Deck 3: Recent Perspectives on Social and Personality Development

Question 1

One social motive/behavior that modern evolutionary theorists cannot explain is

A) self-sacrificial forms of altruism
B) different mating preferences of men and women
C) both of these
D) none of these

Answer 1

none of these

Question 2

Ethologists can agree with _____ that _____ is(are) important to human social development.

A) Darwin; natural selection
B) learning theorists; learning experiences
C) both of these
D) none of these

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The ethological perspective on human development emphasizes

A) environmental influences
B) inborn, biological behaviors
C) cognitive processes
D) learning influences

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Although both qualify as evolutionary theories, modern evolutionary theory differs from ethology in its description of the biological basis for adaptive behaviors. A modern evolutionary theorist would argue that an adaptive behavior is one that

A) ensures survival of the individual
B) ensures survival of the individual's genes
C) characterizes all members of a species
D) cannot be altered by environmental influences

Question 5

A basic tenet of ethological theory is that

A) inherited differences in intelligence explain most developmental variations among children
B) inborn behaviors that characterize a species have adaptive value
C) all human behaviors of lasting developmental significance are inborn
D) inborn behaviors that characterize a species have adaptive value and all human behaviors of lasting developmental significance are inborn
E) all of these

Question 6

If identical twins and fraternal twins show the same correlation on a given characteristic, we could conclude that

A) the trait is inherited
B) the trait is highly heritable
C) the trait is moderately heritable
D) the trait is not heritable

Question 7

_____ is when ethologists have argued is the sensitive period for human social and emotional development.

A) the first six months when a child imprints on parents
B) the first three years
C) the early grade-school years
D) adolescence

Question 8

Tryon's (1940) classic experiment on maze-bright and maze-dull rats indicates that

A) maze-learning ability in rats is a heritable attribute
B) maze-learning ability in rats is fostered by the treatment they receive from their mothers
C) environment contributes more than heredity to maze-learning ability in rats
D) none of these

Question 9

_____ focus most intently on inherited attributes that characterize a species and conspire to make individuals similar to each other.

A) ethologists
B) behavioral geneticists
C) ecological theorists
D) cognitive-developmentalists

Question 10

Behavioral geneticists are best described as

A) hereditarians
B) environmentalists
C) concerned with both hereditary and environmental influences on development
D) concerned with evolved behaviors that conspire to make humans similar to each other

Question 11

Social-learning theorists have offered the following criticism of evolutionary theories:

A) Evolutionary theorists ignore the instinctual bases of behavior.
B) Evolved behaviors are of little developmental significance because they are modified rapidly by learning experiences.
C) Evolutionary theorists pay insufficient attention to cognitive development.
D) Evolutionary theorists ignore the contribution of learning to human development.

Question 12

Psychoanalysts believe that the events of the early years can have long-term effects on the developing personality. An ethologist would almost certainly agree and would refer to _____ to make this point.

A) the concept of natural selection
B) the instincts we inherit
C) the behavioral genetics literature
D) the concept of sensitive periods

Question 13

Ethologists focus most intently on products of _____ which steer development in adaptive ways.

A) natural selection
B) assimilation and accommodation
C) individual genotypes
D) individual phenotypes

Question 14

If identical twins reared together are more alike on a characteristic than identical twins reared apart, we can infer that

A) the characteristic is genetically influenced
B) environment plays a role in shaping that characteristic
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 15

A common criticism of all evolutionary theories is that they

A) ignore all contributions of learning to human development
B) provide retrospective but not predictive explanations of development
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 16

_____ focus most intently on the biological bases for variation among members of a species.

A) Behavioral geneticists
B) Modern evolutionary theorists
C) Ethologists
D) Ecological theorists

Question 17

An ethologist's criticism of laboratory experimentation as a primary method for studying behavior is likely to be that

A) most important behaviors are innate, not learned
B) instinctual behaviors never occur in the laboratory
C) the behavior's natural context is ignored
D) experimental control is often lax

Question 18

Research on "empathy" in infants, such as that conducted by Hoffman

A) clearly refutes the view that social behaviors have a biological basis
B) supports the evolutionary view that humans are selfish and self?-serving
C) supports the evolutionary view that empathy may have a biological basis
D) shows that empathy is well-developed in infants and that even babies are capable of altruism

Question 19

According to the ethological viewpoint, sensitive periods in development are

A) the only times in which particular developments can occur
B) the times when children are unresponsive to particular environmental influences
C) the times when children are most responsive to reinforcers
D) the times that are optimal for the emergence of particular competencies and behaviors

Question 20

Evolutionary theories are often criticized for

A) being difficult to falsify
B) providing retrospective or post hoc accounts of human development
C) failing to generate testable predictions about future development
D) all of these

Question 21

The only thing that can keep identical twins reared together from resembling each other on an attribute is nonshared environmental influences. Therefore, it makes sense that we could estimate how much nonshared environment (NSE) contributes to the attribute as follows: NSE =

A) (r _{identical twins} - r _{fraternal twins}) X 2
B) 1 - (H + SE)
C) 1 - r _{identical twins}
D) 1 - (r _{identical twins} - r _{fraternal twins})

Question 22

If an investigator conducted a twin study of intelligence with African?-American children, finding that the heritability of IQ in this sample was +.75, she could conclude that

A) IQ is an inherited attribute
B) about 75% of a person's IQ is due to the genes he(she) has inherited
C) the heritability of IQ should be approximately the same among twins from other ethnic backgrounds
D) none of these

Question 23

Ben and Sarah are siblings. Their parents play with and regularly encourage them to play "intellectual" games such as chess and concentration. Ben hates these activities, while Sarah loves them. This different reaction to playing intellectual games is perfectly understandable from the perspective of passive genotype/environment correlations if

A) Ben is older than Sarah
B) Sarah is an adopted child
C) Ben is an adopted child
D) Sarah and Ben are fraternal twins

Question 24

Scarr and McCartney propose the notion of _____ genotype/environment correlations to explain how the genetically-influenced attributes we possess might shape development by influencing other people's reactions to us.

A) evocative
B) active
C) passive
D) niche-picking

Question 25

Shared environmental influences are most likely to shape personality

A) for children who have different genotypes
B) for attributes on which parents strive to treat children alike
C) for attributes on which parents treat children differently
D) for children who live in religious rather than nonreligious families

Question 26

Twin studies investigating the heritability of mental disorders reveal that _____.

A) mental illnesses are highly heritable; if one twin displays a disorder, the co-twin almost inevitably does
B) identical twins are typically concordant for most mental illness whereas fraternal twins are typically discordant
C) mental illnesses are not heritable attributes
D) for most mental illnesses, the probability of identical twins being discordant for the disorder is greater than their probability of being concordant

Question 27

Bailey and his associates found that the concordance rate for homosexuality was greater among identical twins (52%) than among fraternal twins (22%). From these data, we can conclude that

A) homosexuality is a genetically-influenced attribute
B) homosexuality is genetically determined
C) environment plays little part in determining homosexuality
D) homosexuality is genetically determined and environment plays little part in determining homosexuality
E) none of these

Question 28

If we were to study the shyness of adopted children and find that they resemble both their adoptive parents (r = +.40) and their birth parents (r = +.40) on this attribute, we might conclude that

A) the adoptive parents must be kin to the children's birth parents
B) shared environment plays a meaningful role in the development of shyness
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 29

We know that individual genotypes play a part in the development of an attribute if

A) identical twins reared together show greater resemblance on that attribute than fraternal twins reared apart
B) unrelated adoptees reared together show greater resemblance on that attribute than unrelated children reared apart
C) adopted children show greater resemblance on that attribute to their birth parents than to their adoptive parents
D) identical twins reared together show greater resemblance on that attribute than identical twins reared apart

Question 30

Scarr and McCartney propose that the rearing environment that biological parents provide is influenced to some extent by their genes and is therefore correlated with the child's genotype. They called this type of influence a(n):

A) evocative genotype/environment correlation
B) active genotype/environment correlation
C) passive genotype/environment correlation
D) niche-picking genotype/environment correlation

Question 31

If individuals reared together are as similar on an attribute as are equally related individuals reared apart, then we can conclude that the attribute is

A) inherited
B) the product of a genotype-phenotype interaction
C) determined by one's rearing environment
D) affected very little by shared environmental influences

Question 32

To estimate the heritability of a particular attribute from twin data, a researcher would have to know

A) the correlation between identical twins reared together and the correlation between identical twins reared apart
B) the correlation between fraternal twins reared together and the correlation between identical twins reared apart
C) the correlation between identical twins reared together and the correlation between fraternal twins reared together
D) any of the above would allow us to estimate the heritability of an attribute

Question 33

To estimate the influence of shared environmental influence on an attribute one would need to know

A) the heritability coefficient for that attribute and the variation in that attribute due to nonshared environmental influences
B) the concordance rate for identical twins and the concordance rate for fraternal twins
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 34

Behavioral geneticists use heritability coefficients _____.

A) to determine whether there might be a hereditary basis for the differences people display on various attributes
B) to determine whether various attributes are inherited
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 35

If we find that identical twins raised together are notably dissimilar on an attribute like IQ, that is known to be genetically influenced, we can conclude that

A) shared environmental influences are responsible for the dissimilarity
B) nonshared environmental influences are responsible for the dissimilarity
C) genotype is not responsible for the dissimilarity
D) shared environmental influences are responsible for the dissimilarity and genotype is not responsible for the dissimilarity
E) nonshared environmental influences are responsible for the dissimilarity and genotype is not responsible for the dissimilarity

Question 36

Nonshared environmental influences

A) reliably predict how different siblings are in their personalities
B) are solely attributable to the different genes that family members have inherited
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 37

The fact that identical twins are often discordant with respect to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia suggests that

A) these illnesses do not have a genetic component
B) environment must play a very meaningful role in the appearance of such illnesses
C) these illnesses are acquired through observational learning
D) these illnesses are determined by one's genotype

Question 38

A capacity for empathy and empathic concern

A) is an inherited attribute
B) is a heritable attribute
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 39

According to behavioral geneticists, the environmental influences that contribute most heavily to the developing personality are

A) aspects of the home environment that family members share
B) aspects of the home environment that family members do not share
C) patterns of childrearing that parents use
D) patterns of interaction among siblings

Question 40

If the correlation for pairs of identical twins on Trait X is +.80 and the correlation for pairs of fraternal twins on this same trait is +.70, we could conclude that this attribute is most heavily influenced by

A) the genes individuals have inherited
B) nonshared environmental influences
C) shared environmental influences
D) the goodness of fit between child temperament and parenting practices

Question 41

A large, muscular child gravitates toward rough-and-tumble play activities, whereas the smaller, less muscular boy across the street prefers less boisterous play activities such as board games. If size and muscularity are genetically-influenced attributes, these observations are then consistent with the notion of

A) evocative genotype/environment correlations
B) passive genotype/environment correlations
C) active genotype/environment correlations
D) none of these

Question 42

Susie's mother is experiencing trouble with her supervisor at work, and this is affecting the quality of her interactions with Susie. In terms of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, the mother's work-related problems constitute a(n) _____ influence on Susie.

A) microsystem
B) macrosystem
C) exosystem
D) mesosystem

Question 43

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory changes in the child can influence all ecological contexts for development and that future development is likely to take. Here we are talking about a _____ influence.

A) microsystem
B) chronosystem
C) mesosystem
D) exosystem
E) macrosystem

Question 44

One common criticism of the behavioral genetics approach is that

A) behavioral geneticists fall to recognize that heritable attributes can be modified by environmental influences
B) there are no reliable methods of inferring whether genes contribute to human development
C) it is a descriptive account that fails to explain how developmental change comes about
D) all of these

Question 45

One implication of Scarr and McCartney's active genotype-environment correlations is that

A) genes influence the kind of life experiences people are likely to seek out
B) identical twins should strongly resemble each other on all aspects of personality, regardless of whether they are reared together or apart
C) genes determine our environments
D) environments play only a secondary role in shaping personality attributes
E) all of these

Question 46

The fact that separated identical twins show many resemblances is probably due to the fact that their identical genes

A) cause them to construct similar environmental niches for themselves
B) evoke similar responses from other people
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 47

According to Scarr and McCartney's (1983) theory on the interaction of genotypes and environments, _____ genotype-environment interactions have their strongest effects on human development during the early years, whereas _____ genotype-environment interactions are always important.

A) passive; evocative
B) passive; active (niche-picking)
C) evocative; active (niche-picking)
D) evocative; passive
E) active (niche-picking); evocative

Question 48

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, a child's neighborhood playmates would be part of the child's

A) microsystem
B) macrosystem
C) mesosystem
D) ecosystem

Question 49

In Bronfenbrenner's model, if peers undermine parents' best attempts to promote the academic achievement of their teenager, this peer influence is best classified as a _____ influence.

A) microsystem
B) macrosystem
C) mesosystem
D) exosystem

Question 50

Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model emphasizes the role of _____ in influencing child development.

A) environment
B) heredity
C) intellectual maturation
D) interacting environmental systems

Question 51

Behavioral geneticists are like _____ in proposing a theory that accounts for _____ in development.

A) ethologists; individual differences
B) ethologists; normative patterns
C) learning theorists; normative patterns
D) learning theorists; individual differences

Question 52

One line of evidence that our genes do not determine our environments and hence, our developmental outcomes is that

A) despite their identical genes, separated identical twins often display some noteworthy personality differences
B) despite their different genes, siblings raised together often display some noteworthy similarities on attributes for which parents strive to treat them alike
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 53

Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory maintains that the best way to really understand environmental influences on human development is to study them

A) in tightly controlled laboratory settings
B) in the child's home
C) in field experiments
D) in the child's natural environments

Question 54

One group of developmentalists that would criticize social-learning theorists for being vague about the meaning of "environment" and the nature of environmental influences is

A) proponents of the ecological perspective
B) ethologists
C) behavioral geneticists
D) proponents of the cognitive-developmental perspective

Question 55

Perhaps the major strength of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory is

A) its clarification of the impacts of biological forces on development
B) its detailed analyses of how interacting environmental contexts might influence development
C) its emphasis on the ways in which children process information about their natural environments
D) its emphasis on parenting as the primary influence on developing children

Question 56

John is muscular and Jim is frail. Although neither boy has displayed strong activity preferences at nursery school, their teacher reliably encourages John to play large-muscle games such as tag while encouraging Jim to work at puzzles and craft activities. The teacher's treatment of John and Jim reflects what Scarr and McCartney call a(n)

A) passive genotype/environment correlation
B) evocative genotype/environment correlation
C) active genotype/environment correlation
D) adaptive genotype/environment correlation

Question 57

The finding that the complexity of children's play increases dramatically once children become proficient using language to communicate would be viewed by Bronfenbrenner as a _____ influence.

A) microsystem
B) mesosystem
C) chronosystem
D) macrosystem
E) exosystem

Question 58

Child abuse is more common in societies that sanction the use of physical punishment. This finding illustrates the probable impact of the _____ on childrearing and child development.

A) microsystem
B) macrosystem
C) exosystem
D) mesosystem

Question 59

According to Scarr and McCartney (1983), _____ genotype-environment correlations ensure that genetically unrelated individuals who are reared together will become increasingly dissimilar over time, whereas identical twins will remain highly similar.

A) passive
B) evocative
C) active (niche-building)
D) passive and evocative
E) evocative and active (niche-building)

Question 60

Sandra Scarr's notion that parenting need only be "good enough" in order to foster adaptive developmental outcomes is based on the proposition that

A) one's genes influence development to a far greater extent than one's parents do
B) one's genes determine one's environments
C) environments have far more influence on developmental outcomes than genes do
D) peers influence one's development to a far greater extent than parents do

Question 61

_____ clearly qualifies as a mechanistic model of human development, whereas _____ more clearly reflect(s) an organismic model.

A) Freud's psychosexual theory; Erikson's psychosocial theory
B) Erikson's psychosocial theory; Freud's psychosexual theory
C) Skinner's social-learning theory; Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory
D) Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory; Skinner's social-learning theory
E) Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory; all social-learning theories

Question 62

Research by Rholes and Ruble (1984) suggests that children younger than 8 or 9 fail to describe others in trait-like terms because

A) they fail to attribute an actor's behavior to internal causes
B) they are uncertain about the stability of internal causes and dispositional characteristics
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 63

One feature of Vygotsky's collaborative learning that clearly fosters a child's acquisition of new skills is the willingness of older, more skillful associates to

A) reinforce the component activities that they are trying to establish
B) provide proper scaffolding so that the child can profit from the instruction
C) carefully model the component activities he/she is trying to establish
D) allow the child to discover and perfect these skills independently

Question 64

Mechanistic models of development focus on

A) internal forces that drive and direct an individual's development
B) external, or environmental, influences on development
C) stage-like changes in development
D) dynamic interactions between the internal and the external forces that influence an individual's development

Question 65

Children are quite aware that people can "cause" various events

A) by age 2-3, when they display their awareness of causality in their own language
B) by age 6-7, when they distinguish accidents from deliberate acts
C) by age 8, when they come to describe others in trait-like terms
D) by mid-adolescence, when they recognize that situational factors can cause a person to act "out of character"

Question 66

According to Vygotsky, development should be _____ across cultures as older individuals transmit society's _____ to younger generations, which will influence the form development takes.

A) highly variable; tools of intellectual adaptation
B) universal; tools of intellectual adaptation
C) highly variable; basic principles of logic
D) universal; basic principles of logic

Question 67

One important kind of social learning that all social-learning theorists seem to have overlooked is

A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) collaborative learning
D) imprinting

Question 68

According to Vygotsky, collaborative learning occurs

A) within the child's zone of proximal development
B) before the child comes to rely on the tutor's verbal instructions
C) if the tutor encourages the child to make critical discoveries on her own and does not organize the activity for her
D) within the child's zone of proximal development and before the child comes to rely on the tutor's verbal instructions
E) all of these

Question 69

In order to perceive oneself or others in trait-like terms, one must first realize that

A) individuals can be the cause of various outcomes
B) actions are often guided by intentions
C) particular individuals are likely to behave in consistent and predictable ways over time and across situations
D) all of these

Question 70

According to Vygotsky, a child's zone of proximal development describes tasks

A) that are attractive because they have been reinforced
B) that the child can't master without the assistance and encouragement of a more skillful partner
C) that a child can easily acquire through direct tuition or observational learning
D) at which the child feels self-efficacious

Question 71

According to attribution (or social information-processing) theory, our self?perceptions and perceptions of other people depend on

A) our level of cognitive development
B) inferences we make about the causes of our own and other's behavior
C) our sociocultural environments
D) inferences others make about the causes of our behavior

Question 72

Organismic models of development focus on

A) internal forces that drive and direct an individual's development
B) external, or environmental, influences on development
C) stage-like changes in development
D) dynamic interactions between the internal and the external forces that influence development

Question 73

Of the theories described in chapters 2 and 3, _____ most clearly qualifies as a contextual theory.

A) Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory
B) Freud's psychosexual theory
C) Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory
D) Bandura's cognitive social-learning theory

Question 74

Perhaps the most frequent attributional error that preschool children make is to assume that

A) people's actions nave no causal effects
B) most effects that people cause are accidental
C) most effects that people cause are intentional
D) most statements that people make are insincere

Question 75

Contextual models of development focus on

A) internal forces that drive and direct an individual's development
B) external, or environmental, influences on development
C) stage-like changes in development
D) dynamic interactions between the internal and the external forces that influence development

Question 76

Vygotsky's emphasis on collaborative learning has caused many developmentalists to look anew at the possible contributions made by _____ to human development.

A) grandparents
B) classroom teachers
C) pets
D) peers

Question 77

According to research on children's social-cognitive abilities, 5? to 7-year-olds fail to describe their acquaintances in trait-like terms because

A) they assume that most behavioral effects are accidental rather than intentional
B) they attribute others' actions to external (situational) causes rather than internal (or dispositional) ones
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 78

According to Vygotsky, the child's role in collaborative learning is to

A) inform the tutor when instructions are unclear
B) discover important principles on his/her own
C) translate the tutor's instructions into private speech to guide his/her own activities
D) partake in deferred imitation of the tutor's activities

Question 79

The tutor's first step in promoting a successful episode with a less competent associate is to

A) model the activity to be learned
B) provide guidance or instruction that the child can understand
C) shape the component responses of the activity to be learned
D) organize the learning activity to capitalize on the child's current abilities

Question 80

In comparing Vygotsky's view of cognitive development with that of Piaget Vygotsky focused more than Piaget did on

A) the self-directed nature of cognitive growth
B) the biological maturation that underlies cognitive growth
C) the sociocultural context in which development occurs
D) universals in cognitive growth