1) Jesse has just married a woman who has two adolescent daughters. These children
will adjust best if Jesse establishes all of the following types of discipline, except:
A.consistent.
B.supportive.
C.controlling.
D.authoritative.
2) Which of the following individuals is most likely to be a child (and not an
adolescent)?
A.Kristine, who thinks about what other people are thinking
B.Jesse, who finds it hard to believe that other people may have beliefs, intentions, and
knowledge that may be different from his own
C.Jo, who can easily interpret the feelings of others
D.All of these individuals are likely to be children.
3) Expanding opportunities for adolescents to get involved in athletics, drama group, or
another extracurricular activity would be associated with all but which of the following
outcomes?
A.enhancing their feelings of self-confidence and self-esteem
B.higher school achievement
C.increasing their contact with adult role models
D.increasing the likelihood that they drop out of school
4) According to Mischel’s classic study conducted nearly 50 years ago, what would you
predict about Evelyn, who, in elementary and high school always scored at the top of
her class, and now, as an adult, is a successful executive?
A.It is likely that in preschool, when given the choice between eating one marshmallow
now or waiting for two, she was able to negotiate getting two marshmallows without
waiting the full 15 minutes.
B.It is likely that Evelyn was securely attached in preschool.
C.It is likely that Evelyn scored relatively high on an IQ test in preschool.
D.When Evelyn was a preschooler, it is likely that, when given the choice between
eating one marshmallow now or waiting 15 minutes to get two of them, she was able to
wait.
5) One study indicated that there is quite a bit of diversity among teenage mothers in
their transitions to adulthood. Which of the following is not one of the three groups of
teen moms identified in Oxford and colleague’s study?
A.a problem-prone group that had chronic problems in many areas of life
B.a psychologically vulnerable group that had high rates of mental health problems but
were able to transition into adult roles with some degree of success
C.a group who seemed to develop “typically” and made successful transitions into adult
roles
D.a group of individuals who bounced back and forth between identities and scored
alarmingly low on all measures of “life satisfaction” (higher scores = more satisfaction)
6) Who is probably most likely to drop out of high school?
A.Luanne, whose parents are consistently authoritative
B.Dierdre, whose parents are consistently authoritarian
C.Bobby Jo, whose parents are inconsistent
D.Sally, whose parents are consistently permissive
7) Research investigating media “effects” on adolescent development has a hard time
ruling out the possibility of spurious causation, which means that:
A.two things can go hand in hand.
B.that the second thing is actually causing the first thing (not the reverse).
C.there is no statistically significant relation.
D.the correlation between two things is due to the fact that each of them is correlated
with a third factor.
8) Which of the following is a sign of Americanization?
A.speaking English exclusively
B.speaking English in addition to your native language
C.having American-born children
D.having an abrupt transition into adulthood
9) No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was a policy designed to ensure that all students,
regardless of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic background, receive a high-quality
public education. Which of the following statements is false?
A.Most reasonable people would not disagree with the basic idea of NCLB.
B.One of the most important factors of NCLB is that students learn how to engage in
critical thinking.
C.To prevent losing millions of dollars, some schools actually helped students cheat on
standardized tests.
D.NCLB is one example of the movement toward performance-based accountability,
which has been the most important change in the world of American education in the
past 20 years.
10) Which of the following statements about obesity is not true?
A.Adolescent obesity epidemic will cost the United States more than $250 billion.
B.Adolescent obesity has been especially dramatic among Black females.
C.Adolescent obesity is limited to the United States.
D.Obesity is the most serious health problem of American adolescents.
11) Approximately what percentage of American 18- to 24-year-olds live with or are
supported financially by their parents?
A.90%
B.15%
C.55%
D.70%
12) Margaret has been able to withstand many stressors in her life without showing
negative effects. Margaret’s behavior would be considered an example of:
A.resiliency.
B.an internalizing behavior.
C.an externalizing behavior.
D.withdrawal strategies.
13) One explanation for the risk-taking peak that is observed in adolescence is that:
A.adolescents are not aware of the risks associated with certain behaviors.
B.the prefrontal cortex is fully developed years before the limbic system is active.
C.adolescents are relatively higher in sensation seeking and impulsivity than children
and adults.
D.None of the above statements are true. Risk taking does not peak in adolescence.
14) One disturbing finding is that there appears to be a drop in students’ _____
motivation as they transition from elementary into secondary school; which could be
due to the fact that _____.
A.mastery motivation; teachers become more performance-oriented during this time
B.performance motivation; teachers become more mastery-oriented during this time
C.mastery motivation; students have many other things to worry about than school
performance
D.performance motivation; peers become much more important than schoolwork at this
time
15) Which of the following statements about parent-adolescent communication about
sex is not true?
A.Adolescents are more receptive to having one “big talk” about sex than having
multiple conversations over a period of time.
B.Sexually active adolescents underestimate their parents’ disapproval of sexual
activity.
C.Parents assume that if they disapprove of sexual activity, their adolescent is not likely
to be sexually active.
D.There seems to be a gap between what parents say they have discussed with their
adolescent child and what adolescents say they have discussed with their parents.
16) Which of the following is not a characteristic of an adolescent’s growing emotional
autonomy?
A.Adolescents become more likely to believe that their life would have been better if
they had their friends’ parents.
B.Adolescents become less likely to hold onto idealized pictures of their parents.
C.Adolescents become more likely to appreciate that their parents may act differently
with their own friends than they do with their children.
D.When something goes wrong, adolescents become less likely to assume that their
parents will “make everything better” and become more likely to rely on themselves to
straighten things out.