Deck 13: Aggression, Altruism, and Moral Development

Question 1

Cross-cultural research from more than 100 countries indicates consistently that

A)self-oriented distress is not really that stressful.
B)males are more physically aggressive than females.
C)altruism and physical aggression are closely related.
D)instrumental aggression is done for its own sake.

Answer 1

males are more physically aggressive than females.

Question 2

"Moral socialization" refers to the child's

A)acceptance of socialist economic theory.
B)refusal to join delinquent gangs.
C)learning of ethical principles.
D)avoidance of love withdrawal.

Answer 2

learning of ethical principles.

Question 3

Boys behave more aggressively than girls

A)beginning at the age of about 30 months.
B)at younger rather than older ages.
C)mainly when parents are watching.
D)at every age.

Answer 3

beginning at the age of about 30 months.

Question 4

The tendency for boys to act more aggressively than girls is LEAST apparent in

A)toddlers.
B)preschoolers.
C)grade-schoolers.
D)teenagers.

Question 5

A child who attacks a victim in order to obtain possession of a ball engages in

A)instrumental aggression.
B)retaliation.
C)hostile aggression.
D)prosocial aggression.

Question 6

When asked what they thought was the most important aspect of a child's social development, one sample of new parents said they hoped their child would

A)establish friendships with many peers.
B)develop a sense of humor, including being able to laugh at oneself.
C)show respect and obedience toward parents.
D)develop a strong sense of morality.

Question 7

INSTRUMENTAL AGGRESSION is to HOSTILE AGGRESSION as ____ is to ____.

A)MEANS :: GOAL
B)REALITY :: FANTASY
C)BEHAVIOR :: REASONING
D)PRECONVENTIONAL :: POSTCONVENTIONAL

Question 8

For preschoolers, most aggression is

A)instrumental (fighting over toys).
B)hostile (trying to hurt the other child).
C)reflexive and instinctive (done without thinking).
D)symbolic (fantasizing about fighting others).

Question 9

Data on aggression from more than 100 countries comparing males and females show

A)greater physical and verbal aggression among males.
B)no evidence of sex differences in aggression.
C)greater physical aggression among males and greater verbal aggression among females.
D)greater physical and verbal aggression among females.

Question 10

The child's earliest encounters that could be labeled as instrumentally aggressive are

A)squabbles about toys.
B)injuring others to cause pain deliberately.
C)refusals to comply with parental commands.
D)hurting younger sisters or brothers.

Question 11

What percentage of juvenile arrests involve girls?

A)More than 50 percent
B)5 percent
C)1 percent
D)Almost 30 percent

Question 12

Ruffus is a bully who wears a t-shirt that says, "I don't get mad, I get even." Getting even means

A)hostile aggression.
B)committed compliance.
C)retaliatory aggression.
D)loss of inhibitory control.

Question 13

When their preschoolers have a dispute, Japanese mothers are especially inclined to

A)punish the "bad" child while praising the "good" one.
B)punish both children with equal severity.
C)encourage both children to suppress their anger.
D)involve both children in a competitive video game.

Question 14

Thugo, age 10, likes to beat up smaller kids just to hurt them and make them cry. Thugo performs

A)imminent justice.
B)hostile aggression.
C)situational compliance.
D)a doctrine of specificity.

Question 15

Which statement about the socialization of aggression in boys and girls is FALSE?

A)Parents play rougher with sons than with daughters.
B)Parents discourage daughters' aggression more than sons' aggression.
C)Physically rough play is part of the androgynous gender role.
D)Aggressive themes are more common in toys given to boys than in those given to girls.

Question 16

Which of these is NOT among the three categories of moral concerns that parents seek to instill in their children?

A)Prosocial concerns for altruism
B)Concern for valid sources of knowledge
C)A personal commitment to follow rules
D)Avoiding hurting others

Question 17

Barnie, age eight, is a bully. He fights to get others to pay their allowances to him. This exemplifies

A)instrumental aggression.
B)hostile aggression.
C)inhibitory control.
D)negative reinforcement.

Question 18

The child's personal values (ethical principles) serve him or her to

A)judge what is right vs. wrong, even when adults are absent from the situation.
B)detect others' false or misleading statements.
C)be polite and courteous to others.
D)report to police any disloyal statements heard from parents.

Question 19

Behavior that is intended to harm others is called

A)rough-and-tumble play.
B)socially expressive reactivity.
C)physical defensiveness.
D)aggression.

Question 20

In the Early Care Research Network study on aggression, ____ percent of children displayed high levels of aggression that remained stable.

A)3
B)10
C)20
D)35

Question 21

Thag is a sixth-grade bully whose t-shirt says, "I fight back at those who hassle me." Thag

A)is guided in his daily life by postconventional morality.
B)accepts the principle of immanent justice.
C)applies the doctrine of specificity.
D)is a reactive aggressor.

Question 22

Several aspects of the child's mental state influence the aggressive response to provocation. Which of these is NOT among those factors, according to Dodge?

A)Strength of hunger drive
B)Knowledge of social rules
C)Ability to control one's anger
D)Memories of past social experiences

Question 23

Snubbing or ignoring another person to make him or her feel bad is a type of

A)self-oriented distress.
B)relational aggression.
C)display of immanent justice.
D)passive victimization.

Question 24

According to research by Raskausakas and Stoltz, what makes it more difficult for victims to escape bullying?

A)They repeatedly set themselves up to be victims.
B)Bullies tend to follow their victims home from school.
C)Victims may often be subjected to harassing or threatening e-mails and instant messages.
D)Bullies often hang out with other aggressive peers like themselves.

Question 25

____ aggression is common among boys, and ____ aggression is common among girls.

A)Passive; active
B)Preconventional; postconventional
C)Overt; relational
D)Relational; overt

Question 26

From middle childhood through adolescence, the rate of physical aggression (fighting) tends to

A)increase.
B)remain stable for girls but increase for boys.
C)remain stable for boys or for girls.
D)decline.

Question 27

Children often socially construct status hierarchy around children being well-known and accepted based on posseession of socially desirable attributes such as attractiveness, athleticism, and desirable possessions. This construct is known as

A)popularity.
B)emotional availability.
C)coercion.
D)power.

Question 28

Which bully is prone to be instrumentally aggressive?

A)Wimpy, who is easily upset by teasing
B)Angus, who has a quick temper and is impatient
C)Xena, who impulsively attacks boys who assert male superiority over females
D)Smiley, a cool gang leader who has never lost a fight

Question 29

PROACTIVE AGGRESSION is to REACTIVE AGGRESSION as ____ is to ____.

A)ALTRUISM :: RECIPROCITY
B)DOMINATION :: WARINESS
C)POSTCONVENTIONAL :: PRECONVENTIONAL
D)INHIBITION :: EXCITATION

Question 30

Longitudinal research on the long-term stability of aggression shows that

A)the relationship is negative: nonaggressive children become aggressive adults, and vice versa.
B)there is no relationship between aggression in childhood and adulthood.
C)aggression is a stable attribute in girls but not boys.
D)aggression is a reasonably stable attribute.

Question 31

The last step in Dodge's six steps of aggressive thought is to

A)formulate social goals.
B)encode and interpret social cues.
C)judge the likely effectiveness of strategies.
D)make a response toward the provocation.

Question 32

Dodge found that aggressive children were more likely than nonaggressive children to respond with aggression when another child

A)clearly aggressed against them with hostile intent.
B)caused harm, and the intentions were ambiguous.
C)clearly intended to be helpful but accidentally caused harm.
D)caused no harm, and the act was unanimously accidental.

Question 33

In Dodge's social information-processing theory, the first step in an aggressive encounter is to

A)enact a response.
B)encode and interpret social cues.
C)generate problem-solving strategies.
D)evaluate the likely effectiveness of response strategies.

Question 34

Spreading malicious gossip about others, such as a lie that a particular teenage girl got an abortion, is a type of

A)self-oriented distress.
B)relational aggression.
C)heteronomous morality.
D)incompatible-response technique.

Question 35

Following an argument with Sulky, her former best friend, Snobby, age 10, won't speak with Sulky at all. Snobby's behavior exemplifies

A)overt hostility.
B)Oedipal morality.
C)relational aggression.
D)negative reinforcement.

Question 36

Which of these best exemplifies direct physical aggression?

A)Hitting a playmate
B)Stealing a coveted toy
C)Refusing to go to school
D)Abusing drugs or alcohol

Question 37

A slogan of the hostile attributional bias would be,

A)"Life deals everyone their share of tragedies."
B)"They're out to get me."
C)"Fighting means survival of the fittest."
D)"The meek will inherit the Earth."

Question 38

Bullies who beat up other kids because they get payoffs of various types from their actions apply

A)proactive aggression.
B)relational aggression.
C)rough-and-tumble play.
D)reactive aggression.

Question 39

A child who is "itching for a fight" at the slightest provocation has a(n)

A)intuition of self-oriented distress.
B)orientation toward heteronomous morality.
C)hostile attributional bias.
D)learned-helplessness disposition.

Question 40

Who is especially likely to overattribute hostile intentions to others?

A)A reactive aggressor
B)A proactive aggressor
C)An altruistic do-gooder
D)A parent who applies negative reinforcement to children

Question 41

Concerning aggression, PASSIVE VICTIM is to PROVOCATIVE VICTIM as ____ is to ____.

A)EMPIRE :: COLONY
B)MASTERY :: LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
C)WEAKNESS :: IRRITANT
D)PHENOTYPE :: GENOTYPE

Question 42

Which parent is most likely to have an aggressive child?

A)Bill, a married, African-American, middle-class professional
B)Woongooroo, a member of New Guinea's Arapesh tribe.
C)Clem, a Caucasian father who is chronically unemployed in an urban slum
D)Soccermom, a Caucasian housewife in a wealthy suburb

Question 43

Children are especially likely to be affected by marital conflict when

A)parents show a pattern of attacking and then withdrawing from one another.
B)they have no siblings.
C)it happens behind closed doors.
D)parents resolve their conflicts.

Question 44

Which of these is LEAST descriptive of coercive home environments?

A)Frequent bickering among family members
B)Punishment applied to force fighting to stop
C)Negative reinforcement of hostility or aggression
D)Decisions based on postconventional morality

Question 45

Three tribal societies, Pygmies (Africa), Lepchas (Sikkim), and Arapesh (New Guinea), are similar because in each culture,

A)poverty is extreme, yet crime is minimal.
B)women and girls enjoy higher status than men or boys.
C)children are reared communally, not by their parents.
D)interpersonal aggression is rare.

Question 46

When family members quarrel and bicker with each other and force their will on others, the result is a

A)premoral period.
B)coercive home environment.
C)doctrine of specificity.
D)love-withdrawal model of interaction.

Question 47

Unlike reactive aggressors, proactive aggressors

A)are less popular.
B)believe they are well liked by their peers.
C)tend to come from stable home environments.
D)fare well academically.

Question 48

Passive victims of bullying are often

A)the offspring of proactive aggressors.
B)emotionally disconnected from their parents.
C)socially withdrawn and physically weak.
D)oppositional and hot-tempered.

Question 49

Proactive aggressors display all of the following characteristics EXCEPT

A)a sensitivity to the fear of others.
B)positive emotions during aggressive encounters with peers.
C)expectations that aggression will result in positive outcomes.
D)a sense of mastery over their adversaries.

Question 50

Which two types of children are similar because both apply the hostile attributional bias about aggression?

A)Provocative victims and reactive aggressors
B)Altruistic helpers and relational aggressors
C)Authoritative parents and passive victims
D)Instrumental aggressors and relational aggressors

Question 51

"Out of control" children typically are reared in

A)homes that are managed by attentive, authoritative parents.
B)non-coercive home environments.
C)single-parent families headed by fathers.
D)coercive home environments.

Question 52

Research suggests that when children are exposed to parental conflict, they

A)tend to take their mother's side.
B)easily forget the conflict.
C)often become extremely distressed.
D)tend to ignore the conflict.

Question 53

Research investigating aggressive behavior in popular children reveals that they

A)are not aggressive.
B)are less aggressive than their less popular age mates.
C)largely use relational forms of aggression to enhance their popularity.
D)largely use overt forms of aggression to enhance their popularity.

Question 54

Levels of aggression and delinquency among low-income children and teenagers are ____ those of their middle-class age mates.

A)higher than
B)equal to
C)lower than
D)impossible to compare to

Question 55

To understand coercive home environments, the family should be regarded as a social system because

A)family members respond to and reinforce one another's actions.
B)systemic technical jargon becomes sophisticated.
C)inhibitory controls are especially effective in coercive home environments.
D)passive victims deserve what happens to them.

Question 56

Children who repeatedly attack their peers are called

A)purveyors of self-oriented distress.
B)habitual negative reinforcers.
C)social-conventional rule-oriented confronters.
D)bullies.

Question 57

Parenting that reflects a withdrawing from the child and is characterized by cold, unsupportive, and even indifferent, disinterested, or neglectful parenting is

A)indicative of mental illness on the part of the parents.
B)emotionally unavailable parenting.
C)correlated with high-achieving adolescents.
D)found to have little if any effect on children.

Question 58

Provocative victims of bullying tend to display all of the following behaviors EXCEPT

A)oppositional behavior.
B)a hostile attributional bias.
C)a history of physical abuse.
D)overly close relationships with their mothers.

Question 59

In the Bickers family, the mom yells loudly at her misbehaving kids. Yet, in what way does her yelling reinforce bad behavior?

A)The kids' warped personalities interpret pain as reward.
B)Mom's yelling gives attention, which is rewarding.
C)Hearing mom's yelling arouses the children's interest in postconventional moral reasoning.
D)Passive targets of yelling think they are winners.

Question 60

Child-rearing in low-income families encourages violence. Which of these is NOT among the child-rearing practices common among the poor?

A)Encouraging children to respond forcibly to provocations
B)Applying physical punishments such as spanking
C)Parental reading of story books to encourage language development
D)Lack of parental monitoring of children

Question 61

Any action that is intended to benefit other people, such as sharing with someone less fortunate, comforting or rescuing someone, cooperating, or simply making others feel good by complimenting them, is known as

A)altruism.
B)prosocial behavior.
C)prosocial moral reasoning.
D)empathy.

Question 62

If a child's behavior were driven by her id, then altruism would be expected to be

A)weak or absent.
B)present at an intermediate level.
C)strengthened when the time-out technique is applied.
D)strong.

Question 63

Which of these approaches contributes the LEAST to a nonaggressive environment?

A)Ensuring that there are plenty of toys available
B)Having a spacious play area
C)Providing toys such as balls, slides, or swings
D)Providing violent video games

Question 64

Jeanna is a mature moral reasoner. When Jenna encounters someone she dislikes in need of help, she will

A)not help because she does not like the person.
B)not help because it is important to maintain consistency.
C)help because it will make her look good.
D)help because it is the right thing to do.

Question 65

Which of these best illustrates altruism?

A)Visiting the elderly to earn a scouting merit badge
B)Donating blood during a community blood drive
C)A veterinarian giving medical treatments to her clients' family pets
D)A firefighter rescuing survivors from a building destroyed by a terrorist attack

Question 66

The incompatible-response technique involves

A)reinforcing desirable behaviors while ignoring the undesirable whenever possible.
B)punishing whenever the behavior is incompatible with the rules.
C)ensuring compatibility between behavioral transgressions and the severity of the punishment.
D)using time-out whenever a misbehavior occurs.

Question 67

The more Sherri whines at her mother, the more her mother pays attention to her. When her mother starts to pay attention, Sherri stops whining, which increases her mother's tendency to pay attention to her. Sherri's mother's behavior has been

A)positively reinforced.
B)negatively reinforced.
C)punished.
D)coerced.

Question 68

An adult removing a child from a situation in which she is being aggressive is referred to as

A)negative reinforcement.
B)time-out.
C)incompatible-response technique.
D)aversive punishment.

Question 69

____ means assisting others when you are not required to help and when it is not part of your job duties.

A)Self-oriented distress
B)Committed compliance
C)Conventional morality
D)Altruism

Question 70

Zahn-Waxler et al. found that mothers of compassionate toddlers were more likely to respond to their child's wrongdoing with statements such as,

A)"I said, 'stop that'."
B)"You made Doug cry; your biting hurt him."
C)"Go to your room, immediately!"
D)"Don't do that; you are very naughty to bite."

Question 71

The story of the Good Samaritan, who rescued a person that he did not know, is about a case of

A)an application of the time-out technique.
B)Oedipal morality.
C)moral affect.
D)altruism.

Question 72

Which of these would represent an altruistic action for a small child?

A)Ignoring a forceful request by an adult
B)Toppling a toy building after seeing a TV report about a terrorist attack
C)Offering to share a toy with a playmate
D)Suspending an aggressive action after it started

Question 73

Suppose that parents and teachers remove aggressive toys, videos, and games from the playroom. These efforts reduce aggression by

A)eliminating the payoffs for aggression.
B)establishing a social-cognitive intervention.
C)applying a time-out technique.
D)creating a nonaggressive environment.

Question 74

An exasperated mother yells at her children, "Shut up! You will do as I say, not as I do!" This parent

A)expects children to accept postconventional morality.
B)encourages positive self-esteem in her children.
C)maintains a coercive home environment.
D)encourages Oedipal morality in her children.

Question 75

A parent's affective explanation is one that

A)identifies the action's target as a friend or foe.
B)describes the harm or distress that the child's action has caused others.
C)presumes that the child's moral reasoning is at the conventional level.
D)balances proactive and reactive aggression.

Question 76

Social-cognitive interventions can be used to help highly aggressive youngsters to achieve all of the following EXCEPT

A)regulate anger.
B)improving empathy.
C)reduce attributions of hostile intentions.
D)ignore their peers.

Question 77

Limiting children's exposure to violent TV and video games

A)appears to have little effect on children's aggression.
B)increases children's aggression.
C)can reduce children's aggression.
D)improves academic performance.

Question 78

Research shows that early conflicts are

A)training grounds for aggression.
B)unusual in middle-class homes.
C)potentially adaptive opportunities to promote negotiation skills.
D)invariably helpful to reducing aggression.

Question 79

A parent consciously attends to her child and praises positive prosocial actions. This strategy is intended to

A)encourage postconventional morality.
B)eliminate the attentional payoffs for aggression.
C)encourage reactive aggression but not hostile aggression.
D)create a nonaggressive environment.

Question 80

Compassionate toddlers tend to have parents who

A)reject the time-out disciplinary technique as too mild.
B)teach that wrongdoing must be balanced by revenge.
C)describe the child's enemies as "little terrorists."
D)apply discipline via compassionate explanation.