Lifespan Development Flashcards
Balancing on one foot for three seconds, catching a ball with stiff arms, and pedaling a tricycle are skills that are usually first evident when toddlers are between ________ months of age.
A) 18 and 23
B) 24 and 30
C) 31 and 36
D) 37 and 42
C) 31 and 36
Reported ages at which gross motor milestones are first evident vary somewhat from author to author, but most identify the skills listed in this question as being acquired when a child is between 31 and 36 months of age.
It’s common for children of immigrants to act as language brokers. Research on the effects of language brokering has found that it has:
A) positive effects on the child but negative effects on the parent-child relationship.
B) negative effects on the child but positive effects on the parent-child relationship.
C) positive effects on the child and the parent-child relationship.
D) both positive and negative effects on the child and the parent-child relationship.
D) both positive and negative effects on the child and the parent-child relationship.
language brokering “is the act of translating and interpreting within immigrant families by children and adolescents for their parents, other family members, and other adults”
Studies on the effects of language brokering have produced mixed results. For example, with regard to the parent-child relationship, language brokering has been linked to a greater sense of connection between the child and his/her parents but also to role reversals within the family that force the parents to become overly dependent on the child
In their study comparing the effects of age-based stereotype threat and self-stereotyping on memory performance, O’Brien and Hummert (2006) found that late middle-aged adults ages 48 through 62 who had:
A) a youthful (vs. older) identity did more poorly on a memory task when they were told their performance would be compared to the performance of older (vs. younger) adults.
B) a youthful (vs. older) identity did more poorly on a memory task when they were told their performance would be compared to the performance of younger (vs. older) adults.
C) an older (vs. youthful) identity did more poorly on a memory task when they were told their performance would be compared to the performance of older (vs. younger) adults.
D) an older (vs. youthful) identity did more poorly on a memory task when they were told their performance would be compared to the performance of younger (vs. older) adults.
C) an older (vs. youthful) identity did more poorly on a memory task when they were told their performance would be compared to the performance of older (vs. younger) adults.
Hummert found that late middle-aged adults who had an older identity had significantly poorer word recall when they were told their performance would be compared to that of older adults than did those who were told their performance would be compared to that of younger adults or were not given any comparison information.
In contrast, adults who had a youthful identity exhibited similar levels of word recall whether they were told their performance would be compared to older adults or younger adults or were not given comparison information.
O’Brien and Hummert conclude that their results support the self-stereotyping hypothesis by showing that internalized stereotypes about aging can impair performance on memory tasks
In their study of the relationship between IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), Capron and Duyme (1989) compared the later IQ scores obtained by four groups of children who had been adopted soon after birth and whose biological parents and adoptive parents were either high or low in SES. Their study found that:
A) being adopted by high-SES parents had a positive effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents, but being adopted by low-SES parents had no effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents.
B) being adopted by low-SES parents had a negative effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents, but being adopted by high-SES parents had no effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents.
C) being adopted by high-SES parents had a positive effect on children’s IQs and being adopted by low-SES parents had a negative effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents.
D) being adopted by high-SES parents had a positive effect only on the IQs of children with low-SES biological parents, and being adopted by low-SES parents had a negative effect only on the IQs of children with high-SES biological parents.
C) being adopted by high-SES parents had a positive effect on children’s IQs and being adopted by low-SES parents had a negative effect on children’s IQs regardless of the SES of their biological parents.
Capron and Duyme found that children born into low- or high-SES families and adopted soon after birth by high-SES families later obtained higher average IQs than children adopted by low-SES families. Conversely, children born into low- or high-SES families and adopted soon after birth by low-SES families later obtained lower average IQs than children adopted by high-SES families.
Epigenetics is concerned with how:
A) DNA sequences in a person’s genes are passed from one generation to the next.
B) genes affect the development and functioning of the nervous system.
C) environmental and developmental factors affect how a gene is expressed.
D) environmental and developmental factors change a person’s genotype.
C) environmental and developmental factors affect how a gene is expressed.
Epigenetics refers to developmental and environmental factors that alter gene expression without making changes in gene/DNA sequences. In other words, epigenetic mechanisms provide instructions about when, where, and how genetic information is expressed [K. Nill, Glossary of biotechnology and agrobiotechnology terms (5th ed.), Boca Raton, FL, Taylor & Frances Group, 2017]. Answer A describes genetics rather than epigenetics. There’s evidence that some epigenetic effects may be passed from one generation to the next, but the focus of epigenetics is not on DNA sequences because they aren’t affected by epigenetic factors. Answer B describes neurogenetics, which is a branch of genetics that focuses on the nervous system. Answer D is an inaccurate description of epigenetics because epigenetics refers to factors that affect gene expression, not to factors that change genes or genotype.
Piaget proposed that, during substage 3 (secondary circular reactions) of the sensorimotor stage, an infant:
A) repeats enjoyable motor or sensory responses that involve his/her own body.
B) repeats behaviors that elicit a response from a person or object.
C) deliberately changes a behavior to determine the consequences of doing so.
D) coordinates two or more responses to solve a problem.
B) repeats behaviors that elicit a response from a person or object.
As described by Piaget, the substages of the sensorimotor stage involve different types of circular reactions, which are actions that are performed to repeat an event that first occurred by chance. Substage 3 occurs between four and eight months of age and is characterized by secondary circular reactions, which are goal-directed actions that elicit a response from a person or object. For example, an infant might repeatedly kick the mobile hanging over his crib to make it move.
Which of the following best describes the results of research investigating the effects of treatments for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on children’s neurocognitive functioning?
A) Only chemotherapy is associated with deficits in neurocognitive functioning.
B) Only cranial irradiation is associated with deficits in neurocognitive functioning.
C) Chemotherapy and cranial irradiation are both associated with deficits in neurocognitive functioning.
D) Neither chemotherapy nor cranial irradiation are associated with deficits in neurocognitive functioning.
C) Chemotherapy and cranial irradiation are both associated with deficits in neurocognitive functioning.
Research has found that, when used to treat ALL, chemotherapy and cranial irradiation are both associated with subsequent neurocognitive deficits and problems related to academic achievement
Note that this is an example of the very difficult questions you’ll encounter on the exam. Fortunately, there won’t be very many of these and, when you encounter them, you won’t want to spend too much time trying to determine the correct answer if you’re unfamiliar with what is being asked about.
________ describe(s) temperament as constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation.
A) Bem
B) Kagan
C) Thomas and Chess
D) Rothbart and Derryberry
D) Rothbart and Derryberry
Rothbart and Derryberry (1981) describe temperament as “constitutional differences in reactivity and self-regulation, with ‘constitutional’ seen as the relatively enduring biological makeup of the organism influenced over time by heredity, maturation, and experience”
Erikson described which of his stages of development as a period of psychosocial moratorium?
A) autonomy vs. shame and doubt
B) identity vs. role confusion
C) industry vs. inferiority
D) generativity vs. stagnation
B) identity vs. role confusion
Erikson (1963) identified moratorium as a characteristic of his identity vs. role confusion stage of development and described it as follows: “The adolescent mind is essentially the mind of the moratorium, a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood, between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult”
If you’re unfamiliar with Erikson’s use of the term, knowing that Marcia (1966) expanded Erikson’s ideas about adolescent identity to describe four identity statuses (moratorium, diffusion, foreclosure, and achievement) would have helped you identify the correct answer to this question.
Carstensen, Gottman, and Levenson (1995) found that, compared to dissatisfied middle-aged married couples, dissatisfied older married couples:
A) show more restraint in expressing negative emotions.
B) are more likely to blame each other for their problems.
C) spend less time discussing past pleasant events.
D) express greater commitment to their relationships.
A) show more restraint in expressing negative emotions.
Levenson found that dissatisfied older married couples were less likely than dissatisfied middle-aged couples and satisfied older and middle-aged couples to engage in “negative start up” – i.e., they were less likely to respond to their partners’ expressions of neutral affect with expressions of anger, disgust, or other negative emotions during discussions of their marital problems
Of the following, Bowlby’s theory of attachment was most influenced by:
A) learning theory.
B) ecological systems theory.
C) excitation-transfer theory.
D) ethological theory.
D) ethological theory.
Bowlby’s attachment theory was influenced by the work of Lorenz, Harlow, and other ethologists who studied animal behaviors in natural environments and viewed behavior as evolutionarily adaptive. In contrast to learning theories (answer A) that describe attachment as a learned behavior acquired through classical and/or operant conditioning, Bowlby proposed that caregiver-infant attachment is an innate, adaptive process that helps ensure the survival of the infant.
With regard to factors that affect the moral development of children:
A) Piaget and Kohlberg both viewed the influence of peers as more important than the influence of parents.
B) Piaget and Kohlberg both viewed the influence of parents as more important than the influence of peers.
C) Piaget viewed the influence of peers as more important, but Kohlberg viewed the influence of parents as more important.
D) Piaget viewed the influence of parents as more important, but Kohlberg viewed the influence of peers as more important.
A) Piaget and Kohlberg both viewed the influence of peers as more important than the influence of parents.
Piaget and Kohlberg both viewed interactions with peers as more important than interactions with parents for moral development because the equal status in peer interactions provides more opportunities to work together to find resolutions to moral conflicts.
Rosenfeld and Roesler (2019) compared the rates of marital dissolution of couples who had or had not cohabited prior to marriage. They found that couples who had cohabited had:
A) a decreased risk for marital dissolution during the first year of marriage only.
B) an increased risk for marital dissolution during the first year of marriage only.
C) an increased risk for marital dissolution during the first and subsequent years after marriage.
D) a decreased risk for marital dissolution during the first and subsequent years of marriage.
A) a decreased risk for marital dissolution during the first year of marriage only.
The longitudinal U.S. Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS) confirmed the results of other studies that have found that women tend to live longer than men do and that, for both genders, married people tend to live longer than never married people do. For example, the HOS found that, for people 65 years of age, the life expectancy for married women was 21.1 years, for never married women was 19.3 years, for married men was 18.6 years, and for never married men was 16.2 years.
A number of studies have investigated the effects of parental ethnic/racial socialization on various outcomes for African American children and adolescents. With regard to ethnic identity, these studies suggest that:
A) cultural socialization and preparation for bias have both been consistently linked to the development of a positive ethnic identity.
B) cultural socialization has been more consistently linked to the development of a positive ethnic identity than preparation for bias has.
C) preparation for bias has been more consistently linked to the development of a positive ethnic identity than cultural socialization has.
D) cultural socialization and preparation for bias have not been consistently linked to the development of a positive ethnic identity.
B) cultural socialization has been more consistently linked to the development of a positive ethnic identity than preparation for bias has.
Racial-ethnic socialization refers to the implicit and explicit practices of parents that communicate information about race and ethnicity to their children and takes the form of cultural socialization, preparation for bias, promotion of mistrust, and/or egalitarianism. Of these, cultural socialization (which focuses on teaching children about their cultural history and traditions and promoting cultural pride) and preparation for bias (which emphasizes making children aware of discrimination and teaching them ways to cope with it) have been studied the most. The results of these studies indicate that cultural socialization is most consistently linked to positive outcomes for children and adolescents (including the development of a positive ethnic identity), while preparation for bias is associated with both positive and negative outcomes
Based on the results of their research with young rhesus monkeys, Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) concluded that which of the following is most important for the development of attachment?
A. familiarity
B. provision of nourishment
C. a strong emotional bond
D. contact comfort
D. contact comfort
