Heritability evidence suggests __________ genetic influences on various aspects of
executive function, including combining information in working memory, controlling
attention, and inhibiting inappropriate responses.
A) little or no
B) only minor
C) moderate
D) substantial
Which of the following statements about the influence of schooling on moral reasoning
is true?
A) College students are no more advanced in moral reasoning than young people who
enter the workforce immediately after high school.
B) Most colleges and universities require professors to engage students in discussions
involving moral reasoning.
C) College students report fewer perspective-taking opportunities because they are
isolated in a homogeneous environment.
D) College students who report more perspective-taking opportunities tend to be
advanced in moral reasoning.
With age, many creators
A) become more spontaneous.
B) produce works that sum up or integrate ideas.
C) begin to focus on self-expression.
D) devote more energy to new discoveries.
Which of the following statements about physical skill in midadolescence is true?
A) Boys and girls are evenly matched in athletics.
B) Few girls perform as well as the average boy.
C) Low-performing girls actually have skills equal to high-performing boys.
D) Girls perform better in athletics until about age 15, when boys surpass them.
Which of the following adults is the most likely to engage in commitment within
relativism?
A) Adam, a 20-year-old college sophomore
B) Nadia, a 30-year-old college professor
C) Helena, a 27-year-old retail clerk
D) Rainer, a 35-year-old salesman
Toby lives in the United States. Gerri lives in Europe. Based on research on adolescent
drug use, which of the following can you infer?
A) Gerri is more likely to use tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs than Toby.
B) The rates of drug use are similar for the two teenagers.
C) Toby is less likely to use tobacco and alcohol than Gerri.
D) Gerri is more likely to use illegal drugs than Toby.
In an experiment on the effects of music versus acting lessons on intelligence, the
independent variable would be
A) the type of lessons (music versus acting).
B) a measure of intelligence.
C) the type of music lessons.
D) the frequency of the acting lessons.
Postponing childbearing until the late twenties or thirties
A) causes greater marital strain.
B) eases the transition to parenthood.
C) causes gender roles to become more androgynous.
D) decreases the likelihood of the father’s involvement in child care.
Children who lack __________ reach an average mature height of only 4 to 4 feet.
A) growth hormone (GH)
B) estrogen
C) thyroxine
D) thyroid-stimulating hormone
Resilient widowed older adults
A) still have more lasting problems than younger widowed adults.
B) try to preserve social relationships that were important before the spouse’s death.
C) rely on others to handle tasks of daily living.
D) usually have reserved personalities and are used to being alone.
Today, about _____ million Americans are affected by poverty.
A) 6
B) 26
C) 46
D) 66
U.S. government surveys following 9,000 U.S. college-educated workers for a decade
revealed that ten years after college graduation, the gender pay gap had
A) closed.
B) narrowed slightly.
C) narrowed significantly.
D) widened.
Friendship continuity is greater for __________, in part because they __________.
A) women; see one another more often
B) women; have friendlier dispositions
C) men; see one another more often
D) men; have a greater competitive nature
Palliative care involves
A) care aimed at relieving pain and other symptoms.
B) life-saving measures such as respirators.
C) emergency room treatment.
D) home care or an inpatient setting with a homelike atmosphere.
Christine, a college graduate, held a variety of part-time jobs in her early twenties. She
had neither married nor begun a career by age 30. According to Neugarten, Christine is
likely to
A) adopt a split dream.
B) feel inadequately grounded.
C) adopt a “feminine” social clock.
D) show gains in self-understanding.
Self-focused reminiscence
A) is linked to adjustment problems.
B) is part of attaining ego integrity.
C) increases self-esteem.
D) reduces depression.
When asked directly and confidentially about lawbreaking, __________ teenagers
admit to having committed some sort of offense, usually a minor crime.
A) about 10 percent of
B) nearly 25 percent of
C) around half of all
D) almost all
Part-time maternal employment and flexible work schedules are associated with
A) permissive child rearing.
B) good child adjustment.
C) reduced parental sensitivity.
D) role overload for mothers.
Emotional self-regulation requires
A) automatic processing of information.
B) voluntary, effortful management of emotions.
C) emotional contagion.
D) adult instruction in when to feel proud, ashamed, or guilty.
Geraldine’s husband died two years ago, just after she turned 81. Which of the
following statements about Geraldine is most likely true?
A) Geraldine displays many negative outcomes.
B) The loss of her husband profoundly disrupted Geraldine’s life plans.
C) After a period of intense grieving, Geraldine is faring well.
D) Geraldine is experiencing disenfranchised grief.
Excessive guilt is linked to
A) ignoring responsibilities.
B) intentional wrongdoing.
C) depressive symptoms.
D) lying and cheating.
Which of the following statements about rheumatoid arthritis is true?
A) Almost all older adults show some signs of the condition on X-rays.
B) It is sometimes called “degenerative joint disease” or “wear-and-tear” arthritis.
C) Although it can strike at any age, it rises after age 60.
D) Symptoms cannot be relieved with analgesic medication.
__________ have a harder time regulating __________ emotion.
A) Girls; negative
B) Boys; positive
C) Girls; positive
D) Boys; negative
In which of the following disorders does genomic imprinting operate on the sex
chromosomes?
A) fragile X syndrome
B) Huntington disease
C) sickle cell anemia
D) Marfan syndrome
In making decisions, teenagers, more often than adults,
A) come up with a large number of possible solutions to a problem.
B) think logically and behave rationally.
C) fall back on well-learned intuitive judgments.
D) consider the pros and cons of each alternative.
In a historic experiment with 11-month-old Albert, John Watson demonstrated that
A) children cannot be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus.
B) infants as young as a few months old will repeat a behavior to obtain a desirable
reward.
C) children can be conditioned to fear a formerly neutral stimulus.
D) children have an innate, inborn fear of rats.
Hank, a noncustodial father of four, is remarrying. Which of Hank’s children is the most
likely to have difficulty getting along with his new wife?
A) Liam, his 3-year-old son
B) Harry, his 6-year-old son
C) Kate, his 9-year-old daughter
D) Max, his 11-year-old son
Which of the following statements about pattern perception is true?
A) Newborns prefer to look at plain rather than patterned stimuli.
B) As they get older, infants prefer less complex patterns.
C) Because of their poor vision, very young babies prefer to look at complex patterns
over large, bold checkerboards.
D) If babies are sensitive to the contrast in two or more patterns, they prefer the one
with more contrast.
__________ parenting is linked to higher grades in school among adolescents varying
widely in SES.
A) Permissive
B) Authoritarian
C) Uninvolved
D) Authoritative
Which of the following statements about rape prevention and treatment is true?
A) Practically no services are available for victimized men, who are often too
embarrassed to come forward.
B) The trauma induced by rape is typically so severe that therapy is an ineffective
intervention.
C) In the United States, treatment is mandated for men and women who sexually assault
their partners.
D) Safety planning interventions are not needed if the abuser is no longer present in the
victim’s life.
Maria has trouble remembering where she parks her car in the large office parking lot.
Therefore, she decides to park in the same area of the parking lot every day. She is
using __________ knowledge.
A) metacognitive
B) fluid
C) procedural
D) general factual
Tiffany is a small-for-date baby. This means she
A) was born several weeks or more before her due date.
B) was born below her expected weight considering length of the pregnancy.
C) will probably have much less serious problems than a preterm infant.
D) may have difficulties in infancy but will outgrow them by the preschool years.
Which of the following statements about fetal alcohol syndrome is true?
A) It is distinguished by rapid physical growth and facial abnormalities, but not
cognitive impairment.
B) It is distinguished by slow physical growth, a pattern of three facial abnormalities,
and brain injury.
C) It is extremely rare in the United States.
D) The mental impairment associated with it is temporary.
Jesse is an adolescent who is identity-foreclosed. As such, he will tend to
A) seek out and carefully evaluate information and critically reflect on and revise his
views.
B) doubt that anything can ever be known with certainty.
C) believe rational criteria can be used to make choices.
D) fear rejection by people on whom he depends for affection and self-esteem.
Research suggests that there is a sensitive period, __________, when babies are
biologically prepared to “zero in” on socially meaningful perceptual distinctions.
A) from birth to three months
B) in the first half of the first year
C) in the second half of the first year
D) during the second year of life