EPPP Practice Questions: Lifespan Big 6

Question 1

Blond hair, green eyes, and unattached earlobes are due to a recessive gene. For a child
to exhibit one of these traits, he/she must be __________with regard to that gene.
a. homozygous
b. heterozygous
c. monozygotic
d. dizygotic

Answer 1

a. homozygous
When a trait is due to a dominant gene, an offspring will manifest the trait if he/she inherits
only a single dominant gene from one parent. In contrast, when a trait is due to a recessive
gene, an offspring will manifest the trait only if he/she inherits the recessive gene from both
parents (i.e., only when he/she is homoyzygous with regard to that gene).

Question 2

____________ syndrome is also known as XXY syndrome and is a chromosomal
abnormality that affects male sexual development.
a. Klinefelter
b. Turner
c. Gerstmann
d. Prader-Willi

Answer 2

a. Klinefelter
Klinefelter syndrome occurs in males and is due to the presence of two or more X
chromosomes along with a single Y chromosome. Symptoms include smaller-than-normal
genitalia, the development of breasts during puberty, infertility, long legs with a short trunk,
and, in some cases, learning disabilities and behavioral problems.

Question 3

The most consistent evidence of neurogenesis in the adult human brain has been
obtained for which of the following?
a. thalamus
b. hippocampus
c. mammillary bodies
d. reticular formation

Answer 3

b. hippocampus
There is consistent evidence that neurogenesis continues throughout the lifespan in the
hippocampus and olfactory bulb. (See, e.g., P. S. Erikkson et al., Neurogenesis in the adult
human hippocampus, Nature Medicine, 4, 1313-1317, 1998.) There have also been some
reports of postnatal neurogenesis in certain area of the cortex and a few other areas of the
brain, but these findings have not been consistently replicated.

Question 4

From the perspective of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, the microsystem refers to:

a. the womb.
b. the child him/herself.
c. the child’s parents, teachers, and classmates.
d. the child’s neighborhood and community.

Answer 4

c. the child’s parents, teachers, and classmates
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model distinguishes between the microsystem, mesosystem,
exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. The former is the child’s immediate setting and
includes the child’s family and school.

Question 5

For Vygotsky, the “zone of proximal development” represents the difference between:

a. what a child can accomplish alone and what he/she can accomplish with help.
b. the child’s comprehension and production of language.
c. the individual’s current situation and his/her stated life goals.
d. what the child knows how to do and what he/she actually does.

Answer 5

a. what a child can accomplish alone and what he/she can accomplish with help
The zone of proximal development is central to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development.
This response best describes what it represents.

Question 6

According to Piaget, children do not gain a true understanding of addition and
subtraction until they are about ___ years of age.
a. 3
b. 5
c. 7
d. 11

Answer 6

c. 7
Piaget proposed that it is not until the concrete operational stage (ages 7 to 11) that children
are capable of mental operations, which are logical rules for transforming and manipulating
information. He believed that children younger than age 7 could be taught to memorize
simple math facts (e.g., 2 plus 2 equals 4) but that children must be in the concrete
operational stage before they are able to truly understand addition and subtraction.

Question 7

As described by Piaget, horizontal decalage refers to:

a. the inability to understand that others have a different perspective.
b. the inability to recognize that actions can be reversed.
c. the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of other aspects.
d. the progressive acquisition of related skills within the same stage of development.

Answer 7

d. the progressive acquisition of related skills within the same stage of development.
Piaget found that children acquire related skills in a predictable order – e.g., they conserve
number and mass first, followed by weight and volume. He concluded that this horizontal
decalage occurs because tasks that appear to be similar actually differ in complexity.

Question 8

When his mother’s car doesn’t start, 4-year-old Freddie says,“the car is sick.” As
described by Piaget, Freddie’s statement illustrates which of the following?
a. scaffolding
b. symbolic thought
c. animism
d. decentration

Answer 8

c. animism
Animism is characteristic of the preoperational stage and is the belief that inanimate objects
have lifelike characteristics.

Question 9

Which of the following aspects of memory is likely to show the greatest age-related
decline?
a. sensory memory
b. implicit memory
c. recent long-term memory
d. remote long-term memory

Answer 9

c. recent long-term memory
Recent long-term (secondary) memory is usually most affected by increasing age, followed by
working memory. The other aspects of memory listed in the answers are relatively unaffected
by normal aging.

Question 10

As described by Kohlberg, gender identity development involves three stages that occur
in which of the following orders?
a. stability, constancy, identity
b. constancy, stability, identity
c. identity, constancy, stability
d. identity, stability, constancy

Answer 10

d. identity, stability, constancy
According to Kohlberg, a child recognizes that he/she is a boy/girl by age three (gender
identity). Later the child realizes that gender is stable over time (stability) and, by age 7, that
gender is constant across different situations (constancy).

Question 11

The “goodness-of-fit” model proposed by Thomas and Chess predicts that:
a. marital satisfaction is related to the complementarity of personality characteristics of
the spouses.
b. child maladjustment is related to incompatibility between the child’s temperament
and the parents’ caregiving behaviors.
c. cognitive development is maximized when environmental demands are just beyond the
child’s current abilities.
d. an adolescent’s misbehavior is due to a mismatch between his/her identity and the
parents’ expectations and goals.

Answer 11

b. child maladjustment is related to incompatibility between the child’s temperament and
the parents’ caregiving behaviors
Thomas and Chess have written extensively on infant temperament and have related
maladjustment in children to a lack of fit between the child’s temperament and
characteristics of the environment, especially the parents’ behaviors.

Question 12

Research by Diana Baumrind found that children and adolescents whose parents were
_____________ were most likely to be antisocial, use drugs and alcohol, and achieve low
scores on cognitive tests.
a. low in control and low in warmth
b. low in control and high in warmth
c. high in control and low in warmth
d. high in control and high in warmth

Answer 12

a. low in control and low in warmth
Baumrind (1991) distinguished between four parenting styles based on level of control and
warmth. As defined by Baumrind, rejecting/neglecting parents are low in both control and
warmth, and her research found that children of these parents have the worst outcomes –
e.g., they are often antisocial, use drugs and alcohol, and obtain low scores on measures of
cognitive ability.

Question 13

A 15-year-old says she is going to be a veterinarian because that’s what her parents
want her to be. This illustrates:
a. identity moratorium.
b. identity diffusion.
c. identity achievement.
d. identity foreclosure.

Answer 13

d. identity foreclosure
An individual exhibiting identity foreclosure has adopted an identity that has been suggested
by a parent or other influential person.

Question 14

Babbling ordinarily begins at about 4 to 5 months of age and initially includes:

a. phonemes from all languages.
b. phonemes from the child’s native language only.
c. morphemes from all languages.
d. morphemes that the child has heard most frequently.

Answer 14

a. phonemes from all languages.
Babbling involves the repetition of vowel and consonant sounds – e.g., bi-bi-bi and da-da-da.
It initially consists of phonemes from all languages; but, by about 9 months, it narrows to
include the sounds of the child’s native language only.

Question 15

The use of two words to express a complete sentence is referred to as:

a. telegraphic speech.
b. holophrastic speech.
c. overextension.
d. underextension.

Answer 15

a. telegraphic speech
The use of two words to express a sentence (e.g., “more juice” for “give me more juice”) is
referred to as telegraphic speech.

Question 16

In Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, a one-year-old child shows little distress when her
mother leaves the room and ignores her when she returns. Most likely, this mother is:
a. neglectful or physically abusive.
b. depressed.
c. impatient or overstimulating.
d. a single parent.

Answer 16

c. impatient or overstimulating
Research by Ainsworth and her colleagues has found that babies exhibiting an
insecure/avoidant attachment pattern often have mothers who are either very impatient and
nonresponsive or overstimulating.

Question 17

Young victims of child abuse are most likely to exhibit which of the following patterns
of attachment in the Strange Situation?
a. disorganized
b. disengaged
c. avoidant
d. ambivalent

Answer 17

a. disorganized
Main, a student of Ainsworth, found that about 80% of abused children exhibit a
disorganized-disoriented attachment pattern in the “strange situation.”

Question 18

You decide to develop an intervention for highly aggressive children and their parents.
If your intervention is heavily influenced by the work of Patterson and his colleagues, it will
focus on which of the following?
a. providing children with assertiveness training
b. providing children with opportunities for catharsis
c. improving parents’ child management skills
d. increasing the family’s social and community support

Answer 18

c. improving parents’ child management skills
Patterson’s coercive family interaction model stresses the impact of parental behavior and
parent-child interactions on the development of highly aggressive behavior in children, and
his parent management training focuses on teaching parents better disciplinary and other
childrearing skills.

Question 19

As described by Piaget, a child in the autonomous stage of moral development believes
that:
a. rule violations will be punished.
b. rules can be changed by consensus.
c. rules can be changed by authorities only.
d. rules are made to be broken.

Answer 19

b. rules can be changed by consensus
Piaget distinguished between two stages of moral development – heteronomous and
autonomous. Children in the autonomous stage believe that rules can be changed by
consensus.

Question 20

Research by Hetherington (1993) and others investigating the effects of remarriage on
the adjustment of children indicates that children ages __________ have a particularly
difficult time adjusting to a stepparent.
a. three to five
b. six to ten
c. thirteen to fifteen
d. seventeen to nineteen

Answer 20

c. thirteen to fifteen
The studies have generally found that younger children have less trouble adjusting to a
stepparent than do older school-age children and adolescents, with longitudinal research by
Hetherington (1993) and others suggesting that adjusting to a stepparent is especially difficult
when remarriage occurs when the child is in early adolescence.

Question 21

The best predictor of a child’s level of adjustment following the divorce of his/her
parents is:
a. the degree of open conflict between the parents.
b. the frequency of contact with the noncustodial parent.
c. whether the child lives with the same- or opposite-sex parent.
d. whether one or both parents remarry soon after the divorce.

Answer 21

a. the degree of open conflict between the parents
One of the most consistent findings of the research is that open hostility and conflict between
divorced parents is predictive of poorer adjustment for the children.

Question 22

Studies investigating teachers’ responses to male and female students have
demonstrated that:
a. boys have more interactions with their teachers and tend to receive more feedback.
b. girls have more interactions with their teachers but receive more criticism.
c. male teachers pay more attention to boys, while female teachers pay more attention to
girls.
d. student gender does not have a differential impact on teacher-student interactions.

Answer 22

a. boys have more interactions with their teachers and tend to receive more feedback
Recent research suggests that boys continue to get more attention from both male and female
teachers, especially attention that fosters better academic performance.
Page