Chapter 1: Introduction to Child and Adolescent Development

Chapter 1: Introduction to Child and Adolescent Development

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1.Bidirectionality of structure and function refers to

a. / an organism’s being capable of using either hand or foot.
b. / genetic determinism.
c. / the interaction of the functional invariants of assimilation and accommodation with cognitive
schemas.
d. / structure (e.g., biological substrate) affecting function (e.g., activity) and function affecting
structure.

ANS:DREF:11OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

2.A hallmark of experimental studies is

a. / the manipulation of time in the presentation of the materials to the subject.
b. / the manipulation of only one variable as often as possible to determine the effects of that
variable.
c. / the manipulation of every variable at each stage of the experiment.
d. / the manipulation of one or more factors and observation of how these manipulations change
the behavior under investigation.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

KEY:WWW

3.If a researcher found, in a correlational study, that an increase in one factor resulted in an

increase of the same magnitude in another factor, the correlation, or r, would be

a. / -1.0. / c. / 0.5.
b. / 0.0. / d. / +1.0.

ANS:DREF:31OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent

4.The ability to assess changes within an individual over time is a major benefit of the

______design.

a. / longitudinal / c. / correlational
b. / experimental / d. / clinical

ANS:AREF:34

OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

5.A ______is a group of people born in a specified, limited span of years whose

common experiences might influence their performances in developmental research.

a. / cohort / c. / population
b. / cross-section / d. / sample

ANS:AREF:35

OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

6.Theorists who propose that people progress through discrete, developmental stages believe in

a. / an intrinsically active child. / c. / discontinuity of development.
b. / an intrinsically passive child. / d. / continuity of development.

ANS:CREF:14OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

7.Which of the following terms refers to development of the individual over the course of his or her

lifetime?

a. / ontogeny / c. / microgenesis
b. / phylogeny / d. / maturation

ANS:AREF:5OBJ:Concepts in Developmental Psychology

8.Genetic determinism implies that

a. / genetic variation is the basis for determinant thinking.
b. / behavior is caused by the interaction of genes and environment.
c. / culture determines all of behavior.
d. / genes determine behavior.

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9.In naturalistic observations, the researcher

a. / interviews participants one-on-one. / c. / sets up a specific environment.
b. / intervenes as little as possible. / d. / begins a case study.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

10.The focus of developmental psychology is changes in

a. / psychological characteristics that occur over a lifetime.
b. / developmental theories.
c. / data collection and analysis.
d. / the way in which case studies are developed.

ANS:AREF:5OBJ:Concepts in Developmental Psychology

11.Many developmental psychologists believe that childhood is a(n) ______concept.

a. / irrelevant / c. / modern
b. / outdated / d. / complicated

ANS:CREF:7OBJ:A Brief History of Childhood

12.Members of the Child Study Movement believed that developmental psychology should be applied to children

a. / throughout their lives. / c. / in a theoretical way.
b. / in a practical way. / d. / in research studies.

ANS:BREF:10OBJ:A Brief History of Childhood

13.Children are said to be in a stage when their behavior is ______different from the behavior of children in earlier or later stages.

a. / quantitively / c. / quantifiably
b. / qualitatively / d. / correlationally

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14.Researchers whose principal concern is with individual differences have a(n) ______approach.

a. / idiographic / c. / simplistic
b. / metamorphic / d. / rationalistic

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15.John Locke is the philosophical grandfather of

a. / performationism. / c. / determinism.
b. / empiricism. / d. / parsimony.

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16.Which of the following is most useful for obtaining information that cannot ethically be obtained otherwise?

a. / questionnaires / c. / case studies
b. / observational studies / d. / standardized tests

ANS:CREF:28

OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

17.______is the emergence of new structures and functions during the course of

development.

a. / Epigenisis / c. / Mutation
b. / Evolution / d. / Adaptation

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18.Some human behavior appears to be “instinctive” because humans inherit _____ as well as a species-typical genome.

a. / innate behaviors / c. / a maternal attachment
b. / gene expression / d. / a species-typical environment

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KEY:WW

19.A ______is the time in development when a skill is most easily attained.

a. / transitional period
b sensitive period
b. / stage
c. / function

ANS:BREF:20OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

20.____ is to the extent to which a measurement accurately assesses what it purports to measure.

a. / Validity / c. / Parsimony
b. / Reliability / d. / Variability

ANS:AREF:22

OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

21.Which of the following involves assessing children over relatively short intervals, usually days or weeks?

a. / experimental studies / c. / case studies
b. / observational studies / d. / microgenetic studies

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

22.Which of the following is not a major problem of conducting research with school-age children?

a. / Researchers must comply with school schedules.
b. / Researchers have difficulty formulating a research plan.
c. / Researchers need approval from a number of different people.
d. / Some children are unwilling to participate.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

23.______includes changes in processes involved with thinking, such as perception, attention, consciousness, memory, intelligence, problem solving, and language.

a. / Physical development / c. / Cognitive development
b. / Psychomotor development / d. / Socioemotional development

ANS:CREF:5OBJ:Concepts in Developmental Psychology

24.During the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and Europe, children

a. / were killed as sacrifices.
b. / worked long hours in factories.
c. / were required to attend school.
d. / were punished for crimes the same way as adults were.

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25.Many developmental psychologists today collaborate with experts in various fields of

a. / biology. / c. / botany.
b. / physics. / d. / orthopedics.

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OBJ:A Brief History of Developmental Psychology as a Science

26.If a characteristic is _____, a child’s rank in relation to his or her peers essentially stays the same over time.

a. / plastic / c. / stable
b. / erratic / d. / innate

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KEY:WW

27.A cause is endogenous if it is caused by

a. / experience. / c. / nurture.
b. / reinforcement. / d. / nature.

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28.Which of the following does a developmental psychologist not try to integrate in the study of child and adolescent development?

a. / infanticide / c. / a sociocultural perspective
b. / developmental contextualism / d. / evolutionary theory

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OBJ:A Brief History of Developmental Psychology as a Science

29.The modern concept of childhood is a(n) _____ invention.

a. / Western / c. / abstract
b. / worldwide / d. / African

ANS:AREF:9OBJ:A Brief History of Childhood

30.When was the first U.S. federal law passed regulating the minimum age and number of hours per week that children could work?

a. / in the 1850s / c. / in the 1930s
b. / in the 1880s / d. / in the 1960s

ANS:CREF:9OBJ:A Brief History of Childhood

31.Development always occurs within a(n) ______context.

a. / social / c. / objective
b. / isolated / d. / historical

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OBJ:A Brief History of Developmental Psychology as a Science

32.Kagan’s belief that experience early in life is critical and nonreversible in the establishment of certain aspects of social and intellectual behavior is called the ______model of development.

a. / genes–environment / c. / tabula rasa
b. / tape recorder / d. / early childhood

ANS:AREF:12OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

33.The ability to change as a result of experience is called

a. / discontinuity. / c. / internal validity.
b. / attachment. / d. / plasticity.

ANS:DREF:12OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

34.One weakness of using ______to collect data is that self-reporting can be biased.

a. / questionnaires / c. / structured interviews
b. / observational studies / d. / case studies

ANS:AREF:24

OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

35.Pellegrini and Long’s research into middle-school children’s “push and poke courtship” behavior is an example of

a. / structured observation. / c. / contextual observation.
b. / naturalistic observation. / d. / standardized observation.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

36.Why is it that some information about children can be ethically collected only by case studies?

a. / It is not acceptable to question children about painful experiences.
b. / Only psychiatrists are licensed to conduct case studies.
c. / Case studies often document extreme conditions that would be cruel to set up.
d. / Case studies often involve punishment for children who are unwilling to participate.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

37.The term ______in psychology refers to the empirical study of a topic.

a. / research / c. / experiment
b. / observation / d. / variable

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

38.Truly scientific experiments require that participants be ______assigned to the different experimental conditions.

a. / selectively / c. / temporarily
b. / sequentially / d. / randomly

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

KEY:WW

39.Which of the following would not be an example of a group case study?

a. / children who survived a hurricane in a specific area
b. / children who took a standardized test in a classroom
c. / children who were raised in an orphanage
d. / children who were sexually abused

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

40.The greatest weakness of a cross-sectional study is

a. / that it requires much time and is expensive.
b. / that there is significant participant loss.
c. / that it cannot assess change in one person over time.
d. / that it does not focus on a single topic of development.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

41.If it is true that boys are less likely than girls to have their parents sign permission slips, this could create the problem of ______a psychological study.

a. / obtaining a representative sample for
b. / obtaining permission to conduct
c. / the ethics of conducting
d. / children’s compliance with the guidelines of

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

42.For which of the following would the microgenetic method be most useful?

a. / observing children in their natural environment
b. / correcting behavioral problems
c. / describing changes over a long period of time
d. / assessing spelling strategies

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

43.One ethical consideration that is necessary in conducting research with children is

a. / making sure that incentives are generous.
b. / informing children about aspects of the research.
c. / including the names of all children in written research records.
d. / informing children’s parents about the results of the research.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

44.What is the best way to obtain children as participants for research?

a. / advertising in local newspapers
b. / contacting relatives and friends who have children
c. / contacting local schools
d. / circulating flyers in different neighborhoods

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

45.Because it is rooted biology, development is ______, but because of individual differences, development is also ______.

a. / predictable; variable / c. / stable; plastic
b. / variable; predictable / d. / plastic; stable

ANS:AREF:5OBJ:Concepts in Developmental Psychology

46.What was outlawed in Europe in the 1600s?

a. / child labor / c. / child abandonment
b. / child prostitution / d. / orphanages

ANS:CREF:6OBJ:A Brief History of Childhood

47.Why do some researchers believe that contemporary childhood has moved backward?

a. / because children today are often spoiled by their parents
b. / because children today are under too much pressure to succeed
c. / because children spend so much time being unsupervised
d. / because TV has made children privy to adult issues

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48.All 192 countries that are members of the United Nations ratified The Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 except Somalia and ______

a. / the United States. / c. / Brazil.
b. / France. / d. / China.

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49.After World War I, European psychologists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Wallon, and Werner placed the most emphasis for child development on

a. / applying it in practical ways.
b. explaining it in theoretical ways.
b. / developing case studies.
c. / genetic influences.

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OBJ:A Brief History of Developmental Psychology as a Science

50.The nature/nurture issue is essentially the interaction of

a. / genetics and heredity. / c. / culture and family.
b. / society and the individual. / d. / biology and experience.

ANS:DREF:16OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

KEY:WW

51.A ______best represents qualitatively different stages in the life of a single animal.

a. / monkey / c. / human
b. / butterfly / d. / snake

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52.The concept that change from one style of behaving or thinking to another is relatively abrupt is called

a. / discontinuity of development. / c. / disruption of development.
b. / continuity of development. / d. / evolution of development.

ANS:AREF:14OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

KEY:WWW

53.____ is often viewed as the major cause of individual differences in patterns of development.

a. / Personality / c. / Culture
b. / Prenatal development / d. / Family structure

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54.Most developmental psychologists today are

a. / nativists. / c. / interactionists.
b. / genetic determinists. / d. / creationists.

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55.Gottlieb’s research showed that ducklings respond to their mothers’ calls because of ______

a. / heredity / c. / mimicry
b. / instinct / d. / auditory experience

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56.What explains why infants and children more easily make sense of faces and sounds than other things, such as lists of words?

a. / Infants and children learn the easiest things first, and then progress to harder tasks.
b. / Specific parts of the brain are limited to processing a narrow range of information.
c. / The brain and learning mechanisms can perform many tasks at once.
d. / There are no constraints on learning to make sense of faces and language.

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57.The results of even the most interesting study might be of little use, depending on

a. / how the results are interpreted.
b. / whether or not the scientific community agrees with the results.
c. / how the study was conducted.
d. / what the independent variable were.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

58.Which of the following is the correct historical order of the different levels of analysis of developmental phenomena?

a. / sociohistory ? phylogeny ? ontogeny / c. / ontogeny ? phylogeny ? sociohistory
b. / phylogeny ? sociohistory ?ontogeny / d. / ontogeny ? sociohistory ? phylogeny

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OBJ:A Brief History of Developmental Psychology as a Science

59.______is the extent to which a test or measurement represents all facets of a given concept.

a. / Internal validity / c. / Face validity
b. / External validity / d. / Content validity

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

60.Which of the following is most useful for generating hypothesis for future experimental testing?

a. / clinical interviews / c. / observational studies
b. / questionnaires / d. / structured interviews

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

61.In a study of aggression in preschool children, each of three groups regularly saw one of three types of TV shows: aggressive programs (such as “Batman”), prosocial programs (“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”), and neutral programs (such as Disney nature films). Aggressive behavior was then assessed. What was the dependent variable?

a. / the type of TV show / c. / the number of groups of children
b. / the children’s level of aggression / d. / the age of the children

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

KEY:WW

62.Humans emerged as a species about ______years ago.

a. / 2 billion / c. / 2 million
b. / 20 million / d. / 200,000

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

63.In a study of the development of social skills, a group of children were tested every other year for 6 years. This was a ______study.

a. / cross-sectional study / c. / longitudinal study
b. / horizontal study / d. / case study

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

64.Modern developmental psychologists realize that development is more _____ than was once believed.

a. / stable / c. / instinctual
b. / plastic / d. / complicated

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65.Teenagers who have been raised in severely disadvantaged homes yet have no serious problems have the characteristic of

a. / competency. / c. / sociability.
b. / intelligence. / d. / resiliency.

ANS:DREF:13OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

66.Which of the following is an example of a stage in human development?

a. / learning to speak
b. childhood
b. / adulthood
c. / puberty

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67.After about 8 months, infants exhibit ______, understanding that even when an object is out of their sight, it still exists.

a. / object attachment / c. / logic
b. / object permanence / d. / discontinuity

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68.Psychologists who adopt an idiographic approach are most interested in

a. / behavior that is typical. / c. / behavior that is individual.
b. / behavior that is extreme. / d. / behavior that is new.

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

69.Which of the following is most easily acquired during a sensitive time in development?

a. / learning a new sport
b. / learning a language
c. / learning new methods of mathematical calculations
d. / learning concepts of mechanics

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70.Which of the following must be included for a scientific observation to be objective?

a. / the observer’s personal beliefs
b. / the observer’s emotions
c. / the observers prior expectations
d. / the observer’s skill at knowing what is clearly observable

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

71.The time boundaries for a critical period are ______than they are for a sensitive period.

a. / closer together / c. / wider
b. / farther apart / d. / narrower

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KEY:WW

72.Which of the following is not likely to be included on a questionnaire designed to collect data about children’s behavior?

a. / peer nominations / c. / self-reporting
b. / a measure of IQ / d. / descriptions of behaviors

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OBJ:Research Methods in Child and Adolescent Development

73.Non-stage theorists believe that development changes qualitatively and

a. / gradually over time. / c. / in unpredictable ways.
b. / in distinct stages. / d. / quantitatively.

ANS:AREF:14-15OBJ:Themes and Issues in Developmental Psychology

74.Watching what toddlers do in a daycare center when they are on their own is an example of

a. / a case study. / c. / an observational study.
b. / a cross-sectional study. / d. / a clinical study.

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