Deck 3: Approaches to Parenting Research

Question 1

The Parenting Traits approach summarizes parent's behavior using ______.

A) a single characteristic
B) detailed descriptions
C) negative labels
D) multiple approaches

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following statements is most TRUE regarding the Parenting Traits approach to child-rearing research?

A) It assumes that parenting behaviors are guided by children's behavior.
B) It provides in-depth characterizations of parenting behaviors.
C) It assesses how parents act differently toward different children.
D) It is the oldest approach to conceptualizing and studying parents.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Baumrind's Child-Rearing Traits theory focused on how much ______ parents exhibited.

A) love and affection
B) rigidity and flexibility
C) warmth and control
D) help and support

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Albert was a harsh taskmaster with his children. He often barked at his children, "It will be my way or the highway!" Baumrind's ______ parenting trait best fits Albert's behavior.

A) authoritative
B) authoritarian
C) passive
D) uninvolved

Question 5

Christine was an authoritative parent. When her children were growing up, she gave them many opportunities to make age-appropriate choices. By doing this, she likely encouraged the development of their ______.

A) autonomy
B) confusion
C) rebellion
D) compliance

Question 6

A criticism of the Parenting Traits approach is that it does not reveal the ______.

A) amount of direct care parents provide
B) disciplinary approach parents employ
C) social bonds that parents form
D) processes that are actually at work

Question 7

The ______ approach was a reaction to the unidirectional view of influence embodied in the Parental Traits approach.

A) Momentary Process
B) Child Effects
C) Social Learning
D) Social Address

Question 8

The Child Effects approach focuses on how children ______.

A) learn how to act on their own behalf
B) are influenced through synchronous actions
C) affect those who are around them
D) fail to influence others through their actions

Question 9

Dr. Belsky proposed that parenting and other environmental influences do not affect all children equally. This differential susceptibility effect fits best with the ______ approach.

A) Bioecological
B) Social Learning
C) Social Address
D) Child Effects

Question 10

In a parent-child relationship, parents and children learn from their interactions, and their subsequent interactions reflect that learning. This idea has been labeled ______.

A) operational synchrony
B) transactional development
C) resultant operations
D) multidirectional learning

Question 11

A child's activity level is a powerful determinant of parental behavior or concern. Children who are diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are a serious challenge in homes and in classrooms. When comparing diagnoses of ADHD for boys and girls, we find that ______.

A) girls and boys are diagnosed in equal numbers
B) boys are diagnosed twice as often as girls
C) girls are diagnosed 3 times as often as boys
D) only boys are diagnosed with true ADHD

Question 12

Dr. Jones explored the effects of children's temperament and parents' personality over time. She found that due to their ongoing interactions, children's temperament affected parents' personalities and parents' personalities affected the children's temperament. This affect is best described as ______.

A) transactional
B) unidirectional
C) bidirectional
D) multidirectional

Question 13

Researchers who adopt a Social Learning approach to understanding parents and their child-rearing behaviors might focus on ______.

A) operant conditioning behaviors that parents exhibit
B) parents' consistent recall of their own parents' behaviors
C) social interactions that promote or block close relationships
D) maladaptive thoughts held by parents and/or children

Question 14

After 3-year-old Tim whined for a candy bar for several minutes, his mother gave up and gave in to his demands. Based on a Social Learning Theory perspective, Tim's mother ______.

A) reestablished equilibrium in their interactions
B) reinforced his negative whining behavior
C) taught him that she cared about his discomfort
D) reduced the chance that his whining would recur

Question 15

According to the Social Learning approach, the best way for parents to teach children how to behave is to ______.

A) give long explanations of good behaviors
B) punish negative or inappropriate behaviors
C) model and reward desired behaviors
D) reward inappropriate behaviors

Question 16

When Max started to throw a tantrum at home, his mother turned and left the room. According to the Social Learning perspective, his mother was ______ by ignoring his bad behavior.

A) reinforcing his continued tantrums
B) encouraging rebellious behavior
C) showing her parenting weakness
D) promoting desired behavior

Question 17

Dr. Probst examined data from the National Survey of Children's Health for European American (Caucasian) families and Native American Indian families. She was interested in finding out if there were differences between these two cultures in parenting behaviors. Her research follows the Social ______ approach.

A) Trait
B) Cognition
C) Address
D) Learning

Question 18

According to the Social Address approach to understanding parents and their children, ______ is the variable that determines how parents rear their children.

A) a parent's personal history of care
B) adequate, but nonintrusive social support
C) an understanding of current research
D) membership in a larger cultural group

Question 19

Dr. Sing Lau conducted research on how parenting affects academic performance in children. His participants were located in Hong Kong, the United States, and Australia. He was interested in finding out the differences between these groups of parents. His type of research would most likely be labeled the ______ approach.

A) Social Address
B) Parenting Traits
C) Momentary Process
D) Social Cognition

Question 20

According to the text, the Social Address approach is a good first step in documenting differences between groups of parents. However, the author warns that ______ may be ignored when researchers employ this approach.

A) culturally mandated parenting processes for different groups
B) the great variation between different cultural groups
C) influence of genetic variation between the different groups
D) the considerable variation within a cultural group

Question 21

The ______ approach requires careful, microanalytic observations.

A) Social Learning
B) Parental Beliefs
C) Ecological Momentary Process
D) Parent/Child Trait

Question 22

During their interactions, Joanna and her toddler show very brief (0.3-1.0 s) variations in their looking, head movements, and pauses. According to the Ecological Momentary Process approach, through these actions, they ______.

A) show differential susceptibility of each other's influence
B) trigger innate caregiving and compliance behaviors
C) alternate between awareness and inattention
D) regulate and influence each other's behavior

Question 23

In a study published in 2014, 33 mothers were audio-recorded for up to six nights, documenting their home interactions with their preschool-age children. This provided invaluable data on incidents of spanking or slapping, which were captured due to the method's ______.

A) global approach
B) moment-by-moment tracking
C) secretive recording devices
D) encouragement of proper behavior

Question 24

Diana and her daughter have a healthy, interdependent relationship. They take turns in conversation and Diana is attuned to her daughter's exchanges and vice versa. Which of the following best describes this so-called, "dance" between parent and infant?

A) feedback loops
B) negative synchrony
C) dyadic synchrony
D) negotiation mechanisms

Question 25

The ______ approach seeks to understand what parents are thinking about their children and child-rearing.

A) Parenting Traits
B) Social Learning
C) Parent Cognition
D) Child Effects

Question 26

Dr. Dix conducts studies about different types of parenting goals. His research focus would follow the ______ approach.

A) Parent Cognition
B) Social Learning
C) Social Address
D) none of these

Question 27

Angelina's adopted children were born in poverty. She wonders if her knowledge of their challenging early beginnings will affect her parenting behaviors. To investigate whether her thoughts will affect her behaviors, Angelina should consult a researcher who takes a ______ approach

A) Personality Trait
B) Parent Cognition
C) Momentary Process
D) Social Learning

Question 28

Placing a pink or a blue hat on a newborn can cause the descriptions about the same baby to change from "delicate" and "tiny" to "big" and "strong." This is an example of how ______ can affect a parent's interactions with a child.

A) a parent's knowledge of a child's sex
B) prior parental experiences
C) a child's true characteristics
D) a parent's perceptions

Question 29

Metaparenting refers to the ______.

A) ability parents have to "be present" with a child and be unaffected by prior judgments
B) parenting beliefs that are triggered during challenging parent-child interactions
C) thoughts parents have about their children or child-rearing before or after interactions
D) broad understanding parents have about children due to cultural influences

Question 30

Delia was determined to parent in a more thoughtful way than she had been parented. She planned ahead to reduce conflict, reflected on what worked and what did not, and effectively solved problems if they occurred. By anticipating, reflecting, and problem-solving, Delia was ______.

A) metaparenting
B) processing information
C) reframing attributions
D) retraining cognition

Question 31

A parent asking the question, "Why does my child act in a certain way?", in an attempt to establish causality, is an example of which of the following type of parental cognition?

A) attitude
B) attributions
C) problem-solving ability
D) none of these

Question 32

In the case of parenting research and behavioral genetics, the central question is: ______.

A) To what extent do genetic predispositions affect parenting?
B) To what extent do genes and the environment affect children's outcomes?
C) To what extent does the genotype affect children's outcomes?
D) To what extent do parents influence the child's genotype?

Question 33

Brandon and Jackson are dizygotic twins. This means they ______.

A) share identical DNA
B) are identical twins
C) are fraternal twins
D) came from a single egg fertilized by two sperm

Question 34

Which of the following scenarios describing parents Luke and Laura would serve as an example of assortative mating--a potential problem associated with twin estimates of heritability?

A) They met in college at Yale and both have master's degrees.
B) They come from similar socioeconomic classes.
C) They both tend to have aggressive tendencies.
D) all of these

Question 35

Two-year old twins Michael and Mitchell suffer from delayed development due to their birth mother's poor nutrition during pregnancy. In using these twins as part of an adoption study, the apparent ______ between the twins could be attributed to this ______ factor.

A) similarities; confounding
B) differences; confounding
C) similarities; attributing
D) differences; attributing

Question 36

Research approaches that utilize ______ allow researchers to find relationships between many related variables.

A) correlational design
B) large data sets
C) experimental design
D) small sets of participants

Question 37

A ______ is a variable that affects the strength or direction of a relation between an independent variable and a dependent variable.

A) mediator
B) moderator
C) monitor
D) modulator

Question 38

Parenting behaviors are negatively affected by marital conflict and, like a link in a causal chain, the change in parenting quality then affects teenager's adjustment. That means that at least part of adverse effects on teens is due to the way conflict alters the quality of parenting. This is an example of a ______ effect.

A) mediator
B) moderator
C) monitor
D) modulator

Question 39

It has been found that safety of one's neighborhood can mediate the relationship between emotional support and nurturance. Which of the following demonstrates a strengthening of the two variables when a mother receives support from her neighbor if a neighbor not deemed to be dangerous?

A) The mother becomes irritated that the neighbor is getting involved.
B) The child rejects the help of the neighbor.
C) The mother is more nurturant toward her child.
D) The mother is less nurturant toward her child.

Question 40

Which of the following approaches takes the most specificity into account?

A) Child Effects
B) Parenting Traits
C) Social Learning
D) Momentary Process

Question 41

In which of the following pairs does the approach NOT relate to the topics that follow?

A) Parenting Trait approach--authoritative parenting style
B) Social Cognition approach--expectations
C) Child Effects approach--child's gender, age, and temperament
D) Social Address approach--attachment, bonding

Question 42

Which of the following approaches acknowledges bidirectional influences?

A) Ecological Momentary assessment
B) Parenting Traits
C) Social Address
D) Parental Cognition

Question 43

Which of the following approaches provides the most flexibility for studying determinants of parental behavior and direction of influence?

A) Ecological Momentary Process
B) Large Data Sets
C) Social Address
D) Behavioral Genetics

Question 44

Parents characterized by their intrusive and general over-involvement in their children's lives are known as ______ parents.

A) hovering
B) helicopter
C) competent
D) passive

Question 45

Democratic versus ______ and facilitator versus ______ are two types of parenting traits that have been studied.

A) autocratic; rejecting
B) autocratic; regulator
C) sensitive; rejecting
D) sensitive; regulator

Question 46

According to the Child Effects Approach, physical or personal attributes that influence parenting include all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A) intelligence
B) health
C) activity level
D) prematurity

Question 47

A father deciding to become his son's basketball coach in response to the child's interest in playing the sport is an example of which parenting approach?

A) Child Effects
B) Parenting Traits
C) Social Learning
D) Momentary Process

Question 48

The "direction of effects" issue related to the Parental Traits approach to parenting research is best described as which of the following?

A) Children's behavior his limited impact on child-rearing.
B) Children's behavior only has impact when the behavior is viewed as negative.
C) Children's behavior is solely dependent on parents' behavior.
D) Children's behavior--good or bad--can also powerfully influence child-rearing.

Question 49

The Social Address Approach has which time frame for causal relations?

A) immediate
B) short term
C) long term
D) short and long term

Question 50

Dr. Jones prefers to use an integrated approach for studying parent-child relationships. Using the Person-Process-Context model of development, she recognizes the dynamic interactions between variables and context by merging which approaches?

A) parenting traits and child effects
B) parent cognition and social address
C) parenting traits, child effects, and parent cognition
D) parenting traits, child effects, and social address

Question 51

A moderator is a variable that affects the strength or direction of a relation between two other variables. A mediator, on the other hand, typically refers to variables that change how or why two other variables are associated.

Question 52

A human Behavioral Genetics approach to parenting research relies strictly on twin studies.

Question 53

Approaches to studying parenting that are both global and aggregated include Child Effects, Social Address, and Behavioral Genetics.

Question 54

Patterson's research revealed that the mothers were inadvertently reinforcing coercive behaviors when they "gave up" at attempts to discipline their sons. The boys learned that by escalating their coercive behavior, they would "win" the battle, a dynamic revealed using the Parent Cognition Approach.

Question 55

In comparison to approaches such as the Social Address Approach, the Behavioral Genetics Approach provides a more balanced approach by assessing the role of genetic inheritance in behavioral outcomes.

Question 56

Longitudinal data provide the best type of data because individuals are followed over time and because they are inexpensive and relatively simple to run.

Question 57

Based on previous research, one could assume that about two thirds of a population of delinquent boys have fathers with a criminal record.

Question 58

Twins Brooke and LouAnn are being used in an adoption study. Brooke lives with her biological parents, while LouAnn lives with her adoptive parents. Despite the fact that LouAnn happens to share similar characteristics with her adoptive parents, it is safe to assume that the correlation is not significant enough to include in statistical modeling.

Question 59

From a social learning perspective, it is more effective to administer punishment than to promote desired behavior in a child.

Question 60

Margaret Mead's study on inhabitants of the island of Samoa laid the groundwork for other investigations utilizing the Social Address approach.

Question 61

List four ways that different approaches to parenting research can be compared.

Question 62

Does Baumrind's trait approach to child-rearing (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) capture your own parent(s) style? Give at least three examples to support your view. Give an example of how the approach provides only a limited description of your parent(s).

Question 63

Identify six types of child characteristics that can influence parenting. For three of those characteristics, discuss how they can affect child-rearing.

Question 64

Discuss the pros and cons of co-sleeping with infants. Do you think it is a healthy practice to engage in with infants?

Question 65

Discuss why a polarized nature versus nurture view of behavior is ill-advised.