Deck 1: Understanding Human Development: Approaches and Theories

Question 1

Allison is approaching her 60th birthday. She realizes that her eyesight and hearing are not as good as they used to be, and when visiting her daughter in graduate school, climbing the stairs to the fourth floor has become more difficult. However, Allison has also become more patient over the years, is better at solving difficult problems, and has a more confident and favorable view of herself than she had in her 20s and 30s. This example shows that development is _____.

A) multidimensional
B) multidisciplinary
C) multidirectional
D) plastic

Answer 1

multidirectional

Question 2

Millennials, or young people reaching adulthood around the year 2000, are a generation born around the same time. Millennials are an example of a _______.

A) subculture
B) developmental domain
C) cultural group
D) cohort

Answer 2

cohort

Question 3

Throughout the lifespan, we change physically, cognitively, and psychosocially. This illustrates the notion that development is _____.

A) static
B) multidisciplinary
C) plastic
D) multidimensional

Answer 3

multidimensional

Question 4

_____ development is characterized by slow and gradual change, whereas _____ development is characterized by abrupt change.

A) Continuous; discontinuous
B) Discontinuous; continuous
C) Multidimensional; multidirectional
D) Multidirectional; multidimensional

Question 5

_____ development includes the maturation of our thought processes and the tools that we use to obtain knowledge, become aware of the world around us, and solve problems.

A) Physical
B) Cognitive
C) Psychosocial
D) Lifespan

Question 6

Changes in personality, emotions, views of oneself, social skills, and interpersonal relationships with family and friends are called _____ development.

A) physical
B) cognitive
C) psychosocial
D) lifespan

Question 7

According to research, which individual will likely show the greatest amount of plasticity following a brain injury?

A) Janessa, who is 6
B) Derick, who is 25
C) Barb, who is 48
D) Able, who is 70

Question 8

Bailey is a graduate student in clinical psychology. As part of her training, Bailey works with children and families affected by autism. Each week, Bailey participates in a team meeting that consists of a school psychologist, social worker, speech and language therapist, and nursing students. The group discusses the various families with whom they work, as well as progress with individual clients. This example illustrates the importance of a ______ approach to understanding how people grow, think, and interact with their world.

A) multidisciplinary
B) contextual
C) cultural
D) multidirectional

Question 9

Research illustrates that development consists of both gains and losses, as well as growth and decline, throughout the lifespan. This means that development is _____.

A) multidimensional
B) plastic
C) multidisciplinary
D) multidirectional

Question 10

Following a stroke that affected his balance and muscle strength, Jose participated in three months of physical therapy. Today, Jose feels as strong as he did before the stroke and walks at least ten miles a week for exercise. Jose's ability to overcome his physical limitations after his stroke is an example of:

A) lateralization.
B) plasticity.
C) neuroscience.
D) specialization.

Question 11

Dr. Yang studies cross-cultural differences in body maturation and growth, including differences in body size, proportion, appearance, health, and perceptual abilities. Dr. Yang is interested in _____ development.

A) physical
B) cognitive
C) psychosocial
D) interdisciplinary

Question 12

The ways in which people grow, change, and stay the same throughout their lives, from birth to death, is known as _________ development.

A) child
B) lifespan human
C) normative human
D) contemporary

Question 13

Experts and professionals with a diverse range of expertise contribute to our understanding of lifespan human development. This indicates that developmental science is:

A) plastic.
B) multidisciplinary.
C) multidirectional.
D) multidimensional.

Question 14

____ is the most obvious indicator of development.

A) Change
B) Stability
C) Adulthood
D) Brain lateralization

Question 15

_____ refers to where and when a person develops.

A) Plasticity
B) Exosystem
C) Microsystem
D) Context

Question 16

Baby Li is participating in a research study in which his physical growth is measured once a day. Li's parents were surprised to find out that monthly measurements of height showed gradual increases, but daily measurements revealed growth spurts that sometimes lasted up to 24 hours. This example supports the assertion that physical growth is:

A) primarily characterized by continuity.
B) primarily characterized by discontinuity.
C) both continuous and discontinuous.
D) characterized neither by continuity nor discontinuity.

Question 17

Contemporary developmental scientists agree that development:

A) cannot be characterized by either continuity or discontinuity.
B) is primarily characterized by discontinuity.
C) is primarily characterized by continuity.
D) includes both continuity and discontinuity.

Question 18

The malleability or changeability of development is called ______.

A) plasticity
B) neuroscience
C) lateralization
D) specialization

Question 19

Because development is multidirectional, at all ages, individuals can compensate for losses by:

A) accepting the inevitability of growing older.
B) improving existing skills and developing new ones.
C) seeking out developmentally supportive contexts.
D) avoiding talking about them.

Question 20

As baby Sanjay's physical development improves, he is able to crawl around and explore his environment. This advances his cognitive development, as he learns about the size and shape of objects, as well as how they function. His newfound crawling skills also contribute to changes in Sanjay's psychosocial development. For example, he may experience anger when he picks up a breakable object, only to have one of his parents take it away. In addition, Sanjay experiences happiness when his parents encourage his motor efforts and frustration when they remove him from an unsafe area, such as the stairs. This example shows that the three areas of development ________.

A) confuse the infant
B) are independent
C) follow a single course
D) overlap and interact

Question 21

According to _____, observational learning is one of the most powerful ways in which we learn.

A) Operant conditioning.
B) Social learning theory.
C) The bioecological model.
D) Evolutionary theory.

Question 22

Neva believes that most people are mainly products of their environment. For example, if a child grows up in a warm, stimulating home, he or she will become a successful adult. If the same child grows up in poverty and experiences ineffective child-rearing, he or she will likely repeat those patterns in adulthood. Is Neva's belief correct?

A) Yes. Most researchers believe that children are passive recipients of their environment and rarely contribute to their own development.
B) Yes. Parenting and socioeconomic status play a greater role in development than children's attempts to engage the world around them.
C) No. Although people are influenced by the physical and psychosocial contexts in which they live, they also take an active role in shaping who they become.
D) No. Physical and psychosocial contexts play only a minor role in long-term developmental outcomes.

Question 23

______, which emerged as an alternative to psychoanalytic theories, focuses only on behavior that can be observed and objectively verified.

A) Behaviorism
B) Cognitive-developmental theory
C) Sociocultural theory
D) Ethology

Question 24

Erikson expanded upon Freud's theory and proposed ____ stages of psychosocial development that include changes in how people understand and interact with others, as well as changes in how they understand themselves and their roles as members of society.

A) 4
B) 6
C) 8
D) 10

Question 25

Scientists generate _____, or proposed explanations for a given phenomenon, that can be tested by research.

A) theories
B) hypotheses
C) cohorts
D) subjective opinions

Question 26

Today, most developmental scientists believe that people are __________ their own development.

A) active contributors to
B) unaware of
C) often confused by
D) indifferent toward

Question 27

In contrast to Freud's theory, Erikson focused on the role of ___________ in shaping development.

A) the nuclear and extended family
B) the social world, society, and culture
C) unconscious motivations and drives
D) gender and sexuality

Question 28

_____ theories describe development and behavior as a result of the interplay of inner drives, memories, and conflicts of which we are unaware and cannot control.

A) Psychoanalytic
B) Behaviorist
C) Social learning
D) Information processing

Question 29

According to Freud's theory, humans progress through a series of ______, or periods in which unconscious drives are focused on different parts of the body, making stimulation to those parts a source of pleasure.

A) emotional conflicts
B) psychosexual stages
C) social crises
D) personal dilemmas

Question 30

A _____ is a way of organizing a set of observations or facts into comprehensive explanations of how something works.

A) theory
B) hypothesis
C) cohort
D) research question

Question 31

Explanations that rely on ______ indicate that inborn genetic endowments or heredity, maturational processes, and evolution are causes of developmental change. In contrast, explanations that point to ______ suggest that individuals are molded by the physical and social environment in which they are raised.

A) nurture; nature
B) nature; nurture
C) continuities; discontinuities
D) discontinuities; continuities

Question 32

One of the most important criticisms of Freud's theory is that it:

A) overlooks the importance of the early parent-child relationship.
B) emphasizes nature over nurture.
C) focuses primarily on early child development.
D) cannot be directly tested.

Question 33

_______ theory is regarded as one of the first lifespan views of development.

A) Freud's
B) Erikson's
C) Skinner's
D) Vygotsky's

Question 34

Behaviorist theory is also known as ______ theory.

A) sociocultural
B) cognitive-developmental
C) evolutionary developmental
D) learning

Question 35

Professor Deloney is teaching a research methods class. In his lecture on how theories are generated, he points out that a good theory is ______ and can potentially be refuted.

A) flawless
B) similar to a hypothesis
C) subjective
D) falsifiable

Question 36

Which of the following theorists is credited as the father of the psychoanalytic perspective?

A) Lev Vygotsky
B) Erik Erikson
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Charles Darwin

Question 37

Tara is a four-year-old girl who is very polite. Ever since she was able to talk, her mother expected her to say please and thank you. When Tara would behave politely, her mother would praise her. Tara's behavior was shaped through:

A) Operant conditioning.
B) Classical conditioning.
C) Genetics.
D) Modeling.

Question 38

At the beginning of her first human development course in college, Vi wondered, "Am I the person I am today because of heredity, or did I become who I am because of my environment?" Vi's question reflects the ________ issue in lifespan development.

A) psychoanalytic-behaviorist
B) active-passive
C) continuities-discontinuities
D) nature-nurture

Question 39

In each of Erikson's psychosocial stages, an individual faces a(n) ______ that must be resolved.

A) crisis or conflict
B) unconscious obstacle
C) significant life stressor
D) moral dilemma

Question 40

Regarding the nature-nurture issue, today's developmental scientists agree that _______.

A) nature is more influential than nurture
B) nurture is more influential than nature
C) both nature and nurture are important
D) neither nature nor nurture are significant

Question 41

Each time 3-year-old Maddy uses her potty chair, her father puts a sticker on a chart. After earning five stickers, Maddy gets to pick out a small toy at the store. Maddy's father is using ______ to increase the likelihood that Maddy will continue to use the potty chair.

A) bribery
B) classical conditioning
C) reinforcement
D) social learning

Question 42

According to ______ theory, people actively process information and their thoughts and feelings influence their behavior.

A) psychoanalytic
B) behaviorist
C) evolutionary developmental
D) social learning

Question 43

Critics have argued that Vygotsky's theory places too little emphasis on:

A) the role of context.
B) cultural factors.
C) genetic and biological factors.
D) early socialization.

Question 44

______ theory was the first to consider how infants and children think, as well as their active contributions to their own development.

A) Bandura's
B) Piaget's
C) Vygotsky's
D) Bronfenbrenner's

Question 45

Both Piaget and Vygotsky emphasized that children:

A) primarily learn through reinforcement and punishment.
B) are active in their own development.
C) face crises or conflicts at each stage of development.
D) process information much like a computer.

Question 46

According to ________ theory, development results from the ongoing interactions among biological, cognitive, and psychological changes within the individual and his or her changing context.

A) Piaget's cognitive-developmental
B) Bronfenbrenner's bioecological
C) information processing
D) evolutionary developmental

Question 47

At preschool, Jace frequently watches Keagan hit other children and take their toys. Jace notices that each time Keagan engages in this behavior, the teacher makes him give the toy back and sit in a time out. Because Jace does not want to get in trouble with his teacher, he patiently waits his turn for toys. Jace is demonstrating the concept of:

A) observational learning.
B) operant conditioning.
C) negative reinforcement.
D) reciprocal determinism.

Question 48

According to Piaget, children and adults learn by interacting with their environments and organizing what they learn into _________.

A) stages
B) conceptual webs
C) cognitive schemas
D) categorical dimensions

Question 49

Each time Isabella sits down to feed her baby a bottle, she gently strokes the baby's head. One day, Isabella began stroking her daughter's head and noticed that the baby started sucking, even though it wasn't feeding time. The baby's association between having her head stroked and the presentation of food is an example of _______.

A) operant conditioning
B) classical conditioning
C) reinforcement
D) social learning

Question 50

______ founded the cognitive-developmental perspective on child development.

A) Albert Bandura
B) Jean Piaget
C) B.F. Skinner
D) Lev Vygotsky

Question 51

From an information processing perspective, development is ______ and entails changes in the efficiency and speed with which we think.

A) continuous
B) discontinuous
C) abrupt
D) irregular

Question 52

The beliefs, values, customs, and skills of a group are referred to as ______.

A) microsystems
B) socialization
C) schemas
D) culture

Question 53

According to ________ theory, the mind works in ways similar to a computer.

A) psychoanalytic
B) sociocultural
C) information processing
D) bioecological

Question 54

Ten-month-old Tauji is a happy, laid-back baby. He often smiles and laughs and is rarely cranky unless he is hungry or tired. Due to his easy temperament, Tauji's parents and other adults enjoy interacting with him. He receives frequent hugs and kisses which, in turn, results in more positive interactions. The interaction between Tauji's behavior and the supportive environment in which he is being raised is an example of:

A) reciprocal determinism.
B) operant conditioning.
C) classical conditioning.
D) reinforcement.

Question 55

Which of the following is a criticism of the information processing perspective ?

A) It fails to explain age-related changes in thinking.
B) It does not take into consideration maturation of the brain and nervous system.
C) Computer models cannot capture the complexity of the human mind.
D) There is little empirical support for this theory.

Question 56

_______ sociocultural theory focuses on how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next through social interaction.

A) Piaget's
B) Vygotsky's
C) Bronfenbrenner's
D) Darwin's

Question 57

Which of the following is a criticism of Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory?

A) Piaget underestimated children's contributions to their own development.
B) Piaget assumed that all cognitive-developmental stages are universal.
C) Piaget focused too much on unconscious drives and motivations.
D) Piaget focused too heavily on emotional and social factors that influence development.

Question 58

______ applies to physiological and emotional responses only.

A) Classical conditioning
B) Operant conditioning
C) Reinforcement
D) Punishment

Question 59

According to the concept of ________, behavior is more likely to recur in the future if it is reinforced but less likely to recur if it is punished.

A) classical conditioning
B) operant conditioning
C) social learning
D) ethology

Question 60

Professor Norris is interested in how children from different cultures acquire the cognitive skills necessary to be productive members of society. His research focuses on how adults and peers communicate culturally relevant knowledge, as well as the emphasis different cultures place on play and work. Professor Norris's research is consistent with ______ theory.

A) Bronfenbrenner's
B) Bandura's
C) Piaget's
D) Vygtosky's

Question 61

"What is the purpose or adaptive value of infant-parent attachment?" would best be answered by:

A) Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory.
B) behaviorism.
C) evolutionary developmental theory.
D) the information processing perspective.

Question 62

The fact that humans, like many animal species, display biologically preprogrammed behaviors that have survival value and promote development provides support for _____ theory.

A) sociocultural
B) bioecological
C) ethological
D) social learning

Question 63

Vernessa is working on her master's degree in behavioral health. She is interested in adolescents who are most likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as unprotected sex and alcohol and drug use. She plans to conduct a study of 20,000 teenagers across the country to identify trends in high-risk behaviors. Which method of data collection would be best suited for this type of study?

A) Questionnaires
B) Clinical interviews
C) Naturalistic observations
D) Structured observations

Question 64

The second step of the scientific method is:

A) identifying the research question.
B) formulating a hypothesis.
C) gathering information to address the research question.
D) interpreting and summarizing information.

Question 65

D.J. is working on a research team that is gathering information on how freshmen students view their first year of college. D.J.'s team wants to use a flexible conversational style that allows for follow-up questions in order to gather as much information as possible. Which technique is best suited for this type of study?

A) Structured observations
B) A structured interview
C) An open-ended interview
D) Naturalistic observations

Question 66

An important strength of naturalistic observation is that it allows researchers to:

A) implement their own coding system.
B) draw conclusions about behavior without analyzing data.
C) observe behaviors in real-world settings.
D) exercise control over the environment.

Question 67

At the center of the bioecological model is the _____.

A) individual
B) family
C) community
D) cultural context

Question 68

When using _______interviews, all participants are given the same set of questions in the exact same order.

A) open-ended
B) clinical
C) structured
D) quasi

Question 69

The timing of important life events-such as marriage, birth of a child, starting a career, and retirement-fall within the ______.

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

Question 70

Travis has worked for the same company for almost ten years. He dislikes his boss, often works overtime without pay, and sees little opportunity for advancement. Travis's work stress has started to affect his personal life. He frequently argues with his wife and has little patience for his 2-year-old son. Travis is easily irritated when his son whines or makes a mess, which creates even more stress in the household. According to Bronfenbrenner's theory, the influence of Travis's work stress on his son's development falls within the _____.

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

Question 71

The _______ consists of relations and interactions among microsystems.

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

Question 72

Scientists use the term ______ to refer to the information that they collect when they conduct research.

A) data
B) IRB
C) hypothesis
D) theory

Question 73

When conducting a naturalistic observation, one must first decide on:

A) which participants will be easiest to observe.
B) an operational definition of the behavior of interest.
C) a coding system to use during the observation.
D) which statistical program to use to analyze the data.

Question 74

Dr. Stein is an expert in human development. When conducting research, Dr. Stein will utilize:

A) subjective observation techniques.
B) the scientific method.
C) tools and resources that have never been used before.
D) hypothetical models of human behavior.

Question 75

_______, or surveys, are sets of questions, typically multiple choice, that scientists compile and use to collect data from large samples of people.

A) Structured interviews
B) Open-ended interviews
C) Rating scales
D) Questionnaires

Question 76

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, cultural values, legal and political practices, and other elements of the society at large fall within the ______.

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

Question 77

According to Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, your family, peers, and school represent your:

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

Question 78

In some instances, the presence of an observer can cause the person to behave in unnatural ways or ways that are not typical for him or her. This is known as ________.

A) observation bias
B) bidirectional influence
C) a cohort effect
D) participant reactivity

Question 79

Farrah is taking a child development course in which she must practice conducting naturalistic observations. Which of the following is an example of a naturalistic observation?

A) Playing a card game with her cousins and writing down who has the most points at the end of each hand.
B) Interviewing a parent about her beliefs on corporal punishment.
C) Watching a television program about children with autism.
D) Observing preschoolers during recess and writing down instances of peer aggression.

Question 80

Which of the following is a limitation associated with self-report data?

A) It is very expensive and time consuming.
B) Answers may not reflect participants' true attitudes and behavior.
C) It is difficult to ensure anonymity of participant responses.
D) They can only be used for small samples of people.