Lifespan Development Flashcards
According to Crick and Dodge’s (1996) social information-processing theory, the highly aggressive behaviors of reactive (versus proactive) aggressors is due to which of the following?
A. observational learning
B. reinforcement for aggressive behaviors
C. a hostile attribution bias
D. a coercive home environment
C. a hostile attribution bias
N. R. Crick and K. A. Dodge’s social information-processing theory proposes that the high level of aggression exhibited by reactive-aggressive children is attributable to their tendency to interpret the behaviors of others (including vague and benign behaviors) as intentionally hostile, and they refer to this tendency as a “hostile attribution bias.” In contrast, the high level of aggression exhibited by proactive-aggressive children is due to their expectation that aggressive behavior will have positive outcomes [Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression, Child Development, 67(3), 993-102, 1996].
Pretest
The earliest time in fetal development when the fetus has a good chance of survival outside the womb is referred to as the age of viability. The age that marks the lower limit of viability is generally considered to be ________ weeks after conception.
A. 18
B. 22
C. 26
D. 30
B. 22
The age of viability reported by different authors varies somewhat, but most agree that it’s between 22 and 26 weeks after conception. See, e.g., L. E. Berk, Child Development (9th ed.), Boston, Pearson, 2013.
Mary Rothbart’s (2011) research with infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, and adults revealed that temperament can be described in terms of three dimensions that include all of the following except:
A. negative affectivity.
B. effortful control.
C. surgency/extraversion.
D. regularity/predictability.
D. regularity/predictability.
The three dimensions of temperament identified by Rothbart are surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity, and effortful control. See, e.g., M. Rothbart, Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development, New York, Guilford Press, 2011.
Pretest
Researchers using the mirror task have found that self-recognition emerges in about 50% of children at _____ months of age.
A. nine
B. twelve
C. fifteen
D. eighteen
D. eighteen
The mirror task involves putting a mark on an infant’s head before placing the infant in front of a mirror. Infants demonstrate self-recognition when they see the mark in the mirror and touch their own foreheads rather than the forehead of the image in the mirror. For about 50% of infants, this first occurs when they’re 18 months of age. See, e.g., M. Nielsen, T. Suddendorf, and V. Slaughter, Mirror self-recognition beyond the face, Child Development, 77(1), 176-185, 2006.
In adulthood, __________ memory is most negatively affected by increasing age while __________ memory is relatively unaffected.
A. primary; secondary
B. secondary; primary
C. primary; tertiary
D. tertiary; secondary
B. secondary; primary
Secondary memory is another name for recent long-term memory and is associated with the greatest age-related decline. In contrast, primary memory (which is the storage aspect of short-term memory) and tertiary memory (which is another name for remote long-term memory) are relatively unaffected by increasing age.
Pretest
Taddio and Katz (2005) reviewed research on the effects of exposure to painful medical procedures soon after birth on subsequent reactivity to pain. They found that early exposure to pain:
A. increased subsequent pain responsivity for both preterm and full-term infants.
B. decreased subsequent pain responsivity for both preterm and full-term infants.
C. increased subsequent pain responsivity for preterm infants but reduced pain responsivity for full-term infants.
D. increased subsequent pain responsivity for full-term infants but reduced pain responsivity for preterm infants.
D. increased subsequent pain responsivity for full-term infants but reduced pain responsivity for preterm infants.
A. Taddio and J. Katz reviewed research on the effects of exposure to painful medical procedures soon after birth and found that it affects subsequent reactivity to pain, with different effects for preterm and full-term infants: Preterm infants who were hospitalized as neonates and were subjected to painful procedures had a reduced reaction to painful procedures later in infancy, while full-term infants exposed to extreme stress during delivery or painful procedures as neonates had a heightened reaction to painful procedures later in infancy [The effects of early pain experience in neonates on pain responses in infancy and childhood, Paediatric Drugs, 7(4), 245-257, 2005].
Pretest
A child explores the use of a ball by using it to push a small toy away from him and dropping the ball from different heights to see what happens. This behavior is characteristic of which substage of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
A. primary circular reactions
B. secondary circular reactions
C. coordination of secondary circular reactions
D. tertiary circular reactions
D. tertiary circular reactions
Piaget described the sensorimotor stage as consisting of six substages: reflexive reactions, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, coordination of secondary circular reactions, tertiary reactions, and internalization of schemas. Tertiary circular reactions emerge between 12 and 18 months of age and involve exploring the properties of an object by, for example, using it to move another object and seeing what happens to it when it’s dropped from different heights.
Studies investigating \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ often place infants in uncertain situations that include a stranger, a novel toy or other object, or the visual cliff. A. basic temperament B. problem-solving C. social referencing D. self-awareness
C. social referencing
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Socioemotional Development – Attachment, Emotions, and Social Relationships-168 Answer C is correct. Social referencing refers to the use of the emotional reactions of a parent or other person to determine how to respond in ambiguous situations. Most studies on social referencing in infancy have created an ambiguous situation by presenting the infants with a stranger, a novel object, or the visual cliff while a parent or other caregiver is nearby.
On average, full siblings and other first-degree relatives share \_\_\_\_\_ of their genetic material. A. 90% B. 75% C. 50% D. 25%
C. 50%
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Early Influences on Development – Nature vs. Nurture-011 Answer C is correct. Full siblings, fraternal twins, and other first degree relatives share about 50% of their genetic material, while half siblings share about 25%.
In Ainsworth’s (Ainsworth et al., 1978) “strange situation,” an infant with an ____________ attachment pattern is indifferent to his/her mother and may act as though she’s not present, shows little or no distress when she leaves, and ignores her when she returns. Mothers of children with this attachment pattern are often ____________.
A. avoidant; rejecting/unresponsive or intrusive/overstimulating
B. avoidant; moody/depressed and inconsistent
C. ambivalent; rejecting/unresponsive or intrusive/overstimulating
D. ambivalent; moody/depressed and inconsistent
A. avoidant; rejecting/unresponsive or intrusive/overstimulating
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Socioemotional Development – Attachment, Emotions, and Social Relationships-174 Answer A is correct. Ainsworth and her colleagues distinguished between two types of insecure attachment patterns: avoidant and ambivalent (which is also referred to as resistant). The infant behaviors described in this question are characteristic of children with the avoidant pattern, and parents of children with this pattern are often either rejecting and unresponsive or intrusive and overstimulating.
The goodness-of-fit model developed by Thomas and Chess (1977) focuses on the match between a child’s \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and the demands of the social environment. A. temperament B. sense of self C. emotional development D. cognitive development
A. temperament
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Socioemotional Development – Temperament and Personality-142 Answer A is correct. The goodness-of-fit model proposes that maladjustment in young children is often the result of a mismatch between the child’s temperament and the demands of the social environment, especially the parents’ expectations and childrearing practices.
By about \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ months of age, children use two words to create a simple sentence – for example, “juice gone,” “get toy,” and “big doggie.” A. 12 to 18 B. 18 to 24 C. 24 to 30 D. 30 to 36
B. 18 to 24
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Language Development-123 Answer B is correct. The use of two words to create a sentence is referred to as telegraphic speech. It begins when a child is between 18 and 24 months of age and usually includes a noun and a verb or a noun and an adjective.
With regard to language, the smallest unit of meaning is referred to as a: A. word. B. grapheme. C. phoneme. D. morpheme.
D. morpheme.
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Language Development-134 Answer D is correct. Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in a language. For example, in the English language, “inter,” “er,” “ism,” “pre,” and “post” are morphemes.
Studies have consistently found that, when adults 70 years of age and older are asked to recall events from their past, they exhibit a “reminiscence bump” which is a spike in the number of memories for events that occurred between the ages of: A. 5 to 15. B. 15 to 25. C. 25 to 35. D. 30 to 40.
B. 15 to 25.
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Cognitive Development-112 Answer B is correct. When older adults are asked to recall events from their past, the largest number of recalled events are from the recent past. However, there’s also a “reminiscence bump” which is a spike in memory for events that occurred in mid-adolescence to early adulthood (from about ages 15 to 25). See, e.g., D. C. Rubin, T. A. Rahhal, and L. W. Poon, Things learned in early adulthood are remembered best, Memory & Cognition, 26, 3-19, 1998.
Carstensen’s (1992) socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that, as we get older:
A. emotionally meaningful and knowledge-related goals both become more important.
B. emotionally meaningful goals become more important and knowledge-related goals become less important.
C. emotionally meaningful goals become less important and knowledge-related goals become more important.
D. emotionally meaningful and knowledge-related goals both become less important.
B. emotionally meaningful goals become more important and knowledge-related goals become less important.
EXPLANATION
EPPP-P1-LIF-Socioemotional Development – Temperament and Personality-198 Answer B is correct. Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that our goals change as our future time becomes more limited. It distinguishes between two types of goals – knowledge-related and emotionally meaningful – and proposes that, as we get older, we place less importance on knowledge-related goals and more importance on emotionally meaningful goals. In terms of social relationships, this means that younger people prefer relationships that fulfill their knowledge-related goals, while older people prefer relationships that fulfill their emotionally meaningful goals.
