme
B) Memory
C) Reinforcement
D) Sensorimotor skills

Question 36

Which of the following best summarizes social-cognitive learning theory?

A) Children learn best through observation as long as they are consistently rewarded for the same behaviors.
B) Children respond best to frequent reinforcement and praise.
C) Rewards and punishers are not always necessary as children learn through observing siblings' interactions with their parents.
D) Punishment is preferred over reinforcement as a means of teaching new behaviors.

Question 37

In classical conditioning, if the sour taste of lemon juice automatically causes your mouth to pucker, the lemon juice is the ________ and the pucker of lips and tongue is the ________.

A) conditional stimulus; conditioned response
B) punishment; conditioned response
C) unconditioned stimulus; unconditioned response
D) conditional stimulus; unconditioned response

Question 38

"Little Albert" was a subject of whose research?

A) Ivan Pavlov
B) John Watson
C) B. F. Skinner
D) Mary Jones

Question 39

Behavior is more likely to reoccur if

A) there is intrinsic reinforcement.
B) it has been reinforced.
C) it is extinct.
D) it has been punished.

Question 40

Which of the following theories is concerned with the developmental aspects of thinking, memory, and logic?

A) Cognitive
B) Social
C) Psychodynamic
D) Behavioral

Question 41

Before information such as a grocery list or a friend's birthday can be stored in long-term memory, in which of the following is the information processed?

A) Sensory memory
B) Short-term memory
C) Adaptive memory
D) Random access memory

Question 42

According to Piaget's theory, which of the following best applies to the process of assimilation?

A) Changing a scheme as a result of acquiring new information
B) Being shaped by the environment
C) Using an internal model of experience
D) Using an existing scheme to make sense of an event or experience

Question 43

Five year old Elena can tie her shoes, but she needs her mother's help to untie them. She also needs her mother's help to button her sweater. Vygotsky would suggest that this situation illustrates Elena's

A) scaffold.
B) zone of proximal development.
C) adaptive processes of assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration.
D) sensorimotor development.

Question 44

Jan likes to fix her own breakfast, but the milk carton is too heavy for her to manage on her own. Her mother pours milk into a special pump dispenser just for Jan. Which of the following has Jan's mother provided?

A) Concrete operations
B) Scaffolding
C) A zone of proximal development
D) Accommodation

Question 45

In which stage of cognitive development does a child begins to use symbols to think and communicate?

A) Sensorimotor
B) Preoperational
C) Formal operations
D) Concrete operations

Question 46

Information processing theorists liken the human mind to

A) a well-oiled machine.
B) a computer.
C) a library.
D) a complex puzzle.

Question 47

Two year old Luke pointed to a cow in a pasture and said "Doggie!" Which of the following is the child using to name the animal?

A) Memorization
B) Assimilation
C) Preoperational thought
D) Accommodation

Question 48

Which of the following theorists is known for the development of sociocultural theory?

A) Jean Piaget
B) Lev Vygotsky
C) Albert Bandura
D) Ivan Pavlov

Question 49

Three-year-old Tran used to call all flying objects such as airplanes and slowly falling leaves "birds." Now he correctly labels airplanes, butterflies, birds, and bees. Which Piagetian process has Tran accomplished?

A) Assimilation
B) Concrete operations
C) Accommodation
D) Proximal development

Question 50

Which of the following is the best description of the process of accommodation?

A) The use of multiple strategies to address new problems
B) Changing an existing scheme as a result of new information or experiences
C) Using symbols to represent the events from the real world
D) Understanding the world in terms of one's senses and motor actions

Question 51

Two-year-old Sven can use crayons and paper to draw pictures. According to Piaget, why is Sven drawing pictures?

A) He is presenting an outward representation of his internal thoughts.
B) At this age the drawings mean nothing, Sven is simply improving his motor skills.
C) Sven is in the early stages of learning to write.
D) He is presenting an outward manifestation of others' thoughts.

Question 52

Piaget believed that children use both assimilation and accommodation to create schemes that fit the reality of their environments. Which of the following terms did he use to describe this process?

A) Accommodation
B) Scaffolding
C) Calibration
D) Equilibration

Question 53

Which of the following was a finding of Kail's 1990 research on children's cognitive development?

A) That younger children's short-term memories are more limited than those of older children.
B) That Piaget greatly underestimated the abilities of younger children.
C) That older children's long-term memories are more accurate than those of younger children.
D) That Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development was only applicable to the memory of younger children.

Question 54

An adult adapts a process to a child's developmental level in order to assist the child in developing a new skill or ability. What would Vygotsky call this process?

A) Scaffolding
B) Assisting
C) Accommodating
D) Adapting

Question 55

"Social interactions are the most important contributors to a child's healthy development." Which of the following theories would most likely support this statement?

A) Social learning
B) Cognitive
C) Behavioral
D) Sociocultural

Question 56

Neo-Piagetian theorists combine which of the following to explain cognitive development in children?

A) Erikson's developmental stages and Piaget's cognitive theory
B) Piaget and information processing theory
C) Bandura's observational theory and Piaget's cognitive theory
D) Social-learning theory and Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural theory

Question 57

During which of Piaget's stages does the child learn to manipulate ideas, concrete objects, or events, as well as to use abstract ideas and hypothetical situations in solving problems?

A) Zone of proximal development
B) Concrete operational
C) Information processing
D) Formal operational

Question 58

Which of the following best defines the term conservation according to Piaget?

A) The child learns the importance of recycling.
B) The child learns to use the minimal number of words necessary to communicate an idea.
C) The child learns the importance of treating their environment with respect by keeping it clean and uncluttered.
D) The child learns that when an object changes shape, its quantity remains the same.

Question 59

Which of the following best defines the word scheme according to Piaget?

A) A child's mischievous plan to outwit her parents
B) The process of taking in new information and revising existing categories in order to effectively deal with similar information in the future
C) The meaning a child ascribes to an experience
D) Cognitive structures that guide behaviors and actions

Question 60

Which of the following is the first stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

A) Sensorimotor
B) Preoperations
C) Equilibration
D) Formal operations

Question 61

You find a wallet lying on the floor of your classroom. Everyone else has left and you are alone. Part of your personality wants to take the money that is in the wallet and part of your personality is telling you that it would wrong to do so. According to Psychoanalytic theory, the part that is telling you that it would be wrong is your ________.

Question 62

Which of the following is true of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory?

A) Researchers have found that children of parents who provide scaffolding early on perform better in elementary school than children whose parents did not provide scaffolding.
B) Most current research supports Vygotsky's ideas.
C) Children who work collaboratively perform worse on sophisticated tasks than children who work alone.
D) Most of the current research contradicts Vygotsky's ideas.

Question 63

Which of the following contexts of development includes the institutions of the culture that affect children's development indirectly?

A) Microsystem
B) Mesosystem
C) Exosystem
D) Macrosystem

Question 64

Which of the following is particularly useful in research that is the focus of behavioral genetics?

A) Special learning environments
B) Stem cells
C) Multiple births from independent zygotes
D) Identical twins

Question 65

An important addition to the three traditional broad theories of development has been the ________ foundations of development.

Question 66

Which of the following was one of the findings in testing the principle of conservation?

A) To Piaget's surprise, four-year-old children recognized that a ball of clay rolled into a sausage shape still had the same amount of clay.
B) A five-year-old child was able to recognize that when a subordinate class of objects is placed together with a larger class of the same type of object, the whole was larger than either group.
C) Six and seven year olds recognized that a ball of clay rolled into a sausage shape still had the same amount of clay.
D) Piaget found that his research worked best if he used the same types of objects and asked the same questions of all of the children that he studied.

Question 67

Which of the following is LEAST likely to influence IQ?

A) The type of television shows a child watches
B) A stimulating environment
C) Genetics
D) The IQ of one's parents

Question 68

Psychosocial is to ________ as Psychoanalytic is to ________.

Question 69

In looking at the relationship between heredity and IQ, which of the following is the most true?

A) Fraternal twins are more likely that identical twins to have similar IQs.
B) Heredity appears to have the largest influence on childhood IQ scores and decreases with age.
C) Contradicting earlier research findings, the correlation in IQ scores between identical twins is only approximately +0.2.
D) Heredity appears to have the largest influence on adult IQ scores and this influence increases with age.

Question 70

Which of the following do Psychoanalytic and most Learning Theories have in common?

A) They both believe that nurture has the largest impact on development.
B) They are both stability theories.
C) They both believe that we are passive recipients of environmental influences.
D) They both believe that we are active in shaping our own development.

Question 71

Developmentalists who study children's cognitive development from a Piagetian perspective and from an information-processing perspective would agree upon which of the following observations about children's cognitive development?

A) The development of memory is not an important aspect of cognitive development.
B) Cognitive development occurs as a result of diversified experiences in an enriched environment.
C) The development of logical thinking is based upon processes that are less complex than conditioned responses.
D) Age is not a determining factor in how children manage and process information to think about and act upon the world.

Question 72

In terms of usefulness and reliability, which of the following is true of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory?

A) It is far more useful than information-processing theory because it has more empirical support.
B) It relies too much on empiricism to support its application.
C) There is insufficient evidence at present to either support or contradict most of his theory.
D) It has more empirical and research support than Piaget's theory.

Question 73

Of the following concepts, which is an aspect of the sociobiology theory of human development?

A) Stimulus and response
B) Cognitive deficits
C) Social rules and behaviors that ensure survival
D) Defense mechanisms

Question 74

I say that a friend of mine is carrying "excess baggage" into his relationships. Erikson would say that my friend has unresolved ________.

Question 75

According to Freud, the aspect of the personality which demands immediate gratification of sexual and aggressive impulses is the ________.

Question 76

Which of the following contexts of development includes those variables to which people are exposed directly, such as families, schools, religious institutions, and neighborhoods?

A) Microsystem
B) Mesosystem
C) Exosystem
D) Macrosystem

Question 77

Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development places primary emphasis on

A) children's biological needs.
B) the interactions among the contexts in which children live and develop.
C) genetic or hereditary patterns.
D) environmental stimuli that elicit and reinforce behavior.

Question 78

An important trend in the study of human development involves incorporating many theoretical perspectives in order to better explain development. Which of the following describes this approach?

A) Eclecticism
B) Multiculturalism
C) The cross-modal approach
D) The stages of change model

Question 79

The idea that certain human behaviors have developed and persisted in order to ensure survival of the species is drawn from which of the following?

A) Behaviorism
B) Classical conditioning
C) Nativism
D) Ethology

Question 80

Which of the following contexts of development includes values and beliefs of the culture in which a child is growing up?

A) Microsystem
B) Mesosystem
C) Exosystem
D) Macrosystem