Deck 1: Themes and Perspectives in Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Theories that regard children as mini adults:

A)Focus on the problems of stunted growth
B)Assume discontinuity between childhood and adulthood
C)Assume continuity between childhood and adulthood
D)Typically posit stages of development
E)Belong to the behaviorist tradition

Answer 1

Assume continuity between childhood and adulthood

Question 2

If children are like mini adults, psychologically speaking, then the form of their knowledge would be:

A)Stage-like
B)Qualitatively different from that of adults
C)Precocious
D)Quantitatively different from that of adults
E)Very primitive

Answer 2

Quantitatively different from that of adults

Question 3

The continuity-discontinuity debate is a ______ theme in developmental psychology.

A)Rare
B)Pervasive
C)Discredited
D)Pointless
E)Destructive

Answer 3

Pervasive

Question 4

The behaviorist tradition stresses the importance of:

A)Nurture
B)Nature
C)Skinner
D)Chomsky
E)Piaget

Question 5

In classical conditioning, an example of "psychic learning" is:

A)Being good at playing poker
B)A cat escaping from a cage
C)Mental telepathy
D)Fish foraging at the surface of the water when you stand near the aquarium
E)A pigeon playing ping pong

Question 6

Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning focused on associations between:

A)Brain and behavior
B)Pairs of stimuli
C)Experimenter and participant
D)Different kinds of food
E)Stimulus and response

Question 7

In Skinnerian conditioning, the word "reinforcement" means:

A)The relationship between two stimuli, where the presence of one is contiguous with the presence of the other
B)A stimulus that follows the emission of a response which renders the same response less probable in the future
C)Reward
D)Punishment
E)A stimulus that follows the emission of a response which renders the same response more probable in the future

Question 8

Negative reinforcement means:

A)The reward precedes the response
B)Punishment
C)The cessation of an aversive stimulus contingent upon the participant making a target response
D)The reward is not effective in maintaining behavior
E)Behavior is the product of reinforcement history

Question 9

Chomsky is a:

A)Social constructivist
B)Behaviorist
C)Environmentalist
D)Constructivist
E)Nativist

Question 10

Chomsky's theory principally relates to:

A)Language development
B)Attachment
C)Personality
D)Intelligence
E)Perception

Question 11

Reaching puberty is an example of:

A)Maturational unfolding
B)Learning and experience
C)Constructivism
D)Nurture
E)Psychodynamic theory

Question 12

Bowlby's theory focused on:

A)Feeding
B)Conditioning
C)Nurture
D)Attachment
E)Cognitive development

Question 13

Freud developed a psycho______ theory.

A)babble
B)social
C)sexual
D)hydraulic
E)somatic

Question 14

Freud's theory focused mainly on:

A)Motor skills
B)Intelligence
C)Perception
D)Personality development
E)Psychopathy

Question 15

Which theoretical tradition did Piaget belong to?

A)Environmentalism
B)Nativism
C)Constructivism
D)Social constructivism
E)Conditioning

Question 16

In saying that young children are egocentric, Piaget meant that they:

A)Are not very good at sharing with other children
B)Are spoilt
C)Are selfish
D)Need firm discipline
E)Have difficulty understanding other people's perspectives

Question 17

Piaget suggested that stages of development are the products of:

A)Construction
B)Maturation
C)Nature
D)Nurture
E)A healthy diet

Question 18

Piaget's view about missing a stage of development was that it:

A)Is impossible
B)Could only happen with bright children
C)Is common
D)Is rare
E)Leads to problems of emotional adjustment in adulthood

Question 19

Piaget argued that the thinking in one stage of development is ______ the thinking in another stage.

A)incomparable to
B)quantitatively different from
C)essentially the same as
D)qualitatively different from
E)more positive than

Question 20

A microgenetic approach involves:

A)Sex-typing
B)A chemical analysis of DNA
C)Maturational unfolding
D)An analysis of innate abilities
E)Repeated observations over a period of weeks or months

Question 21

Successful theories:

A)Are the opinions of celebrated scholars
B)Make testable predictions and provide explanations for various findings
C)Have become obsolete
D)Are imaginative speculations
E)Are the product of creative genius

Question 22

Modern theories seek to:

A)Explain the relationship between a rat pressing a lever and children's vocabulary development
B)Explain how much of development is due to nature and how much is due to nurture
C)Explain how nature and nurture combine in development
D)Espouse the ideas of a great scholar
E)Articulate a polemical argument in the interest of furthering a scholar's career, fame, and fortune

Question 23

According to Skinner, behavior is ______ reinforcement.

A)Motivated by
B)Conditional upon
C)Not related to
D)Associated with
E)The cause of

Question 24

Behaviorists argue that language development is the product of:

A)Parental style
B)Nativism
C)Innate processes
D)Skinnerian conditioning
E)A language acquisition device

Question 25

By "deep structure," Chomsky was referring to:

A)A language acquisition device
B)A part of the brain that is located beneath the cerebral cortex near Broca's area
C)A stage of development
D)A sequence of DNA
E)A universal grammar that underpins all natural languages