Deck 8: Human Development

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true of prenatal development in humans?

A)The beginnings of organs appear during the embryonic period.
B)The rate of cell differentiation decreases during the embryonic period.
C)The intestinal tract first appears in the fetal period of prenatal development.
D)The fetal period refers to the first and second week of conception.

Answer 1

The beginnings of organs appear during the embryonic period.

Question 2

Leonard, a 30 year-old Princeton University graduate, gives up his corporate job to teach children and seniors of Lubango village.He has decided that all his future endeavors will be focused on eradication of illiteracy in Lubango.In his efforts to experience life in optimal ways, Leonard has developed

A)a socioemotional process.
B)assimilation.
C)resilience.
D)a life theme.

Answer 2

a life theme.

Question 3

What is the biggest challenge faced by psychologists who study infant perception?

A)Infants are already studied by pediatricians, so it isn't considered appropriate for psychologists to also study them.
B)Infant perception is a topic that is of little theoretical interest to psychologists.
C)Since infants can't speak, psychologists may not know whether infants can see or hear certain things.
D)Infants spend too much time eating and sleeping to be good research subjects.

Answer 3

Since infants can't speak, psychologists may not know whether infants can see or hear certain things.

Question 4

Which of the following is most closely associated with the nurture side of the nature versus nurture debate?

A)biological inheritances
B)range of phenotypes
C)genotypic characteristics
D)social experiences

Question 5

Which of the following statements is true of teratogens?

A)They exclude substances ingested by mother, such as nicotine or alcohol.
B)The effects of chemical teratogens depend on the timing of exposure.
C)They refer to the birth defect caused by radiation.
D)The development of a fetus is typically enhanced by teratogens.

Question 6

_____ are differences between individuals that stem not necessarily from their ages but from the historical period and society in which they were born and developed.

A)Butterfly effects
B)Longitudinal effects
C)Cohort effects
D)Hawthorne effects

Question 7

A(n) _____ is any agent that causes a birth defect.

A)androgen
B)teratogen
C)progestogen
D)estrogen

Question 8

Which of the following is the correct sequence of the stages of prenatal development?

A)conception, zygote, embryonic period, fetal period
B)conception, embryonic period, zygote, fetal period
C)conception, fetal period, embryonic period, zygote
D)conception, fetal period, zygote, embryonic period

Question 9

Which of the following is a difference between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies?

A)Unlike cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies are affected by cohort effects.
B)Cross-sectional studies deal with people of the same age, whereas longitudinal studies deal with people belonging to different age groups.
C)Cross-sectional studies assess people at one point in time, whereas longitudinal studies assess people over a long period of time.
D)Cross-sectional studies assess participants multiple times, whereas longitudinal studies assess participants only once.

Question 10

Developmental psychologists use the term _____ to refer to a person's genes or biological inheritance.

A)accommodation
B)nurture
C)assimilation
D)nature

Question 11

Which of the following situations indicates resilience that characterizes development in adulthood?

A)Jonathan, who did not get good grades in middle school, studies hard in high school and gets a scholarship at an Ivy League university.
B)Joshua gets low SAT scores after his parents file for a divorce.
C)Ryle, whose parents fund his university education to Cornell, fails in his end-term examinations.
D)Cathy is not allowed to write the examinations because she misses school to take care of her mother, who is not well.

Question 12

In a cross-sectional study related to developmental psychology,

A)the same people are retested over a period of years.
B)a number of people are assessed at one point in time.
C)different characteristics of an individual are assessed simultaneously.
D)the behavior of an individual is assessed by different researchers.

Question 13

Four-month-old baby Oscar is a participant in a preferential-looking experiment.Researchers show Oscar two photos, one of which is of his mother's face, and the other which is of a female stranger's face.The photos are presented repeatedly in differing locations, and the amount of time Oscar spends looking at the photos is recorded.What will researchers conclude if Oscar shows a reliable preference for his mother's face over the stranger's face?

A)Oscar can discriminate his mother's face from a stranger's face.
B)Oscar is afraid of strangers.
C)Oscar likes strangers as much as his mothers.
D)Oscar can't see very well.

Question 14

Which of the following is an example of a cognitive process?

A)Amy, an 11 year-old girl, whose height and weight increase during adolescence.
B)Cindy, a 20 year-old student, who imagines herself as the governor of Florida.
C)Kevin, an infant, who smiles in response to his mother's touch.
D)Jacob, a 22 year-old athlete, who is aggressive while playing any sport.

Question 15

In the _____ week of prenatal physical development, the neural tube, which eventually becomes the spinal cord, starts to take shape.

A)first
B)third
C)sixth
D)ninth

Question 16

Which of the following is true with regard to development?

A)Development requires that we take into account the contributions of a person's biological inheritance without considering the environment.
B)Development is the product of nature, nurture, and the complex interaction of the two.
C)All development involves growth, not decline.
D)Understanding development requires that we take into account the contributions of the environment alone.

Question 17

_____ refers to a person's ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times.

A)Rigidity
B)Assimilation
C)Resilience
D)Innatism

Question 18

What infant-perception research technique involves giving an infant a choice of what object to look at and then looking for a reliable preference for one stimulus over the other?

A)habituation
B)preferential looking
C)aphasia
D)object permanence

Question 19

In the context of human development, _____ refers to the individual's environmental and social experiences.

A)nature
B)nurture
C)genetics
D)genealogy

Question 20

In the course of prenatal development, by the end of the _____ period, the heart begins to beat, the arms and legs become more differentiated, the face starts to form, and the intestinal tract appears in human beings.

A)germinal
B)fetal
C)conception
D)embryonic

Question 21

You tried to play peek-a-boo with your six-month-old nephew, but whenever you hid your face, he would cry.You try it again three months later, and now he laughs and enjoys the game, trying to uncover your face with his hands.Your nephew has begun to develop

A)egocentrism.
B)object permanence.
C)hindsight bias.
D)conservation.

Question 22

Which of the following characterizes pubertal change in adolescents?

A)Hormones are solely responsible for adolescent behavior.
B)Estradiol, an estrogen, is associated in boys with the development of genitals, an increase in height, and voice change.
C)There is no dramatic change in the concentration of certain hormones because they decrease gradually during puberty.
D)The peak of pubertal change occurs at an average age of 11½ for girls and 13½ for boys.

Question 23

Which theory of aging has focused on the role of chronic stress in reducing immune-system functioning?

A)Erikson's theory of socioemotional development
B)free-radical theory
C)cellular-clock theory
D)hormonal stress theory

Question 24

If a child is in Piaget's preoperational stage of development, which of the following tasks is the child most likely to perform?

A)solve mathematical problems
B)represent the world with words and images
C)reverse mental operations
D)give logical reasons for knowing something

Question 25

According to _____, as we age our cells become less capable of dividing.

A)hormonal stress theory
B)free-radical theory
C)cellular-clock theory
D)Erikson's theory of socioemotional development

Question 26

The free-radical theory states that aging is caused by

A)damage to DNA.
B)the body's lowered resistance to stress and disease.
C)biological constraints on cell division.
D)nutritional deficiencies.

Question 27

Which of the following refers to a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence?

A)sensorimotor stage
B)preoperational stage
C)puberty
D)menopause

Question 28

Which of the following statements is true of Piaget's preoperational stage?

A)Preoperational thought is less symbolic than sensorimotor thought.
B)The child in this stage understands the concept of conservation.
C)The symbolic thinking of children in this stage is limited.
D)It lasts from about 7 to 11 years of age.

Question 29

"Out of sight, out of mind" can describe the behavior of a child who lacks the concept of

A)conservation.
B)separation anxiety.
C)attachment.
D)object permanence.

Question 30

_____ is the specialization of function in one hemisphere of the brain or the other.

A)Habituation
B)Lateralization
C)Assimilation
D)Accommodation

Question 31

Baby Janice knows that when she is put in the highchair, it is time to eat.So when her father puts her in the highchair and hands her a book, Janice puts the corner of the book in her mouth.According to Piaget, Janice's behavior can be best explained by

A)schematic thinking.
B)the assimilation process.
C)the accommodation process.
D)deferred imitation.

Question 32

Nathan is a happy and healthy three-month-old baby.Based on preferential-looking and habituation research, what can you predict about Nathan's perceptual abilities?

A)Nathan will not be able to distinguish between scrambled faces and real faces.
B)Nathan will prefer a stranger's face to his mother's face.
C)Nathan will prefer real faces to scrambled faces and he will also prefer his mother's face to a stranger's face.
D)Nathan will prefer real to scrambled faces but will not be able to distinguish his mother's face from a stranger's face.

Question 33

Which of the following represents the correct chronological sequence of Piaget's stages of cognitive development?

A)sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
B)sensorimotor, concrete operational, preoperational, formal operational
C)preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational, sensorimotor
D)concrete operational, formal operational, sensorimotor, preoperational

Question 34

Which of the following statements is true of the adolescent brain?

A)Because of the quick development of the prefrontal cortex, adolescents display stronger cognitive skills to control their impulses.
B)Adolescents display fewer emotions due to the slow growth of the amygdala.
C)The prefrontal cortex continues to mature into early adulthood.
D)The developmental disjunction in the brain accounts for reduced risk-taking behavior of adolescents.

Question 35

Adolescents often have difficulty controlling their emotions and making sound decisions about risky behavior.Brain research suggests that this is due to the fact that during adolescence

A)the amygdala is developed earlier than the prefrontal cortex.
B)the prefrontal cortex is developed earlier than the amygdala.
C)growth in the hippocampus is halted.
D)the corpus callosum becomes severed.

Question 36

According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the first stage of cognitive development that lasts from birth to about two years of age is the _____ stage.

A)preoperational
B)concrete operational
C)sensorimotor
D)formal operational

Question 37

Which of the following statements is true of the development of the brain in humans?

A)The synaptic connections decrease drastically during childhood.
B)The connection between neurons is the highest at birth.
C)The process of myelination begins prenatally.
D)The process of myelination stops at adolescence.

Question 38

According to Piaget, accommodation occurs when individuals

A)adjust their schemas to new information.
B)incorporate new information into existing schemas.
C)are deprived of parental warmth and sensitivity.
D)are insecurely attached to their caregivers.

Question 39

Most adults reach their peak physical development during their

A)20s.
B)30s.
C)40s.
D)50s.

Question 40

Which of the following statements about brain development is FALSE?

A)At birth, the infant brain has about 100 billion neurons, but only minimal neural connections.
B)During the first two years of life, the dendrites of the neurons branch out and the neurons become far more interconnected.
C)Aside from growing larger, the brain does not undergo any anatomical change after birth.
D)Synaptic connections increase dramatically during childhood; connections that are made become stronger and will survive.

Question 41

According to Piaget, egocentrism refers to young children's

A)self-centered arrogance.
B)exaggerated interest in pleasure.
C)inability to take another person's perspective.
D)difficulty in realizing that things continue to exist even when they are not visible.

Question 42

Benjamin loves putting together puzzles.He has recently mastered putting together a 10-piece Sesame Street puzzle.His mother claps at his accomplishment but wants to continue challenging Benjamin just beyond his current abilities.The next time they play, she gives Benjamin a 15-piece puzzle and offers some guidance on how to sort the pieces out.According to Vygotsky, Benjamin's mother provides _____ that allows Benjamin's cognitive abilities to be built higher and higher.

A)authoritarian parenting
B)assimilation
C)scaffolding
D)conservation

Question 43

Which of the following statements about Piaget's theory of cognitive development is FALSE?

A)Piaget believed that we go through four stages in understanding the world and that each stage involves a qualitatively different way of making sense of the world.
B)Piaget believed that children do not play an active role in constructing their own understanding of the world but rather are passively reacting to environmental influences.
C)Piaget believed that human beings use schemas to make sense of their experience.
D)Piaget's theory suggests that over the course of the four developmental stages, a person progresses from sensorimotor cognition to abstract, idealistic, and logical thought.

Question 44

If children cannot grasp the concept of conservation, they are unable to

A)accommodate in later life.
B)see things from the point of view of another person.
C)recognize that the quantity of a substance remains the same despite changes in its shape.
D)retain earlier schemas when confronted with new experiences.

Question 45

You arrange two rows of pennies so they are equal in length.A child views the rows and states that s/he has the same amount of pennies.You spread out the pennies in the bottom row so it is longer than the top row.The child now states that the bottom row has more pennies.This child is in which of Piaget's stages?

A)sensorimotor
B)preoperational
C)formal operational
D)concrete operational

Question 46

A mother gives her three-year-old and her four-year-old children chocolate milk in identically shaped glasses to avoid conflict over who has more.The mother is showing her awareness of her children's difficulty with

A)language.
B)object permanence.
C)conservation.
D)symbolism.

Question 47

Most children successfully acquire conservation skills during the _____ stage of cognitive development.

A)sensorimotor
B)preoperational
C)concrete operational
D)formal operational

Question 48

According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the ability to think about things that are not concrete, make predictions, and use logic to come up with hypotheses about the future is attained during the _____ stage.

A)preoperational
B)concrete operational
C)formal operational
D)sensorimotor

Question 49

One of the most important criticisms of Piaget's theory of cognitive development is that

A)his theory had very little impact on psychologists' understanding of how children's minds develop.
B)the popularity of his theory was been very short-lived.
C)his theory was never scientifically tested.
D)many cognitive abilities emerge earlier in children than Piaget thought.

Question 50

Jason is working on an experiment during his science class and is following a procedure to systematically analyze the outcome.Jason is most likely in the _____ stage of cognitive development.

A)sensorimotor
B)formal operational
C)concrete operational
D)preoperational

Question 51

Nativist approaches to infant cognitive development suggest that

A)children seldom play a role in their own development.
B)infants bring a great deal more with them into the world than Piaget realized.
C)the development of object permanence begins during the formal operational period.
D)children progress from sensorimotor cognition to abstract, idealistic, and logical thought.

Question 52

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

A)Children are expert thinkers who do not depend on the world.
B)Vygotsky's approach to cognitive development is similar to that of Piaget's theory.
C)For Vygotsky, a child is simply learning to think about the world and not about his or her own world in particular.
D)Children enter a level of cognitive sophistication by learning important aspects of their culture.

Question 53

Which of Piaget's stages of cognitive development is characterized by egocentric thought?

A)sensorimotor
B)preoperational
C)concrete operational
D)post-conventional

Question 54

Using an idealistic approach and evaluating every possible alternative before purchasing a laptop is usually indicative of the _____ stage of cognitive development.

A)sensorimotor
B)formal operational
C)concrete operational
D)preoperational

Question 55

Which stage of cognitive development involves replacing intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations?

A)sensorimotor
B)preoperational
C)concrete operational
D)egocentric

Question 56

According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, formal operational thought is

A)logical, systematic, abstract, and idealistic.
B)simplistic, egocentric, and systematic.
C)intuitive and concrete.
D)based on trial and error.

Question 57

Which of the following is true about the concrete operational stage of reasoning?

A)Adolescents can conceive of hypothetical possibilities in this stage.
B)This stage denotes ability of an adolescent to systematically deduce, or come to a conclusion about, the best path for solving the problem.
C)A kind of abstract, idealistic thinking, and logical reasoning occurs in this cognitive stage.
D)One important skill at this stage of reasoning is the ability to classify or divide things into different sets or subsets and to consider their interrelations.

Question 58

Twelve-year-old Jennifer believes that she is unique and cannot be harmed.She thinks others are preoccupied with her and that they are watching her always.This best illustrates Piaget's concept of

A)accommodation.
B)object permanence.
C)conservation.
D)egocentrism.

Question 59

An adolescent who hypothesizes and speaks in terms of possibilities may well be functioning in Piaget's cognitive stage of

A)formal operational thought.
B)concrete operational thought.
C)moral realistic thought.
D)transductive thought.

Question 60

Bob has an unknown liquid and must determine what it is.He decides to systematically use a number of tests to determine the correct answer.According to Piaget, Bob has most likely reached the _____ stage of cognitive development.

A)sensorimotor
B)preoperational
C)formal operational
D)object permanence

Question 61

Which of the following indicates cognition in early adulthood?

A)becoming less skeptical
B)crystallized intelligence
C)being more realistic
D)fluid intelligence

Question 62

Juliet refuses to go to the dance because she has just developed a pimple on her chin, and she is sure everyone will talk about it behind her back.Her behavior illustrates

A)preoperational thought.
B)the adolescent identity crisis.
C)peer influence.
D)adolescent egocentrism.

Question 63

Which of the following most accurately describes Ainsworth's strange situation test used to measure children's attachment?

A)The caregiver and the infant watch several strangers enter the room.
B)The caregiver leaves the infant with a stranger and returns later.
C)The stranger takes the infant away from the caregiver and moves to a place where the caregiver cannot be seen.
D)The caregiver hides the toy that the infant was playing with, under a blanket.

Question 64

According to Erikson's theory of socioemotional development, _____ is the best way to build an infant's sense of trust.

A)engaging in establishing a sense that the world is a predictable and safe place
B)encouraging object permanence
C)discouraging egocentrism
D)engaging in authoritarian parenting and placing limits and controls on behavior

Question 65

The strange situation test is used to assess an infant's

A)level of cognitive development.
B)level of moral development.
C)style of attachment.
D)resilience.

Question 66

The work of Harry Harlow established that

A)early social experience in humans is essential to normal functioning in adulthood.
B)infants do not depend on warm social interaction to survive or develop.
C)human behavior is hardly more complex than that of rhesus monkeys.
D)contact comfort is more important than feeding in the attachment process.

Question 67

One of the most important criticisms of Piaget's theory of cognitive development is that

A)his theory had very little impact on psychologists' understanding of how children's minds develop.
B)the popularity of his theory was short-lived.
C)his theory was never scientifically tested.
D)recent research suggests his theory has underestimated the abilities of infants and overestimated the abilities of adults.

Question 68

The term _____ refers to an individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of responding.

A)schema
B)temperament
C)generativity
D)assimilation

Question 69

According to Erikson's theory of socioemotional development, the first 18 months of life are devoted to mastering which developmental task?

A)autonomy vs.shame
B)initiative vs.guilt
C)trust vs.mistrust
D)industry vs.inferiority

Question 70

The sense of _____ is the most dangerous aspect of adolescent egocentrism.

A)invincibility
B)underestimation
C)vulnerability
D)assimilation

Question 71

Chloe is a baby who cries a lot.She does not eat or sleep on a regular schedule and she often has difficulty adapting to new experiences.Psychologists would say that Chloe's temperament can be described as

A)difficult.
B)easy.
C)slow-to-warm-up.
D)defiant.

Question 72

Which of the following is a difference between older and younger adults?

A)Younger adults are usually wiser than older adults.
B)Older adults process information faster than younger adults.
C)Younger adults do better than older adults in most aspects of memory.
D)Older adults take lesser time than younger adults to remember information about world knowledge.

Question 73

Sammy is in third grade.When he won the spelling bee, he felt proud of his accomplishment.But when he could not complete his arithmetic assignment on time, he felt incompetent.Which of Erikson's developmental stages does this reflect?

A)autonomy vs.shame and guilt
B)initiative vs.guilt
C)industry vs.inferiority
D)trust vs.mistrust

Question 74

Juan is a child with low activity level and tends to withdraw from new situations.He is inflexible, and displays low mood intensity.Juan is said to have what type of temperament?

A)easy
B)difficult
C)slow-to-warm-up
D)aversive

Question 75

Some researchers disagree with the notion that the labels "easy," "difficult," and "slow-to-warm-up" are the best way to conceptualize temperament.These psychologists argue that _____ are the core dimensions of temperament.

A)object permanence and egocentrism
B)self-regulation, inhibition, and negative affectivity
C)parenting style and conservation
D)morality, identity, and prosocial behavior

Question 76

Schaie's longitudinal study of intellectual abilities showed that _____ is the period when most people reach their peak for many intellectual skills.

A)adolescence
B)early adulthood
C)middle adulthood
D)late adulthood

Question 77

Tanya, a 14-year-old girl, thinks that she is unique and assumes that others at school notice everything about her.She is very confident and takes extra care of her looks.In this scenario, Tanya is exhibiting adolescent

A)invulnerability.
B)egocentrism.
C)ignorance.
D)immaturity.

Question 78

A 13-year-old breaks up with his first girlfriend and he is very upset.No one can console him, because he believes that no one else has ever been hurt as badly as he has.The boy's beliefs are consistent with

A)prepubertal romance.
B)adolescent egocentrism.
C)transductive reasoning.
D)separation anxiety.

Question 79

Infants who display secure attachment

A)hardly cry when their caregiver leaves the room.
B)use their caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment.
C)get very upset when their caregiver leaves and usually continue to show anger and distress when the caregiver returns.
D)pay little much attention to what their caregiver is doing as they know that they are secure.

Question 80

What did Harry Harlow demonstrate in his classic study of attachment amongst baby monkeys?

A)The monkeys were more attached to the artificial mothers that gave milk.
B)The monkeys were more attached to the artificial mothers that were warm and soft.
C)The monkeys displayed no preference for either cloth or wire artificial mothers.
D)The monkeys unexpectedly preferred wire artificial mothers over cloth ones.