Chapter 11 Test Yourself Flashcards
What would best express the meaning of the phrase “nature versus nurture”?
Genetics versus experience
Two researchers are interested in the development of reading comprehension. Dr.Vargas conducts a study comparing the reading comprehension of a group of 6-year-olds with that of a separate group of 10-year-olds. Dr. Byrne conducts a study tracking the reading comprehension abilities of a group of 6-year-olds over the course of four years. Dr. Vargas’s study uses a _____ design, and Dr. Byrne’s study uses a ______ design.
Cross-sectional; longitudinal
T/F: the brain begins to develop relatively late in prenatal development during the fetal stage
False
What does it mean when we say cigarette smoke is a teratogen?
Cigarette smoke is an environmental toxin that can interfere with development
When newborn infants with heterosexual parents listen to their mother’s voice, they tend to suck more vigorously on a pacifier than when they hear another woman’s voice or even the voice of their own father. What does this demonstrate?
Babies are capable of learning while still in the womb
Given the general rules of motor development, what would you expect a child to master first?
Sitting without support
Three-year-old Michael, who is visiting the park, watches a group of children eating cake next to a pile of presents. He also watches as they prepare to hit a piñata with a stick. Although he has never seen a piñata before, he points to the scene and says “birthday” to his father. What did Piaget call the process that Michael has just illustrated?
Assimilation
A 6-month-old baby, watching an object disappear beneath a blanket, will typically make no attempt to lift the blanket or otherwise retrieve the object. What did Jean Piaget conclude from this phenomenon?
Infants do not realize that hidden objects continue to exist.
A one-year-old infant is at the park with her mother when an older child approaches whom the infant doesn’t know. The infant quickly turns to look at her mother’s face. What is probably going on?
The infant wants to see how her mother is reacting to the new child.
In experiments conducted by Harry and Margaret Harlow in the late 1950s, infant monkeys showed a clear preference for an artificial
“surrogate mother” that gave no milk but was covered in soft terry cloth, over a bare wire surrogate that gave milk. What, according to the Harlows, did the infant monkeys gain from the cloth, milk-less surrogate?
a greater sense of emotional security
A parent leaves her child with a new babysitter. The child becomes distressed as soon as the parent leaves. When the parent returns, the child cries and runs to her to be picked up, but then immediately slaps her and struggles to get back down. To which attachment pattern does this behavior correspond?
insecure/ambivalent attachment
In a study, 2½-year-old children had trouble inferring the location of a toy hidden in a room after seeing a miniature toy placed in the same location in a scale model of the room. Which maneuver by the researchers would have improved the children’s performance?
placing the model out of reach behind a glass partition
When 3-year-old children are asked to sort a set of cards based on either the color or the shape of the object shown on the card, which aspect would you expect the children struggle with?
sorting by one criterion and then sorting by the other one
What did Jean Piaget mean when he said that the thinking of young children is egocentric?
Young children cannot see the world from the perspective of another person
Under what circumstance would a parent’s attempt to use Vgotsky’s concept of scaffolding be the most effective?
When it allows a child to feel challenged without feeling overwhelmed
Leila is four years old and identifies herself as a “girl.” When invited by a friend to play with a toy trainset, she says she doesn’t want to because “that’s for boys.” A few years later, Leila still identifies as a girl but is happy to play in less gender-stereotypical ways. What concept has Leila developed that allows her to view gender more flexibly?
Gender constancy
Which evidence most strongly suggests that some parenting styles are generally better for children than others?
Parenting style and child outcomes are demonstrably correlated
Which scientific finding was the basis of a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the death penalty for 16-year-olds?
The decision-making portions of a teenager’s brain do not work like an adult’s
A driver accidentally dents a neighbor’s car. The damage is minor and the neighbor might not even have noticed it, but the driver decides to tell the neighbor and offers to pay repair costs. What explanation for the decision would, according to Lawrence Kohlberg, would represent the final, most mature stage of development?
“It’s only right. If someone dented my car, it’s what I would want them do to.”
What does a person’s “social identity” consist of?
The social groups to which the person belongs
Which two tasks, according to Erik Erikson, are the two major challenges of adulthood?
To build a romantic partnership and to make a difference in the world
During which years is a person’s fluid intelligence (the ability to deal with new and unusual problems) at its highest level?
Ages 21 to 30
Which form of activity has been shown to counteract age-related decline in cognitive functioning?
Physical exercise
What did Erik Erikson consider the final task in a person’s life? He called this the challenge of achieving integrity
Answering the question “what has my life meant?”
T/F: despite differences in focus, developmental psychologists ask two central and unifying questions about the nature of psychological change across the life span
True
What development happens in stages and what happens continuously?
Qualitative development happens in stages while quantitative development happens continuously
What are the effects of nature and nurture on development?
Development requires both, and nature and nurture require each other
What are the two challenges psychologists experience when studying development?
- Measures that work well for assessing one age group may not work for another age group
- Psychologists can choose from several research methods for making comparisons across the life span, each with advantages and disadvantages
T/F: cross-sectional design cannot help us understand which abilities develop at certain points in the life span
False, they can
What type of design tracks individuals at different time points and looks for differences across those time points?
Longitudinal
What type of design is this an example of: comparing the reading comprehension of 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds and then testing these groups again in 10 years
Sequential
What type of design is this an example of: comparing 6-month-olds, 12-mont-olds, and 18-month-olds on some test of language comprehension
Cross-sectional
T/F: development is a process that begins at birth
False, tremendous changes occur in your body, brain, and abilities long before you take you first breath
How many pairs of chromosomes does a zygote typically contain?
23
What is the purpose of the placenta?
To pass nutrients and oxygen from parent to offspring and to allow the waste products to pass out of the offspring through the parent
What are the three parts that the neural tube will develop into?
Spinal cord/brainstem/cerebellum, midbrain, and forebrain
What provides a rough ”writing diagram”?
Genes
At what week of development do the eyes of the fetus open?
26 weeks
What happens during development that leads to Down syndrome?
An extra copy of chromosome 21 from either the egg or sperm
T/F: X-rays are an example of a teratogen
True
What disorder is caused by prenatal exposure to smoking, drinking, and marijuana use?
ADHD
Prenatal exposure to the influenza virus leads to what disorder?
Schizophrenia
At what distance do infants prefer to look at objects?
8-12 inches away from their face
During what year of life do infants learn to crawl, sit, stand, and often walk?
The first year of life
What are the two general rules in which infant’s motor skills develop?
From the head to the feet and from the center of the body outward.
T/F: experience plays an important role in the trajectory of motor development
True
What did Piaget believe newborns started life with?
A few schemas that are related to their built-in reflexes
At what stage do children learn that objects continue to exist even when they are hidden?
Sensorimotor
At what stage are children able to use their imagination to solve complex problems, but they are able to apply this thinking only to concrete objects or events?
Concrete operational
At what stage can children classify objects, but only according to a single feature, such as color or shape?
Preoperational
At what stage can adolescents reason about abstract problems and hypothetical propositions?
Formal operational
T/F: Piaget views children as self-driven learners
True
At what age do infants show some understanding of the physical rules for objects?
2 months
T/F: the nervous system is very organized at birth
False, it is relatively disorganized
What are the areas of the brain that are fastest to mature?
Those that process sensory information
What do babies rely on for guidance in new situations?
Other people
T/F: monkeys that were left in total isolation during development were incapable of mating
True
What type of attachment is linked to fewer behavioral problems?
Secure
What type of temperament is associated with insecure attachment?
Irritable temperament
What is an indication of children’s symbolic schemas?
Imaginative play
In the context of conservation, which glass would a child in the preoperational stage would think has more water even when they both have an equal amount: a tall thin glass or a short wide glass?
Tall thin glass
What did the “dot test” prove?
That children younger than 18 months don’t have a sense of “self” separated from others
What age do children begin to show empathy for others’ emotions?
2 years old
What does Vygotsky mean when he says that children are little apprentices?
They discover the world with the guidance of knowledgeable others
T/F: recent research suggests that language scaffolds children’s thinking in many areas, including their understanding of other minds
True
What is it called when new babies are expected by those around them to develop as cisgender?
Gender-based expectations
What do gender-based expectations form?
Part of a child’s gender socialization
Who plays an important role in a child’s gender socialization?
Parents
T/F: it is impossible for children to begin expressing dissatisfaction with their sex assignment before the age of 5
False, some children begin identifying with a different gender as young as 2 years of age
What parenting style expects absolute obedience?
Authoritarian
What parenting style establishes clear rules and structure while explaining their reasoning for doing so?
Authoritative
What parenting style imposes few rules and responsibilities while having parents who are relatively insensitive to their child’s needs?
Disengaged
What parenting style involves being warm and attentive while setting few rules and expectations?
Permissve
What is the best parenting style?
Authoritative
Female puberty begins at age ___ while male puberty begins at age ___
11;13
What is a predictor for earlier puberty?
Higher levels of body fat and rates of weight gain early in childhood
What stage in Kohlberg’s theory of morality would someone only believe something is wrong if you get caught doing it?
Preconventional
What stage in Kohlberg’s theory of morality would someone believe something is wrong because it hurts someone or simply because it violates a law?
Conventional
What stage in Kohlberg’s theory of morality would someone believe something is wrong because it violates an essential human right?
Postconventional
Do higher levels of moral reasoning correspond to more moral behavior?
Some evidence suggests they do
What psychological crisis would occur during infancy?
Trust vs mistrust
What psychological crisis would occur during early childhood?
Autonomy vs shame and doubt
What psychological crisis would occur during preschool?
Initiative vs guit
What psychological crisis would occur during school age?
Competence vs inferiority
What psychological crisis would occur during adolescence?
Identity vs role confusion
What psychological crisis would occur during early adulthood?
Intimacy vs isolation
What psychological crisis would occur during middle age?
Generativity vs stagnation
What psychological crisis would occur during later years?
Integrity vs despair
Does marriage bring the joys that people expect it to?
Yes, on average married people live longer, make more money, and generally report being happier than unmarried people
What percentage of people have, plan to have, or wish to have children?
90 percent
At around what age does menopause begin?
50 years old
What does deterioration of the frontal lobe lead to?
Deterioration in fluid intelligence
What type of general intelligence increases with age?
Crystallized intelligence
What are key predictors of successful aging?
Early life experiences
People with higher levels of education, or who work more-complex jobs, are less likely to develop what disease?
Alzheimer’s disease
What impact does physical exercise have on the brain?
It is shown to boost growth of new neurons in the hippocampus
T/F: people reported feeling more depressed up to the mid-60s
False, positive emotions increase up to the mid-60, at which point they leveled off
How do older adults control their emotions?
By thinking and behaving in ways that increase or maintain positive emotional experiences
What is associated with less anxiety before death?
Greater social support
What do people achieve when they are able to find meaning in the lives they have lived?
Integrity
What did Jung believe in?
the collective unconscious, archetypes, and that Children are closer to the collective unconscious (e.g., “I am
superman, coming to rescue the world!”)
Why did Carl Jung believe that children were closer to the collective unconsciousness?
many of their tendencies during play are expressed via archetype (for example, “I’m a knight going to fight a dragon and save the kingdom!”).
“The hero” is an example of what?
An archetype. It is a theme that is present throughout history in myth, literature, and art.
What are the two main questions that face developmental scientists?
whether development is continuous or discontinuous (i.e., happens gradually vs. happens in separate stages), and
whether development is influenced by nurture or nature (i.e., environment vs. genetics).
When does childhood end and adolescence begin?
Most developmental scientist say puberty
When do people say adolescence ends? Is this accurate?
18, and may not be accurate due to the brain not completing development
What brain structure activates puberty?
Pituitary gland
T/F: early maturation in males has positive effects
True
What does maturation of the prefrontal cortex lead to?
Increased capacity for complex problem solving and GREATER sensitivity to reward (dopamine!)
What age does the prefrontal cortex typically finish developing?
25
What Factors may influence how someone “morally reasons”?
Culture, Individual, Relatability
What factors might be driving the trend of delayed parenting?
Money, School, Career, Culture
What theory of development did Freud develop?
Psychodynamic theory
What three types of mind did Freud propose we have?
Conscious mind, preconscious mind, unconscious mind
What techniques did Freud use in his psychodynamic practice?
Free association and dream analysis
Freud’s lasting contributions
Notion of the unconscious mind, emphasis on early childhood environments as predictors of long-term outcomes, psychodynamic symptoms, and the talking cure (start of modern psychotherapy)
What did Erik Erickson believe our well-being is dependent upon?
One’s capacity to handle conflicts during each stage of life as they arise
What did Bronfenbrenner believe?
You are an active participant in your own development
What did William James do?
He was a ghost hunter
According to Freud, which component of the mind operates entirely on the unconscious?
The Id
Anna Freud proposed a variety of “defense mechanisms” that people deploy when confronted with conflict in their lives. Of the mechanisms introduced, which appears to have the least support in recent research?
Repression
Freud is credited with popularizing many ideas that, before the publication of his theories, were not widespread. Which of the following is an important example of something Freud advocated that is still widely accepted by psychologists?
People who are distressed can benefit from talking to a professional about their feelings
