Deck 1: Introduction

Question 1

The primary function of schooling during the 17th and 18th centuries was to

A) teach reading and writing skills to an illiterate population
B) prepare children for the world of work
C) offer day-care services to overburdened working parents
D) provide children with a proper moral and religious education

Answer 1

provide children with a proper moral and religious education

Question 2

When choosing between two theories that each explain the same set of observations, the theory that is generally acknowledged to be the more useful

A) contains the largest number of concepts and propositions
B) cannot be falsified by future research
C) both of these
D) none of these

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Philosopher Thomas Hobbes was a proponent of the doctrine of original sin, a viewpoint which held that children are

A) noble savages
B) selfish egoists
C) tabula rasae
D) none of these

Answer 3

selfish egoists

Question 4

Jamal argues that it is ultimately a failure of parents to monitor their offspring which causes children to become delinquent. With respect to the activity/passivity issue, Jamal's statement reflects

A) a passivity orientation (children are molded by their experiences)
B) an activity orientation (children contribute to their own development)
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 5

The first published observations (that is, data) on child development were

A) baby biographies
B) G. Stanley Hall's studies of children's thinking
C) Freud's observations of his neurotic patients
D) Piaget's studies of children's moral reasoning

Question 6

The role of a theory in the scientific enterprise is to

A) make hypothesis testing unnecessary
B) lend credence to one's untested assumptions about human nature
C) aid in the interpretation of data and the generation of testable hypotheses
D) make hypothesis testing unnecessary and lend credence to one's untested assumptions about human nature
E) all of these are true

Question 7

A good scientific theory is one that is _____.

A) parsimonious
B) heuristic
C) falsifiable
D) all of these

Question 8

John Locke's notion that the mind of a newborn is a tabula rasa implies that human infants are

A) inherently evil or sinful
B) inherently good
C) blank slates ready to learn from their experiences
D) largely incapable of any meaningful learning

Question 9

A set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain a set of observations is called

A) a hypothesis
B) a theory
C) a factual explanation
D) an experiment

Question 10

The phase of life known as adolescence

A) is experienced similarly across eras and cultures
B) is a universally difficult period of transition from childhood to adulthood
C) is an extended period of preparation for adulthood first acknowledged by the early Romans
D) is experienced differently by youth in different eras and cultures

Question 11

Which of the following statements best summarizes the current status of the activity-passivity debate?

A) children are passive creatures whose personalities are determined by their experiences
B) children are "active" in expressing inborn motives, but their personalities are determined by their experiences
C) children actively determine their own developmental outcomes by virtue of their behavior
D) children are actively involved in creating the environments that will influence their growth and development

Question 12

Analyses of artwork depicting the activities of children in medieval times implies that, to some extent, children were treated as

A) family pets
B) common criminals
C) miniature adults
D) fragile creations of God

Question 13

Socialization is

A) a means of regulating behavior
B) a way of promoting personal growth
C) a mechanism for perpetuating the social order
D) all of these are true

Question 14

Which of the following philosophical perspectives would say that parents should carefully monitor the child's activities when they socialize him or her?

A) the doctrine of original sin
B) the doctrine of innate purity
C) the doctrine of tabula rasa
D) the doctrine of original sin and innate purity
E) the doctrine of original sin and tabula rasa

Question 15

Historical studies tell us that children in Medieval times were

A) rarely abused by their parents
B) treated as harshly for criminal offenses as adult offenders were
C) coddled to a greater extent than today's children are
D) none of these

Question 16

Proponents of the doctrine of innate purity contend that children are _____ who should be given the freedom to follow their natural inclinations.

A) noble savages
B) selfish egoists
C) tabula rasae
D) seething cauldrons

Question 17

Today most developmentalists believe that _____ .

A) genes are more important than social influences in shaping human development
B) temperament, personality, and mental health are determined by one's experiences, with biology playing only a minor role
C) most complex human attributes reflect an interaction between genetic and environmental forces
D) in higher mammals such as human beings, social influences are more important than biological forces in determining developmental outcomes

Question 18

If a theory is useful because it generates new hypotheses that are capable of being disconfirmed, the theory can be described as

A) heuristic
B) falsifiable
C) parsimonious
D) heuristic and falsifiable
E) heuristic and parsimonious

Question 19

Adolescence has been recognized as a distinct phase of life since

A) early Roman times
B) the 17th century
C) the early 20th century
D) the 1940s

Question 20

Theorists who contend that children's behavior reflects "the company they keep" believe that _____ is the most powerful influence on human development.

A) nature
B) nurture
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 21

The purpose of using a standard format in structured interviews is to

A) allow direct comparisons among the responses of different participants
B) make the interviewer's task simpler
C) maximize the procedure's flexibility
D) help younger children to understand the questions

Question 22

The interview method generally works best with children when

A) the researcher insists on precise, well-articulated answers from participants
B) the researcher challenges participants to display what they think, know, or feel about an issue
C) the child's parents conduct the interview
D) participants are aware of the most socially desirable way to respond

Question 23

An interview methodology in which participants respond to standardized questions at a specified time (or when paged electronically) is known as

A) a case study
B) a time-sampling procedure
C) a diary study
D) a clinical method

Question 24

If a measure yields consistent information over time and across observers, the measure is

A) reliable
B) valid
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 25

An investigator asks a child a series of questions, with each question being selected on the basis of the child's prior response. This is an example of the

A) observational method
B) structured interview
C) clinical method
D) case study method

Question 26

One potentially serious disadvantage to using the clinical method is that

A) it may be difficult to compare the answers of participants who are asked different questions
B) it is inflexible and does not allow the researcher to clarify a child's ambiguous answers
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 27

A valid measuring instrument

A) yields consistent information over time
B) yields consistent information across observers
C) measures what it claims to measure
D) all of these

Question 28

If a measure accurately measures what it was designed to measure, it is said to be

A) reliable
B) valid
C) standardized
D) structured

Question 29

Recording the behavior of children at a picnic is an example of

A) an experiment
B) naturalistic observation
C) a case study
D) the clinical method

Question 30

The question of whether child development occurs in "stages" is part of the

A) continuity-discontinuity issue
B) activity-passivity issue
C) nature-nurture issue
D) debate about whether humans are inherently good or inherently evil

Question 31

Scientifically useful measures must be reliable and valid. A measure is reliable if it

A) yields consistent information over time
B) yields consistent information across observers
C) measures what it claims to measure
D) yields consistent information over time and yields consistent information across observers
E) all of these

Question 32

A person taking the position that development is continuous (rather than discontinuous) would characterize developmental changes as

A) gradual, quantitative, and connected over time
B) gradual, qualitative, and unconnected over time
C) abrupt, quantitative, and connected over time
D) abrupt, qualitative, and unconnected over time

Question 33

As applied to the study of human development, the scientific method is

A) a standardized set of laboratory techniques
B) a set of concepts and propositions that allow one to explain some phenomenon
C) a set of assumptions about human nature
D) a value prescribing that data must dictate the merits of one's thinking

Question 34

One creative use of the interview or questionnaire methodology that is often used with adolescents is the

A) unstructured interview
B) diary study
C) case study
D) clinical method

Question 35

John discovers that age-related patterns of moral reasoning observed in India differ dramatically from those observed in the U.S. His findings seem to highlight _____ aspects of development.

A) continuous
B) discontinuous
C) universal
D) particularistic

Question 36

Reginald studies children's moral reasoning by initially asking each participant the same questions. However, when participants provide different answers, he uses different kinds of follow-up probes to clarify their answers. Reginald's research method is

A) case study research
B) the clinical method
C) a structured interview
D) ethnography

Question 37

One of the advantages associated with the use of interviews and questionnaires in developmental research is:

A) a large amount of useful information can be obtained in a short amount of time.
B) data from interviews and questionnaires are always free of distortion and hence, valid.
C) these methods can be used with participants of all ages.
D) all of these

Question 38

Which of the following statements about scientific measuring instruments is true?

A) A valid instrument is necessarily reliable.
B) A reliable instrument is necessarily valid.
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 39

Those who propose that development proceeds through a series of distinct stages can be described as

A) continuity theorists
B) discontinuity theorists
C) nurture theorists
D) passivity theorists

Question 40

A researcher who believes that the most noteworthy aspects of development are those everyone displays believes that development is largely a _____ enterprise.

A) continuous
B) discontinuous
C) universal
D) particularistic

Question 41

Many investigators have found a positive correlation between the amount of prosocial television programming children watch at home and the frequency of children's prosocial (that is, kindly or helpful) behaviors at nursery school. These data clearly establish that

A) exposure to prosocial television causes children to become more prosocially inclined
B) kindly, helpful children watch more prosocial television programming
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 42

Jorge has been hanging with an inner city gang for nearly two years, participating in gang activities and carefully gathering notes in an attempt to learn how gangs might influence the development of inner-city youth. Jorge is relying on _____ as a research strategy.

A) the clinical method
B) the case study
C) ethnography
D) structured observation

Question 43

Use of ______ enable(s) investigators to investigate the biological underpinnings of children's perceptual, cognitive, or emotional responses.

A) naturalistic observation
B) ethnography
C) microgenetic designs
D) psychophysiological methods

Question 44

An important limitation of all correlational studies is that they

A) cannot detect systematic relationships between more than two variables
B) cannot demonstrate that one thing causes another
C) cannot be used to study preverbal children who can't talk
D) all of these

Question 45

Drawing valid inferences from the use of psychophysiological methods requires that infant participants

A) attend to the stimulus presented
B) respond positively rather than negatively to the stimulus presented
C) are calm, alert, and contented
D) attend to the stimulus presented and are calm, alert, and contented
E) all of these

Question 46

Susan records changes in infants' brain wave activity to determine whether babies can discriminate facial displays of positive and negative emotion. She is relying on ____ to conduct her research

A) naturalistic observation
B) ethnography
C) psychophysiological methods
D) a microgenetic design

Question 47

A serious limitation of ethnography is

A) the small amount of data it yields
B) the artificial nature of the observations one makes
C) that conclusions drawn may not generalize to other samples or populations
D) all of these

Question 48

To study the effect of the teacher's gender on children's scholastic performances, third-graders in a large school are randomly assigned to classes with female teachers or to classes with male teachers. This is a

A) natural (or quasi-) experiment
B) laboratory experiment
C) field experiment
D) naturalistic-observational study

Question 49

One way to establish that a causal relationship obtained in a laboratory experiment has ecological validity is to conduct a follow-up _____ .

A) case study
B) field experiment
C) natural experiment
D) ethnographic study

Question 50

Case study methods may be of limited usefulness for drawing valid conclusions because

A) subjects may report inaccurate information
B) data on different "cases" may not be directly comparable
C) such information may lack generalizability to other groups of people
D) subjects may report inaccurate information and such information may lack generalizability to other groups of people
E) all of these

Question 51

The most important advantage of the experimental method is that it

A) can test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships
B) is the only method that can tell us whether two or more variables are correlated
C) is not subject to any interpretative biases
D) can test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships and is the only method that can tell us whether two or more variable are correlated
E) all of these

Question 52

One of the advantages of naturalistic observation is that

A) it permits the observer to specify the causes of various behaviors he observes
B) it is easier to conduct than a questionnaire study
C) it does not require verbal instructions and can be used to study infants and toddlers
D) all of these

Question 53

_____ is a possible disadvantage of naturalistic-observational research.

A) participants may behave differently when they know they are being observed
B) some interesting but undesirable behaviors of interest are unlikely to be seen by observers in a natural setting
C) the causes of observed behaviors are difficult to pinpoint in observational research
D) all of these

Question 54

The different treatments to which participants are exposed in an experiment represent _____.

A) the dependent variable
B) the independent variable
C) the reliability check
D) the experimenter's attempt at random assignment

Question 55

Suppose you randomly assign one group of children to watch the Discovery Channel and another comparable group of children to watch network television. Two months later, you assess their intellectual performance. The type of TV programming that children watch is your

A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
C) confounding variable
D) criterion variable

Question 56

In order to understand the factors that might promote a superstar athletic status, Dr. Jockman carefully observes, tests, and conducts in-depth interviews with baseball player Barry Bonds, basketball player Shaquille O'Neil, and football player Tom Brady. Jockman was relying on _____.

A) case study research
B) structured-observational research
C) ethnography
D) naturalistic observation

Question 57

In an experiment designed to determine the effects of televised violence on children's aggressive behavior

A) random assignment of children to experimental conditions is not a useful control because children naturally differ in the amounts of TV violence they watch
B) the amount of televised violence children are allowed to view is the dependent variable
C) children's aggressive behaviors are the independent variable
D) none of these

Question 58

Structured observations are useful for

A) ensuring that every participant has an equal opportunity to perform the behavior of interest
B) faithfully reproducing the frequency of behaviors as they might occur in the natural environment
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 59

After weighing and measuring 1000 adults, investigator Jones finds that: "In my sample, weight generally increases as height increases." Jones is describing

A) a negative correlation
B) a positive correlation
C) a causal relationship
D) a negative correlation and a causal relationship
E) none of these

Question 60

Suppose you randomly assign one group of children to watch violent TV programs and other to watch nonviolent programs. You then measure their aggressive behavior on playground after watching these programs. The measure of aggressive behavior is your _____ in this experiment.

A) independent variable
B) dependent variable
C) confounding variable
D) correlating variable

Question 61

Cohort effects are possible in

A) a cross-sectional comparison
B) a sequential comparison
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 62

In 1955, a researcher began a longitudinal study of emotional development from birth to three years of age. In 1985, the same researcher set out to repeat the earlier study. One of the researcher's main concerns should be

A) random assignment of participants to cohorts
B) the distinction between correlation and causation
C) environmental changes between 1955 and 1985 that could affect emotional development
D) locating the original participants

Question 63

At age 4, Billy is more aggressive than Gary, who is more aggressive than Dave. If we wished to determine the stability of aggressiveness over time in these three boys, we would have to conduct a _____.

A) cross-sectional study
B) longitudinal study
C) microgenetic study
D) cross-cultural study

Question 64

A cross-sectional study spanning an age range of four years

A) requires two years to complete
B) yields information comparable to that of a four-year longitudinal study
C) is extremely costly and time-consuming
D) could, in principle, be completed in a single day

Question 65

An investigator who studies the development of aggression by selecting a sample of 2-year-olds and a sample of 4-year-olds and follows them for 5 years to see if they become any more or less aggressive is employing a _____.

A) cross-sectional design
B) cross-cultural design
C) longitudinal design
D) sequential design

Question 66

Natural experiments _____ specify cause-and-effect relationships because _____.

A) can; the study has both an independent and a dependent variable
B) can; the experiment takes place in the natural environment
C) cannot; the experimenter cannot control assignment of subjects to treatments
D) cannot; the natural event to which subjects are exposed (that is, independent variable) may be artificial or contrived

Question 67

You have devised a program aimed at increasing the achievement motivation of grade-school children. Your goal is to determine both the short-term and the lonq-term effects of your program when administered to first-, third-, and fifth-graders. You could obtain the information you need in the least amount of time using

A) a cross-sectional design
B) a longitudinal design
C) a cross-cultural design
D) a sequential design

Question 68

An investigator who studies ethnic differences in achievement by comparing the achievement motivation of African American, White, Hispanic, and Asian American fourth-graders is relying on a _____ design.

A) cross-sectional
B) cross-cultural
C) longitudinal
D) sequential

Question 69

A researcher attempting to study the effects of obstetric (that is, child-birth) medication on the behavior of newborn infants cannot control which newborns will have been exposed to these medications. As a result this study would be

A) a natural (or quasi-) experiment
B) a case study
C) a field experiment
D) of little scientific merit

Question 70

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of interview, case study, and clinical methods.

Question 71

We can feel most confident about the conclusions we draw about social and personality development when these insights stem from

A) naturalistic observations
B) laboratory experiments
C) field experiments
D) natural experiments
E) converging evidence from two or more methods

Question 72

Because participants of different ages in a cross-sectional study are from different cohorts,

A) cross-generational problems can be eliminated
B) no information is obtained about the development of individual children
C) the cross-sectional method is the best way to study individual differences in development
D) the cross-sectional comparison is an experimental rather than a correlational method

Question 73

Rick observes 15 nonwalking 11-month-olds on a daily basis by standing them up to see when each takes his or her first step. Rick is relying on a ________ design.

A) cross-sectional
B) longitudinal
C) sequential
D) microgenetic

Question 74

Cross-cultural comparisons are extremely useful because they can

A) point to universals in human development
B) illustrate that certain aspects of a person's development can be understood only within the context of his or her cultural environment
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 75

One advantage that the microgenetic design has over cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential designs is that it _____ .

A) is a more valid assessment of the developmental changes that children experience.
B) is better suited for specifying precisely how or why developmental changes might occur
C) both of these
D) none of these

Question 76

Compare and contrast the doctrines of "original sin," "innate purity," and "tabula rasa."

Question 77

To compare the TV-viewing habits of 4th-, 6th-, and 8th- graders, Susan asks students from each grade to list their three favorite TV programs. This research design is an example of _____.

A) cross-sectional research
B) longitudinal research
C) sequential research
D) cross-cultural research

Question 78

A researcher who studies children intensively over a brief period to observe developmental changes as they occur is relying on a

A) microgenetic design
B) cross-sectional design
C) longitudinal design
D) sequential design

Question 79

An advantage of longitudinal research is its _____; a disadvantage is its _____.

A) data on the development of individuals; high cost
B) tight control; low reliability
C) speed; expense
D) low cost; cross-generational problems

Question 80

An investigator tests 100 children at the beginning of a longitudinal study and then follows up on his subjects, testing the 50 he can locate 5 years later. The fact that only half the original sample can now be located is a(n)_____ because _____.

A) advantage; the possibility of cohort effects is lessened
B) advantage; the research costs less to complete
C) disadvantage; the study is subject to cross-generational problems
D) disadvantage; any conclusions drawn may be based on a non?-representative sample