Deck 1: Approaching Psychological Development

Question 1

When psychologists are described as taking a "lifespan" approach, this means they are interested in:

A) the prenatal period to late adulthood
B) the prenatal period to adulthood
C) the prenatal period to adolescence
D) infancy to late adulthood

Answer 1

the prenatal period to late adulthood

Question 2

The behaviorist perspective involves examining:

A) cross-species differences in development
B) the ability of the unconscious mind to affect behavior
C) how changes in a child's thinking affect development
D) the application of reinforcement and punishment

Answer 2

the application of reinforcement and punishment

Question 3

Generally, development is described in the text as occurring in six broad domains, which are:

A) perceptual, cognitive, moral, social, action, emotional
B) perceptual, cognitive, moral, social, motor, physical
C) perceptual, cognitive, motor, global, local, individual
D) nature, nurture, global, local, cognitive, emotional

Answer 3

perceptual, cognitive, moral, social, action, emotional

Question 4

Reviewing the body of research on the nature/nurture debates has led psychologists to conclude the cause of most phenomena is:

A) nature
B) nurture
C) nature or nurture, but not both at the same time
D) nature and nurture

Question 5

Determining if zebras are black animals with white stripes or white animals with black stripes, illustrates the importance of:

A) studying many different points of development to understand problems and characteristics
B) studying development at only one point in time to focus research efforts
C) asking complex paradoxical questions to further our developmental thinking
D) asking simple, understandable questions to further our developmental thinking

Question 6

Developmental psychologists are described as doing all of the following EXCEPT:

A) trying to determine how children acquire particular skills and knowledge
B) looking at how children master motor skills, cognitive skills, and social skills
C) examining universal commonalities that affect child growth and change
D) attempting to correct developmental problems through genetic alteration

Question 7

You are helping Dr.Jones collect data for his study on young school-age children.You know this means you should be prepared to work with children aged:

A) 2-4 years
B) 5-7 years
C) 8-12 years
D) 13-20 years

Question 8

An example of a global change is:

A) a change in mathematical ability
B) an increase in hormone levels in puberty
C) an increased ability to pay attention in middle childhood
D) a change in moral judgment in middle childhood

Question 9

The idea that unresolved, internal conflicts can sidetrack development comes from the ________ perspective.

A) psychoanalytic
B) behaviorist
C) cognitive science
D) cross-cultural

Question 10

Empiricism is the idea that development occurs:

A) from increasingly interwoven systems of knowledge and experience
B) from inborn biases present at birth that guide growth and change
C) because of the interaction of nature and nurture
D) because of biological modules that predispose infants to change

Question 11

Psychological development is broadly defined to be the:

A) physical change that occurs throughout the lifespan
B) pattern of change that occurs throughout the lifespan
C) qualitative change that occurs throughout childhood
D) quantitative change that occurs throughout childhood

Question 12

Michelle has gone from feeling good to having a flushed face and feeling warm.Based on these early cold symptoms, you would say she has had:

A) a quantitative change in how she feels
B) a qualitative change in how she feels
C) both a quantitative and a qualitative change in how she feels
D) a global change in how she feels

Question 13

The cross-species study of traits and abilities from an evolutionary perspective is:

A) adaptation
B) ethology
C) local change
D) global change

Question 14

In development, qualitative change occurs when a(n):

A) new change or ability emerges that was not present before
B) existing structure or ability grows in magnitude
C) existing development changes along a continuum
D) child continues along a particular developmental trajectory

Question 15

Quantitative development is described as:

A) radically altering a child's developmental path
B) existing abilities growing and changing incrementally
C) moving from one stage of development to the next
D) developing the ability to understand quantitative information

Question 16

Investigating differences in development across species is associated with the ________ perspective.

A) psychoanalytic
B) cross-cultural
C) comparative
D) behaviorist

Question 17

John Locke, taking an empiricist point of view, famously said that a child is a(n):

A) wonderful possibility
B) servant to biology
C) empty cup
D) blank slate

Question 18

Psychologists study development for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A) developmental change is inherently interesting and worthy of study
B) what changes in childhood can help us understand adulthood
C) development can help inform the creation of social programs
D) development is easy and unifies the discipline around a central theory

Question 19

For class you need to do an interview project on the developmental lifespan.You should interview:

A) your cousin's 2-year-old son
B) your cousin's son, and your younger 12-year-old sister
C) your cousin's son, your sister, and your parents
D) your cousin's son, your sister, your parents, and your grandparents

Question 20

There are many topics which come to bear on psychological development.Some important issues are early intervention programs, universal health care, social security, and mandatory education which are examples of:

A) global changes
B) local changes
C) social policy
D) ecological validity

Question 21

You design a cross-sectional, observational study to determine if children's tantrums at different ages are maintained by negative reinforcement (in this case, parents giving in to the tantrum behavior).The perspective you are taking in your research is:

A) comparative
B) behaviorist
C) longitudinal
D) experimental

Question 22

You are studying development by trying to determine if there are particular similarities and differences between different peoples.You are using the:

A) comparative and evolutionary perspective
B) behaviorist perspective
C) cross-cultural perspective
D) psychoanalytic perspective

Question 23

According to your grant-funding source, you need to incorporate a neuroscientific approach to your behavioral study.You will find competent consultants to help you perform a(n):

A) detailed interview to determine the cultural norms for parenting
B) psychosocial interview with parents about their internal conflicts
C) EEG while infants are reinforced for target behaviors
D) EEG while infants' eyes and looking time are tracked

Question 24

An observational study is one in which children are:

A) randomized to treatment and control groups
B) assigned to an experimental and an observational group
C) interviewed about what they remember from a video clip
D) watched in their natural environments and data is collected

Question 25

The various developmental perspectives that have been advanced are important because of all of the following EXCEPT:

A) they offer varyingly complementary points of view
B) they provide irreconcilable points of view
C) they give perspectives that emphasize some aspects over others
D) they offer perspectives that approach development differently

Question 26

With all the different perspectives available to psychologists, Janet, a graduate student, wants to review each one carefully because:

A) the perspective she ends up choosing will determine the rest of her career
B) the perspective she chooses will not mesh with other alternative perspectives
C) they offer different, but often complementary, perspectives on development
D) they offer different, mutually exclusive perspectives on development

Question 27

Dr.Kramer studies child development by assessing and recording the same group of children every year for 15 years.She is using a:

A) longitudinal approach
B) cross-sectional approach
C) cross-cultural approach
D) converging methods approach

Question 28

To determine what causes an infant to share snacks in the lab, you would need to do which kind of study?

A) experimental
B) observational
C) correlational
D) local

Question 29

You decide to use EEG to measure subtle changes in the development of infants' perceptual abilities over several months.You are taking the:

A) psychoanalytic perspective because you're looking at how perception affects ego strength
B) psychoanalytic perspective because you're looking at changes in the brain
C) neuroscience perspective because you're interested in changes in the brain
D) neuroscience perspective because you're looking at one of the areas of development

Question 30

Dr.Allison focuses on the way we learn, represent, use, and understand information across different parts of the lifespan.She is using the ________ perspective.

A) behaviorist
B) cognitive science
C) constructionist
D) psychoanalytic

Question 31

The difference between the independent and dependent variable is that the dependent variable is the variable that:

A) is manipulated by the experimenter
B) is measured by the experimenter
C) is manipulated by the participant
D) depends upon group assignment

Question 32

You need to determine the similarities and differences in teens suffering from taijin kyofusho in Japan (an intense fear of harming or offending others) and social anxiety disorder in the United States.To do this, you should choose the ________ perspective.

A) intergenerational
B) cross-cultural
C) behaviorist
D) psychoanalytic

Question 33

The type of imaging technique that a scientist would use to measure oxygen usage by the brain in a magnetic field is:

A) NIRS
B) EEG
C) fMRI
D) X-ray

Question 34

The perspective most associated with the work of Sigmund Freud is the ________ perspective.

A) evolutionary
B) comparative
C) behaviorist
D) psychoanalytic

Question 35

An advantage near-infrared spectroscopy has over other methods of imaging for infants is that it:

A) scans at the molecular level
B) does not involve headgear or equipment on the infant
C) examines oxygen levels of blood in the brain
D) can tolerate significant head movements

Question 36

The idea that development is associated with abilities present at birth and that human knowledge is more than an increasingly sophisticated web of ideas is associated with all of the following theorists EXCEPT:

A) Descartes
B) Plato
C) Leibniz
D) Locke

Question 37

Your plan for studying development involves fitting infants with EEG caps and recording what happens when they engage in particular behaviors.Your perspective is best described as:

A) behaviorist
B) cross-cultural
C) neuroscientific
D) psychoanalytic

Question 38

The donor funding your research has asked that you make sure your findings can apply to children of different ages.You decide to:

A) conduct your observation making sure you have ecological validity
B) conduct your observation making sure you have test-retest reliability
C) conduct your experiment making sure you have test-retest reliability
D) conduct your experiment using a cross-sectional design

Question 39

Nativists believe that development:

A) occurs after a child is born because they start with a blank slate
B) is based on a general, overall learning system
C) is present at birth as systems for easily acquiring certain types of information
D) occurs by forming detailed links or mental associations based on experience

Question 40

You are a developmental researcher who is interested in the cognitive science perspective.You would be interested in how a:

A) child uses and represents information over time
B) child's history of reinforcement and punishment affects him
C) child's culture has impacted his early development
D) child has resolved his previous psychosocial conflict

Question 41

If Dr.Gonzalez repeats an experiment she has read about in a journal article to see if she gets the same results, she has examined the original study's:

A) replicability
B) test-retest reliability
C) interrater reliability
D) validity

Question 42

If you wanted to determine how children change over a 10-year period, you should use:

A) a longitudinal approach
B) a cross-sectional approach
C) either a longitudinal or cross-sectional approach
D) an environmental approach

Question 43

You need to do a group project on the development of toddler speech for your child psychology class.Rather than try to train children to say certain words, you decide to go in pairs to a day care and watch what the children there say.Your group has decided to conduct a(n) ________ study.

A) cross-cultural
B) psychoanalytic
C) experimental
D) observational

Question 44

Having two examiners evaluate the same child's responses during an activity and then comparing their evaluations for consistency allows researchers to evaluate:

A) interrater reliability
B) test-retest reliability
C) validity
D) cohort effects

Question 45

Eight-year-old Judy was brought to Dr.Jones's clinical psychology practice by her parents for an assessment of her phobia of the dark.Dr.Jones decides to assess Judy's fear by giving her a widely recognized IQ test that has established consistency using test-retest methods.Dr.Jones's choice of assessment in this instance would be:

A) valid
B) valid and reliable
C) valid, but not reliable
D) reliable, but not valid

Question 46

Explain why it is important to study child development.Give at least three strong reasons to support your opinion.

Question 47

Changes within a culture over time that lead to differences among your study groups are especially a problem for:

A) experimental studies
B) cross-sectional studies
C) cross-cultural perspectives
D) behaviorist perspectives

Question 48

A within-subjects design is conducted such that all children:

A) participate in only one out of several conditions
B) participate in all experimental conditions
C) come from within the same cultural background
D) come from within the same cohort

Question 49

You are setting up a longitudinal study and have decided to use microgenetic analysis.This means you will assess your children:

A) every few days
B) every few years
C) in groups, all at once
D) for subtle genetic markers

Question 50

Dr.Smith wants to see how his treatment works on childhood depression.In his experiment, he randomizes children to a treatment group and a no-treatment control group and then examines the differences between the groups' symptoms.This type of design would be:

A) valid
B) reliable
C) between-subjects
D) within-subjects

Question 51

Dr.Johnson uses a white noise blast in a quiet, sterile lab room to study her participants' startle response.While the physiological and psychological data she will record will be reliable, her study will likely have less:

A) replicability
B) internal validity
C) ecological validity
D) environmental validity

Question 52

You are going to do a study on infant sensation with a professor at your university.After the two of you have your study planned out and are ready to begin, you should ________ to be sure your study does not involve unnecessary risks.

A) try the procedures out on yourself
B) ask a focus group of mothers about your study
C) submit a proposal to your institutional review board
D) recruit and test a few infants first

Question 53

In order to protect children's rights when they participate in research, studies usually are approved by a university's:

A) MRI
B) NIRS
C) EEG
D) IRB

Question 54

The use of many different techniques to study a problem, and then using all of the results in combination to further our understanding of a concept, is called using:

A) converging methods
B) ecological validity
C) reliability
D) replicability

Question 55

External validity is whether the findings are:

A) actually due to the experimenter's manipulation
B) actually due to the participant's manipulation
C) generalizable from the lab to the world
D) generalizable from the world to the lab

Question 56

Practice effects, or the improvements seen in participants' scores based on their familiarity with the tasks over time, are a particular problem for which constellation of approaches and designs?

A) longitudinal, observational
B) longitudinal, experimental
C) cross-sectional, observational
D) cross-sectional, experimental

Question 57

Dr.Sanchez is investigating a new theory of speech development in infants.She begins by conducting a cross-sectional study to determine how speech progresses from infancy to early childhood.From there, she uses that information to conduct an experiment that trains several parents to interact with their infants in certain ways she thinks will enhance their speech.She then follows up on these children every 4 months for 3 years.Dr.Sanchez is using the ________ approach.

A) test-retest
B) converging methods
C) neuroscience
D) behaviorist

Question 58

You are concerned about conducting your observational research with children in a day care.After discussing this issue with your thesis advisor, you have learned:

A) observational methodologies are usually less risky and children adjust to it quickly
B) experimental methodologies are usually less risky and children adjust to it quickly
C) observational methodologies are usually more risky but children do adjust to it
D) experimental methodologies are usually more risky and children do not adjust to it

Question 59

Dr.Photon is conducting an fMRI study on the effects of an aspirin or a sugar placebo for the treatment of headaches.He randomizes his participants to one of the two groups, performs their baseline fMRI, gives them their medications, and then later does a follow-up fMRI.In this example, Dr.Photon's independent variable is whether:

A) a person received a pill or placebo
B) the fMRI was at baseline or follow-up
C) the participants were randomized or not
D) the pill had a high enough dosage or not

Question 60

The degree to which the findings from a laboratory study are due to the manipulation of the independent variable reflects the study's:

A) reliability
B) ecological validity
C) external validity
D) internal validity

Question 61

What are experimental and observational studies? What is the key difference between them?

Question 62

What is a cohort effect? What is a recent example of a cohort effect and how might it bias your research?

Question 63

Head Start has important social policy implications.Briefly describe your designs for both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study to determine if it is an effective program.Finally, discuss what the best approach would be for determining if Head Start is effective in the short and long term.

Question 64

What is the nature-versus-nurture controversy? Briefly explain why it is important.

Question 65

Dr.Leigh conducted the following study.Following IRB approval, she identified parents of 40, 1-year-old children.She divided the families randomly into two groups of 20 and gave the infants in Group A educational CDs to listen to each night, and Group B received classical music CDs.After a week, she had the parents fill out a questionnaire rating how much they believed their children's IQ had risen.Clearly specify the type of study this is and the independent and dependent variables.Also, what happens if both groups show improvement? What could Dr.Leigh have done differently?

Question 66

Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal and cross-sectional research.

Question 67

List the nine periods of development outlined in the book.Using these as examples, why is it important to study development across the lifespan?

Question 68

What is an IRB and what important functions are they tasked with?

Question 69

What perspective would you be using if you investigated the similarities and differences in development across species? Explain why and include how you would rule out other similar perspectives.

Question 70

Reliability and validity are very important concepts in psychological research.Describe what both of these are and provide an example of something being reliable but not valid.

Question 71

John Locke was a noted empiricist.Describe his approach to child development and learning.

Question 72

Take the behaviorist perspective on development.Explain your stance and how you view development progressing.

Question 73

Describe what reliability is and include in your description at least two types of reliability mentioned in the text.Be sure to provide an example of each.

Question 74

What are the various areas in which we study development? Briefly describe these six developmental domains.