Deck 11: Self and Social Understanding

Question 1

Newborns' remarkable capacity for __________ supports the beginnings of self-awareness.

A) intermodal perception
B) attribution training
C) empathetic responding
D) social cognition

Answer 1

A

Question 2

__________ is considered a powerful tool in self-development because it permits children to represent and express the self more clearly.

A) A large social network
B) Movement
C) Language
D) Recursive thought

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following statements describes the relationship between toddlers' sense of self and possessiveness?

A) Toddlers with a weak sense of self are likely to argue loudly in a dispute over an object.
B) The stronger toddlers' self-definition, the more possessive they tend to be.
C) The weaker toddlers' self-definition, the more possessive they tend to be.
D) Toddlers must develop a sense of ownership before they can develop a sense of self-recognition.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

As children integrate separate behaviors into an appreciation of their own and others' personalities and identities, social cognition

A) moves away from a metacognitive level of understanding.
B) changes from abstract to concrete.
C) becomes better organized with age.
D) develops more slowly than nonsocial cognition.

Question 5

Research indicates that infants who look and smile more at video images of others than at video images of themselves

A) have not yet developed self-awareness.
B) are viewing another person as a potential social partner.
C) have a limited self-conceptualization.
D) cannot yet distinguish strangers from familiar caregivers.

Question 6

During the evening drive home, Mr. Cruz looks at his 4-year-old daughter in the rearview mirror and asks what she is doing. She responds, "I'm thinking inside." Her response indicates an awareness of the __________ self.

A) categorical
B) enduring
C) inner
D) remembered

Question 7

Dr. Zoglin explains to his students how much easier it is to predict the motion of a physical object, such as a rolling ball, than the actions of a person. Dr. Zoglin is describing

A) differences between the I-self and the me-self.
B) differences between social and nonsocial cognition.
C) the development of self-awareness.
D) metacognitive understanding.

Question 8

Dr. Arbus is interested in learning how children come to understand their multifaceted world. In her research, she asks questions like: When do infants discover that they are separate beings, distinct from other people and objects? Dr. Arbus is studying

A) social cognition.
B) the inner self.
C) self-concept.
D) personality development.

Question 9

The development of __________ memory is linked with the emergence of the __________ self.

A) recognition; social
B) working; enduring
C) semantic; categorical
D) autobiographical; remembered

Question 10

At what age will infants first look longer at a video image of a peer than at a video image of themselves?

A) 1 month
B) 4 months
C) 6 months
D) 9 months

Question 11

Chinese parents integrate Confucian traditions of strict discipline and social obligations into their personal stories to

A) teach children the importance of autonomy and independent decision making.
B) reinforce children's spunk and assertiveness.
C) affirm the importance of not disgracing the family.
D) illustrate how children from other cultures behave.

Question 12

Research examining the storytelling practices between adults and 2½-year-olds in Irish-American and Chinese families reveals that

A) Irish-American families tend to discuss holidays and family trips more than Chinese families.
B) Irish-Americans tend to downplay story transgressions by attributing them to the child's spunk and assertiveness.
C) parents in both cultures are equally likely to teach proper behavior at a story's conclusion.
D) Chinese parents are more likely than Irish-American parents to emphasize the child's autonomy.

Question 13

When visiting her grandmother's house, 2-year-old Marta sees a new family photo on the wall, points to it, and says, "See Marta," to her grandmother. Marta's behavior indicates that she

A) is aware of self-reflection.
B) is aware of her inner self.
C) has developed self-recognition.
D) has not yet established self-awareness.

Question 14

During the first year, as infants act on the environment, they

A) are self-involved and cannot focus on objects.
B) cannot distinguish between self and others.
C) notice effects that help them sort out self, other people, and objects.
D) are unable to separate objects from the surrounding world.

Question 15

Three-year-old Athena says, "Daddy's a man. Mommy's a woman." These statements suggest that Athena has developed a

A) categorical self.
B) large vocabulary.
C) social self.
D) remembered self.

Question 16

Most North Americans regard favorable self-esteem as __________ for healthy development, whereas Chinese adults generally see it as __________.

A) crucial; unimportant or even negative
B) unimportant or even negative; crucial
C) somewhat important; maladaptive and harmful
D) somewhat important; crucial

Question 17

Not until age _____ are children certain that a video image of themselves replayed a few minutes after it was filmed is still "me."

A) 3
B) 4
C) 5
D) 6

Question 18

Two-year-old Isabella has a red dot on her nose. When she looks into a mirror, she tries to rub off the dot. This behavior indicates that Isabella is developing

A) self-recognition.
B) self-reflection.
C) emotional contagion.
D) a secure identity.

Question 19

Five-year-old Jamari observes his friend Liam fall while ice skating. Instead of crying, Liam starts to laugh, and Jamari imagines what Liam's thoughts and feelings might be. Jamari is using __________ to understand Liam's actions.

A) self-regulation
B) social comparison
C) belief-desire theory of mind
D) perspective taking

Question 20

Cross-cultural research shows that German and Greek caregivers use a(n) __________ parenting style common in cultures that value independence, while Nso caregivers use a(n) __________ parenting style typical in cultures that value interdependence.

A) authoritarian; permissive
B) permissive; uninvolved
C) distal; proximal
D) proximal; distal

Question 21

__________ is crucial for a wide variety of social-cognitive achievements, including understanding others' emotions, referential communication skills, and self-concept and self-esteem.

A) Metacognition
B) Making social comparisons
C) Understanding of moral imperatives
D) Perspective taking

Question 22

Gains in cognitive inhibition predict __________ particularly strongly, perhaps because children must suppress __________ responses.

A) false-belief understanding; irrelevant
B) high self-esteem; immature
C) theory of mind; false-belief
D) self-awareness; egocentric

Question 23

Trevor has limited ability to engage in nonverbal communicative behaviors, and his language tends to be imitative. He pays little attention to the people around him, preferring to sit and play intensely in activities requiring repetitive motions. Trevor is displaying qualities that are characteristic of

A) bipolar disorder.
B) a learning disability.
C) mental retardation.
D) autism.

Question 24

Which of the following preschoolers will demonstrate greater awareness of false belief?

A) Gwen, who is an only child
B) Helena, who has two younger siblings
C) Rakita, who has a twin sister
D) Louisa, who has three older siblings

Question 25

Research on theory of mind and perspective taking indicates that preschoolers

A) are capable of understanding what another person is thinking and feeling.
B) understand that two people can interpret the same ambiguous information differently.
C) think that people always act in ways consistent with their desires and do not realize beliefs also affect behavior.
D) realize that prior knowledge and experience affects an individual's interpretation of new information.

Question 26

Parents can foster children's understanding of their own and others' mental lives by

A) providing commentary about mental states.
B) purposefully mislabeling emotions to teach them to identify mismatches.
C) exposing them to highly stressful situations and then talking about what the children observed.
D) encouraging them to work out problems on their own.

Question 27

Five-year-old Serena ate a cupcake that she knew she was not supposed to have until after dinner. To avoid punishment, Serena told her mother that the dog ate the cupcake. Serena's attempt to alter her mother's belief demonstrates

A) learned helplessness.
B) an entity view of ability.
C) antisocial behavior.
D) belief-desire theory of mind.

Question 28

Which of the following statements is an example of recursive thought?

A) "Mommy is mad because I hit my sister."
B) "My teacher is always happy."
C) "If she doesn't give me the book, I'm going to tell the teacher."
D) "I thought you would think I was just kidding when I said that."

Question 29

Appreciation of second-order false belief requires __________, a form of perspective taking that involves the ability to reason simultaneously about what two or more people are thinking.

A) making mental inferences
B) identity diffusion
C) self-recognition
D) recursive thought

Question 30

When studying development of early mental states, researchers found that as early as 6 months, infants

A) expect people to talk to other people, rather than to inanimate objects.
B) understand that people are intentional beings who share and influence another's mental state.
C) are aware that others' perspectives differ from their own.
D) can determine if an object inside a box is desirable or undesirable.

Question 31

False-belief understanding is linked to gains in young children's capacity to

A) discuss thoughts and feelings in conversations with friends.
B) correctly identify risky social situations.
C) understand that people always act consistently with their desires.
D) avoid making scale errors.

Question 32

fMRI studies on the brains of children with autism show

A) smaller than average brains due to high levels of synaptic pruning.
B) reduced activity in areas of the cerebral cortex involved in processing emotional and social information.
C) reduced blood flow to the frontal lobe areas responsible for the ability to self-regulate behavior.
D) recognizable impairments in all areas of the brain.

Question 33

Colin says, "I'm Colin. I'm 6 years old and have two older brothers. I'm good at running and football. I'm not very good at wrestling, and I don't like doing my chores. Sometimes I get mad at my brothers." Colin is constructing his

A) remembered self.
B) autobiographical narrative.
C) self-concept.
D) theory of mind.

Question 34

Mr. Mach states that he does not like milk, but drinks it to keep his bones healthy. His young daughter, who has a desire theory of mind, hears him say this and watches him drink the milk. She

A) understands that he does not like milk, but drinks it anyway to stay healthy.
B) understands that he does not like milk, and is confused as to why he drinks it anyway.
C) believes that he drinks the milk because he likes it, or because he is thirsty.
D) tells him not to drink the milk if he does not like it.

Question 35

Mastery of false belief signals a change in representation-the ability to view beliefs as

A) scale errors.
B) desires existing in a person's inner states.
C) mental inferences.
D) interpretations, not just reflections, of reality.

Question 36

Which of the following characteristics is Justin, who has autism, likely to exhibit?

A) the use of frequent nonsensical expressions
B) a strong capacity for establishing joint attention
C) good social referencing skills
D) the use of eye contact to gain someone's attention

Question 37

Children who pass false-belief tasks have more accurate eyewitness memories because

A) their autobiographical memory, which is built upon a false-belief base, is highly developed.
B) they are less likely to be confused or distracted by the actions of other people at the scene and can accurately focus on the observed incident.
C) they realize that one person can present misinformation to another, which can affect the second individual's beliefs.
D) they are able to integrate multiple sources of information, such as sights, sounds, and images of people at the scene, at once.

Question 38

Appreciation of __________ enables children to pinpoint the reasons that another person arrived at a certain belief.

A) first-order false belief
B) second-order false belief
C) pragmatics
D) empathy

Question 39

In one study, researchers said to children, "Sam can't find his dog. Sam's dog is really in the kitchen, but Sam thinks his dog is in the bedroom. Where will Sam look for his dog?" Children who stated that Sam would look in the kitchen do not yet understand

A) false beliefs.
B) the I-self.
C) metaphors.
D) proximity.

Question 40

Preschoolers Bob and Bill engage in more make-believe play than Deb and Dawn. Studies have shown that

A) Deb and Dawn will exhibit more advanced theory-of-mind skills than Bob and Bill.
B) Bob and Bill are more advanced in understanding false belief than Deb and Dawn.
C) Bob and Bill will have more difficulty resolving conflicts with their peers than Deb and Dawn.
D) Deb and Dawn probably come from large families with many older siblings.

Question 41

Which of the following broad self-evaluations do children in diverse Western cultures form around age 6 to 7?

A) inner self, categorical self, remembered self, and generalized other
B) academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance
C) familial, parental, peer, and teacher
D) foreclosure, diffusion, moratorium, and achievement

Question 42

By age 4, children typically

A) infer appropriate motives and feelings when given a trait label.
B) include both positive and negative attributes in their self-descriptions.
C) realize that psychological qualities often change from one situation to the next.
D) are preoccupied with being liked by adults and peers.

Question 43

Ethan tells his mother that he is not good at math because he got seven questions wrong on his math test and his friend Jack got only one question wrong. Ethan's conclusion that he is "not good at math" demonstrates the concept of

A) achievement motivation.
B) false belief.
C) social comparison.
D) perspective taking.

Question 44

Research on the self-concept shows that, compared with school-age children, older adolescents place more emphasis on

A) observable characteristics.
B) special competencies.
C) personality traits.
D) personal and moral values.

Question 45

Beginning in __________, self-descriptions emphasize positive and negative traits.

A) early childhood
B) middle childhood
C) early adolescence
D) late adolescence

Question 46

Children with high social self-esteem

A) are often disliked by peers.
B) perceive themselves as less socially competent than they really are.
C) are consistently better-liked by their peers.
D) tend to have low academic self-esteem.

Question 47

Five-year-old Johan has very high self-esteem. His parents wonder whether this will change once he enters elementary school. Most likely, Johan's self-esteem will

A) continue to rise, as long as he does not engage in social comparison with his peers.
B) maintain its current level, but will slowly decline in the areas of peer relationships and athletic competence.
C) continue to rise until he makes the transition from elementary to middle school.
D) decline over the first few years of elementary school, but will likely rise after fourth grade.

Question 48

If you ask 4-year-old Mariah to describe herself, she will most likely mention

A) personality traits.
B) special competencies.
C) social virtues.
D) observable characteristics.

Question 49

From middle to late adolescence, cognitive changes enable teenagers to

A) stop using abstract descriptors.
B) combine their traits into an organized system.
C) compare their own performance to that of a single peer.
D) create an entirely new set of attributes.

Question 50

As school-age children judge their own appearance, abilities, and behavior in relation to those of others,

A) their self-descriptions become more evaluative.
B) they become less adept at incorporating the messages of others into their self-definition.
C) their self-descriptions become more general and neutral in evaluation.
D) their self-esteem temporarily declines.

Question 51

Fifteen-year-old LaRon feels highly dissatisfied with his parental relationships. Research suggests that LaRon is likely to be

A) anxious and unfocused.
B) aggressive and antisocial.
C) anxious and depressed.
D) socially popular but engages in risky behaviors.

Question 52

As school-age children internalize others' expectations, they form an __________ that they use to evaluate their __________.

A) internal state; self-definition
B) extroverted ego; categorical self
C) inner self; self-esteem
D) ideal self; real self

Question 53

Despite their higher academic achievement, Chinese and Japanese children score lower in self-esteem than U.S. children. Research suggests that this difference may be partly due to __________ among Chinese and Japanese children.

A) a strong emphasis on social comparison
B) conditional parental support
C) low achievement motivation
D) high levels of anxiety and depression

Question 54

Between ages 6 and 10, children

A) form a self-concept consisting of observable characteristics and typical emotions and attitudes.
B) make social comparisons among multiple individuals.
C) combine traits making up self-concept into an organized system.
D) only emphasize positive attributes in their self-concept.

Question 55

Which of the following statements is true regarding influences on self-concept?

A) Formal operational thought transforms toddlers' self-vision into an internally consistent picture.
B) Parental support contributes vitally to the clarity and optimism of children's self-concepts.
C) Authoritarian parents tend to foster a realistic and positive self-concept in their children.
D) School-age children with a history of elaborative parent-child conversations form incomplete self-concepts.

Question 56

Which of the following children will most likely describe himself in terms of individualistic traits, such as personal preferences, interests, skills, and opinions?

A) Guang, who lives in China
B) Galeno, who lives in Puerto Rico
C) Gibson, who lives in the United States
D) Goro, who lives in Japan

Question 57

Amina realistically evaluates her characteristics and competencies, and also has an attitude of self-acceptance and self-respect. Amina has __________ self-esteem.

A) high
B) low
C) average
D) unrealistic

Question 58

During childhood and adolescence, perceived __________ correlates more strongly with global self-esteem than any other self-esteem factor.

A) physical/athletic ability
B) academic competence
C) physical appearance
D) social competence

Question 59

The arrival of adolescence adds __________ as a new dimension of self-esteem.

A) physical/athletic ability
B) self-respect
C) popularity
D) close friendship

Question 60

Because of the effect of gender-stereotyped expectations,

A) boys feel less confident than girls about their athletic abilities.
B) girls feel more confident than boys about their physical appearance.
C) girls exceed boys in self-esteem dimensions of close friendship and social acceptance.
D) boys are somewhat advantaged in the area of academic self-esteem.

Question 61

Which of the following statements is supported by research on cultural differences in learned helplessness?

A) When their children fail, Chinese mothers offer praise and focus on the child's effort.
B) Compared with American parents, Asian parents believe that success in school depends much more on ability than effort.
C) Americans focus less on success than on happiness because happiness enhances self-esteem.
D) Asians attend more to failure than to success because failure indicates where corrective action is needed.

Question 62

Kiaser has average intelligence, persists at challenging tasks, and displays initiative in the face of challenges. Kiaser is demonstrating

A) a social comparison.
B) average self-esteem.
C) identity achievement.
D) achievement motivation.

Question 63

When Vince receives a high test grade, he attributes it to luck; when he receives a low test grade, he attributes it to not being smart. Vince has developed

A) an incremental view of ability.
B) learned helplessness.
C) a mastery-oriented attribution.
D) conditional achievement motivation.

Question 64

Aubrey is high in achievement motivation. She credits her school success to ability and hard work. Aubrey

A) is displaying learned helplessness.
B) emphasizes performance goals over learning goals.
C) is making mastery-oriented attributions.
D) holds an entity view of ability.

Question 65

Attributions such as, "Why did I or another person do that?" are related to

A) a blend of what we imagine important people in our lives think of us.
B) judgments of one's own abilities and behavior in relation to those of others.
C) our common, everyday explanations for the causes of behavior.
D) global self-esteem and self-recognition.

Question 66

People group the causes of their own and others' behavior into which of the following two broad categories?

A) automatic and deliberate
B) achievement and social
C) innate and conditional
D) environmental and psychological

Question 67

Children who possess an incremental view of ability

A) attribute task failure to insufficient ability.
B) tend to give up easily when faced with a challenging task.
C) credit task success to genetics.
D) believe that ability can be increased through effort.

Question 68

Narcissistic children with unrealistically high self-esteem because of overly tolerant, indulgent parenting

A) tend to be oblivious to what peers and others think of them.
B) rarely display any forms of meanness or aggression.
C) tend to lash out at peers who express disapproval.
D) are vulnerable to temporary, sharp peaks in self-esteem when their overblown self-images are challenged.

Question 69

Atim displays learned helplessness. His teacher addresses this by giving him tasks in which he experiences failure, followed by feedback such as, "You can do this if you try harder." Atim is

A) receiving attribution retraining.
B) experiencing identity confusion.
C) likely to resent the teacher's efforts to make him work harder.
D) learning the importance of attributing success to external factors.

Question 70

Preschoolers tend to make overly optimistic attributions because they

A) rarely receive negative feedback.
B) cannot yet distinguish the precise causes of their successes and failures.
C) do not yet turn to adults for evaluations of their accomplishments.
D) seldom face difficult tasks.

Question 71

Which of the following groups of children tends to rate their ability very high, often underestimates task difficulty, and holds positive expectancies of success?

A) preschoolers
B) elementary school children
C) middle schoolers
D) adolescents

Question 72

The best way to foster a positive, secure self-image is to

A) encourage children to strive for worthwhile goals.
B) compliment children whenever possible.
C) have children compete in a sport in which they can excel.
D) emphasize the importance of academic achievement.

Question 73

Because 4-year-old Damon is a nonpersister, his self-esteem is most likely

A) unrealistically high.
B) based entirely on others' judgments.
C) unaffected by adult feedback.
D) based entirely on inner standards.

Question 74

Attributional retraining is most effective when

A) parents engage in authoritarian child rearing.
B) begun early, before children's views of themselves become hard to change.
C) children are presented with simple tasks that require little effort.
D) low-effort students are encouraged to focus more on grades and less on mastering a task for its own sake.

Question 75

Which of the following statements is true regarding achievement-related attributions?

A) Boys tend to receive messages from teachers and parents that their ability is at fault when they do not do well.
B) Positive trait statements encourage children to adopt an incremental view of ability.
C) Despite their higher achievement, girls more often than boys attribute poor performance to lack of ability.
D) Low-SES, ethnic-minority children often receive more favorable feedback from teachers when assigned to homogeneous groups of poorly achieving students.

Question 76

Mastery-oriented children focus on __________ goals, whereas learned-helpless children focus on __________ goals.

A) learning; performance
B) general; specific
C) long-term; short-term
D) academic; social

Question 77

Research on self-esteem indicates that.

A) children benefit from frequent compliments, regardless of whether they are based on actual attainment.
B) the self-esteem of U.S. youths dropped sharply from the 1970s to the 1990s.
C) children do not benefit from compliments that have no basis in real attainment.
D) overly tolerant, indulgent parenting is linked to low self-esteem.

Question 78

Children whose parents believe that they are not very capable and must work harder than others to succeed are likely to

A) have a learned-helpless attributional style.
B) have an incremental view of ability.
C) develop a mastery-oriented attributional style by early adolescence.
D) work harder to win their parents' approval.

Question 79

Four-year-old Alicia gives up easily when faced with challenging tasks. Research shows which of the following factors most likely applies to Alicia?

A) She has parents who provide generous praise regardless of task success or failure.
B) She bases her self-worth entirely on inner standards.
C) She has parents who are highly critical of her worth and performance.
D) She attributes her failures to external causes and successes to internal causes.

Question 80

Shae does not believe that her successes or failures in school can be changed, or that her effort will make a difference in her grades. Shae

A) holds an entity view of ability.
B) comes from a middle-SES household.
C) has an incremental view of ability.
D) lacks a belief-desire theory of mind.