Psych Test Bank 1 Chapter 5

Dr. Matsuko's major research interest is the long-term effects of child-rearing practices on the psychological adjustment of offspring. It is most likely that Dr. Matsuko is a ________ psychologist.

A) cognitive

B) developmental

C) biological

D) psychodynamic

One of the three major concerns of developmental psychology centers around the issue of

A) identity or intimacy.

B) continuity or stages.

C) imprinting or object permanence.

D) conservation or egocentrism

As compared to the production of egg cells, sperm cell production

A) begins later in life.
B) involves a jellylike outer covering.
C) begins earlier in life.
D) involves differentiation prior to fusion with the egg.

The heart begins to beat during the ________ period of prenatal development.

A) embryonic

B) fetal

C) zygotic

D) ovular

A teratogen is a(n)

A) fertilized egg that undergoes rapid cell division.
B) unborn child with one or more physical defects or abnormalities.
C) chromosomal abnormality.
D) substance that can cross the placental barrier and harm an unborn child.

One of the most consistently damaging teratogens is

A) testosterone.

B) serotonin.

C) dopamine.

D) alcohol.

Darlene smoked heavily during the entire 9 months of her pregnancy. Her newborn baby will most likely be

A) underweight.

B) autistic.

C) hyperactive.

D) hearing impaired.

The symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome are most likely to include

A) egocentrism.

B) brain abnormalities.

C) visual impairments.

D) autism.

Babies are born with several reflexes for getting food. One of these is to

A) withdraw a limb to escape pain.
B) turn the head away from a cloth placed over the face.
C) open the mouth in search of a nipple when touched on the cheek.
D) look longer at facelike images than at a solid disk.

Habituation refers to the

A) awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
B) decreasing responsiveness to a stimulus to which one is repeatedly exposed.
C) adjustment of current schemas to make sense of new information.
D) biological growth processes that are relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Newborns have been observed to show the greatest visual interest in a

A) rectangular shape.

B) circular shape.

C) bull's-eye pattern.

D) facelike image.

From ages 3 to 6, the brain's neural networks are sprouting most rapidly in the

A) frontal lobes.

B) hypothalamus.

C) cerebellum.

D) brainstem.

Maturation refers to

A) the acquisition of socially acceptable behaviors.
B) biological growth processes that are relatively uninfluenced by experience.
C) any learned behavior patterns that accompany personal growth and development.
D) the physical and sexual development of early adolescence.

Infant motor development is typically characterized by individual differences in ________ of the major developmental milestones.

A) both the sequence and the age-related timing

B) the sequence but not the age-related timing

C) the age-related timing but not the sequence

D) neither the sequence nor the age-related timing

The concept of maturation is most relevant to understanding the absence of

A) secure attachments among infants.

B) bladder control among 2-year-olds.

C) self-esteem among kindergarten students.

D) moral behavior among adolescents.

Four-year-old Karen can't remember anything of the first few months of her life. This is best explained by the fact that

A) the trauma of birth interfered with the subsequent formation of memories.
B) most brain cells do not yet exist at the time of birth.
C) experiences shortly after birth are a meaningless blur of darkness and light.
D) she lacked language skills for organizing her early life experiences.

Cognition refers to

A) an emotional tie linking one person with another.
B) the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
C) any process that facilitates the physical development of the brain.
D) any process of change that accompanies maturation.

Piaget was convinced that the mind of a child

A) is like a blank slate at birth.

B) is not heavily influenced by maturation.

C) develops through a series of stages.

D) is heavily dependent on the child's personality.

According to Piaget, schemas are

A) fixed sequences of cognitive developmental stages.
B) children's ways of coming to terms with their sexuality.
C) people's conceptual frameworks for understanding their experiences.
D) problem-solving strategies that are typically not developed until the formal operational stage.

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas is called

A) egocentrism.

B) assimilation.

C) imprinting.

D) accommodation.

According to Piaget, accommodation refers to

A) parental efforts to include new children in the existing family structure.
B) incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
C) developmental changes in a child's behavior that facilitate social acceptance by family and peers.
D) adjusting current schemas in order to make sense of new experiences.

Olivia understands her world primarily by grasping and sucking easily available objects. Olivia is clearly in Piaget's ________ stage.

A) preoperational

B) concrete operational

C) sensorimotor

D) formal operational

When researcher Karen Wynn showed 5-month-old infants a numerically impossible outcome, the infants

A) stared longer at the outcome.
B) displayed rapid imprinting.
C) demonstrated an obvious lack of object permanence.
D) showed signs of formal operational reasoning.

If children cannot grasp the principle of conservation, they are unable to

A) deal with the discipline of toilet training.
B) see things from the point of view of another person.
C) recognize that the quantity of a substance remains the same despite changes in its shape.
D) retain earlier schemas when confronted by new experiences.

According to Piaget, egocentrism refers to

A) a sensorimotor need for self-stimulation, as evidenced in thumb sucking.
B) young children's exaggerated interest in themselves and their own pleasure.
C) the difficulty perceiving things from another person's point of view.
D) the difficulty realizing that things continue to exist even when they are not visible

Five-year-olds who were surprised to discover that a Band-Aids box contained pencils were able to anticipate their friend's false belief about the contents of the box. This best illustrates that the children had developed a

A) secure attachment.

B) conventional morality.

C) theory of mind.

D) concept of conservation

An impaired theory of mind is most closely associated with

A) crystallized intelligence.

B) concrete operational thought.

C) role confusion.

D) autism.

The Russian psychologist Vygotsky suggested that children's ability to solve problems is enhanced by

A) basic trust.

B) inner speech.

C) conservation.

D) imprinting.

According to Piaget, a person first comprehends that division is the reverse of multiplication during the ________ stage.

A) preoperational

B) concrete operational

C) formal operational

D) sensorimotor

Lilianne is beginning to develop a fear of strangers and will reach for her mother when she sees someone who is unfamiliar. It is likely that Lilianne has also just

A) mastered the principle of conservation.

B) overcome the limitation of egocentrism.

C) developed a sense of object permanence.

D) lost her sense of secure attachment.

The powerful survival impulse that leads infants to seek closeness to their caregivers is called

A) attachment.

B) habituation.

C) assimilation.

D) conservation.

Studies of monkeys raised with artificial mothers suggest that mother-infant emotional bonds result primarily from mothers providing infants with

A) adequate nourishment.

B) body contact.

C) the opportunity to explore.

D) self-esteem.

A critical period is a phase during which

A) children frequently disobey and resist their parents.
B) children become able to think hypothetically and reason abstractly.
C) parents frequently show impatience with a child's slowness in becoming toilet trained.
D) certain events have a particularly strong impact on development.

Instead of happily exploring the attractive toys located in the pediatrician's waiting room, little Sandra tenaciously clings to her mother's skirt. Sandra most clearly shows signs of

A) habituation.

B) egocentrism.

C) insecure attachment.

D) accommodation.

In a pleasant but unfamiliar setting, infants with a secure maternal attachment are most likely to

A) act as though their mothers are of little importance to them.
B) use their mothers as a base from which to explore the new surroundings.
C) cling to their mothers and ignore the new surroundings.
D) show hostility when their mothers approach them after a brief absence.

Evidence that easy, relaxed infants develop secure attachments more readily than difficult, emotionally intense babies would illustrate the importance of

A) egocentrism.

B) temperament.

C) conservation.

D) object permanence.

Marlys is a sensitive, responsive parent who consistently satisfies the needs of Sara, her infant daughter. According to Erikson, Sara is likely to

A) form a lifelong attitude of basic trust toward the world.
B) encounter some difficulty in overcoming the limitation of egocentrism.
C) encounter some difficulty in forming an attachment to her father.
D) achieve formal operational intelligence more quickly than the average child.

Two characteristics of authoritarian parents are that they

A) expect obedience but are responsive to their children's needs.
B) submit to their children's desires but are unresponsive in times of need.
C) impose rules and expect obedience.
D) exert control by setting rules and explaining the reasons for those rules.

Parents who are demanding and yet sensitively responsive to their children are said to be

A) authoritarian.

B) conservative.

C) permissive.

D) authoritative.

Adolescence extends from

A) the beginning of concrete operations to the end of formal operations.
B) 12 to 15 years of age.
C) the beginnings of sexual maturity to independent adulthood.
D) the beginning to the end of the growth spurt.

The body structures that enable reproduction are the

A) primary sex characteristics.

B) secondary sex characteristics.

C) teratogens.

D) frontal lobes.

Puberty is most closely related to the onset of

A) menopause.

B) menarche.

C) crystallized intelligence.

D) conventional morality.

Boys who mature at an early age tend to be more

A) physically uncoordinated.

B) sexually inhibited.

C) popular and self-assured.

D) academically successful.

The ability to think logically about hypothetical situations is indicative of the ________ stage of development.

A) conventional

B) preconventional

C) preoperational

D) formal operational

According to Kohlberg, morality based on the avoidance of punishment and the attainment of concrete rewards represents ________ morality.

A) conventional

B) preconventional

C) concrete operational

D) postconventional

Kohlberg emphasized that human behavior becomes less selfish as we mature due to

A) social development.

B) physical development.

C) cognitive development.

D) economic development.

Compared with adults from Western cultures that favor individualism, those from collectivist societies are LESS likely to develop ________ morality.

A) preconventional

B) postconventional

C) concrete operational

D) conventional

Sixteen-year-old Brenda questions her parents' values but does not fully accept her friends' standards either. Her confusion about what she really wants and values in life suggests that Brenda is struggling with the problem of

A) autonomy.

B) identity.

C) initiative.

D) integrity.

Which of the following best describes adolescent self-esteem?

A) It rises through the early teen years and falls during the late teen years.
B) It falls through the early teen years and rises during the late teen years.
C) It rises through the early teen years and rises during the late teen years.
D) It falls through the early teen years and falls during the late teen years.

Adolescence is typically a time of

A) diminishing parental influence and diminishing peer influence.
B) growing parental influence and growing peer influence.
C) diminishing parental influence and growing peer influence.
D) growing parental influence and diminishing peer influence.

An elaborate ceremony used to celebrate a person's emergence into adulthood is an example of a

A) schema.

B) critical period.

C) secure attachment.

D) rite of passage.

Physical abilities such as muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output reach their peak during

A) late adolescence.

B) early adulthood.

C) puberty.

D) middle adulthood.

The ratio of males to females first begins declining during

A) prenatal development.

B) childhood.

C) adolescence.

D) adulthood.

Aerobic exercise programs during late adulthood stimulate improvement in

A) object permanence.

B) basic trust.

C) menarche.

D) memory.

When adults of varying ages were tested for their memory of a recently learned list of 24 words, the older adults demonstrated

A) no decline in either recall or recognition.

B) a decline in recognition but not in recall.

C) a decline in recall but not in recognition.

D) a decline in both recognition and recall.

A cross-sectional study is one in which

A) the same people are retested over a period of years.
B) different age groups are tested at the same time.
C) different characteristics of a given individual are assessed at the same time.
D) the behavior of a group is assessed by different researchers.

Which of the following terms refers to a person's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills?

A) fluid intelligence

B) concrete operational intelligence

C) formal operational intelligence

D) crystallized intelligence

Older people's capacity to learn and remember meaningful material does not decline as much as their capacity to learn and remember meaningless material. This best illustrates the value of

A) concrete operational thought.

B) crystallized intelligence.

C) formal operational thought.

D) fluid intelligence.

Researchers have discovered that the midlife transition between early and middle adulthood is characterized by unusually high levels of

A) job dissatisfaction and career change.

B) marital dissatisfaction and divorce.

C) anxiety and emotional instability.

D) none of these feelings or events.

Professor Parker suggested that heterosexual adults are genetically predisposed to form monogamous bonds because this practice facilitated the cooperative nurture and survival of children. The professor's suggestion best illustrates a(n) ________ perspective.

A) authoritarian

B) postconventional

C) psychosocial

D) evolutionary

When children grow up and leave home, mothers most frequently report feeling

A) depressed.

B) bored.

C) happy.

D) anxious.

An integrated understanding of successful aging in terms of appropriate nutrition, family support, and an optimistic outlook is most clearly provided by

A) a cross-sectional study.

B) social intuitional theory.

C) a biopsychosocial approach.

D) Piaget's cognitive development theory.

Mary believes that cognitive development is a matter of gradual and almost imperceptible changes over time. Her viewpoint is most directly relevant to the issue of

A) nature or nurture.

B) behavior or mental processes.

C) continuity or stages.

D) fluid or crystallized intelligence.

A belief that adult personality is completely determined in early childhood would be most relevant to the issue of

A) stability or change.

B) fluid or crystallized intelligence.

C) conventional or postconventional morality.

D) cross-sectional or longitudinal studies.

For several months following a sudden and unexpected divorce, Henry was excessively preoccupied with thoughts of his ex-wife. His reaction resulted from the disruption of

A) a critical period.

B) conservation.

C) object permanence.

D) attachment.

Mrs. Carmichael secretly dabs some lipstick on the nose of her 2-year-old son and then allows him to see his face in a mirror. The child is most likely to

A) touch his own nose.
B) touch the mirror at the point where the lipstick shows.
C) wave at his mirror image as if it were another child.
D) assimilate the lipstick mark into his existing self-concept.