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Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.88 A measure is __________ if the results are consistent over time.
a. representative c. valid
b. reliable d. a sample
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.89 If Mohammed took the same achievement test at three different times and received scores of 100, 55, and 75,
the test would have low levels of
a. validity. c. sampling behavior.
b. representativeness. d. reliability.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.90 __________ refers to whether a measure really measures what it is intended to measure.
a. Validity c. Sampling
b. Reliability d. Stability
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.91 To measure children’s social skills, you decide to use the number of interactions children have with other
children as your measure of social skills. As you collect data, you notice that some children who have many
interactions do not seem to be very socially skilled because many of their interactions are negative. This
makes you question the __________ of your measure.
a. sampling c. validity
b. stability d. reliability
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Hard
1.92 Ludmilla is interested in finding out how children typically learn math concepts. She found a class of gifted
math students willing to be her subjects. What might be an issue with using that particular group of students
as subjects?
a. response bias c. structured setting
b. representative sampling d. cohort effects
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.93 Correlations can range from
a. 0 to 100. c. –1.0 to +1.0.
b. 1 to 10. d. –.10 to .10.
Diff: Moderate
20
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.94 A correlation coefficient of 0 indicates what about the relation between two variables?
a. The two variables are directly related.
b. The two variables are inversely related.
c. The two variables are completely unrelated.
d. This coefficient indicates which variable was the “cause” and which the “effect.”
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.95 In a correlational study
a. factors are manipulated to determine whether they are related.
b. it is possible to determine whether there is a causal relationship between two variables.
c. it is possible to determine whether two variables are related, but not whether there is a causal relationship
between the variables.
d. there is an independent variable and a dependent variable.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.96 A correlation of .82 was found between the number of hours studied and final exam scores. This means that
a. students who studied less received higher exam scores.
b. students who studied less received lower exam scores.
c. studying caused students to receive higher exam scores.
d. the amount of studying was unrelated to exam scores.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.97 Researchers studied the relationship between intelligence and friendship in children. Which of the following
illustrates a negative correlation between the two variables?
a. Children who are smart tend to have fewer friends than children who are not smart.
b. Children who are smart tend to have more friends than children who are not smart.
c. Children who are smart tend to have the same number of friends as children who are not smart.
d. Children’s intelligence is unrelated to the friendship patterns between children.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.98 A high correlation between a child’s behavior (e.g., being aggressive) and that of her parents (e.g., spanking)
indicates that
a. the child’s aggression caused the spanking.
b. the spanking caused the aggression.
c. shared aggressive genes, a third factor, caused the child’s aggression and the parents’ spanking.
Diff: Easy
21
d. aggression and spanking are related, but correlations do not indicate causality.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.99 Imagine the following correlation: The more overweight the child, the slower his or her running speed.
Given only this information, which of the following could be true?
a. Being overweight causes children to run slower.
b. Children who are slow runners are at a higher risk of being overweight.
c. Having respiratory problems (such as asthma) as a child can cause children to run slower and to become
overweight.
d. Both A and B are possible.
e. All of the above could explain the correlation — the researcher would need to do more to find out if any
are actually true.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Hard
1.100 In an experimental study, the ________ is manipulated to observe its effects on another variable.
a. dependent variable c. correlation coefficient
b. independent variable d. random assignment
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.101 A researcher is interested in how the scores that children receive on a spelling test are affected by the amount
of food that they eat for lunch. The independent variable is
a. the age of the children. c. the words on the spelling test.
b. the scores on the spelling test. d. the amount of food eaten for lunch.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.102 Sonja conducts an experiment to determine whether listening to music affects emotional state. She has
children wait alone in a room that either did or did not have music playing and then has them complete a
questionnaire asking about their current level of happiness. The independent variable in this study is
a. how happy they were before the study began.
b. being alone in the room while waiting.
c. whether or not music was playing in the room.
d. their level of happiness as rated on the questionnaire.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.103 The variable in an experiment that is observed to see if it changes when another variable is manipulated is
called the
a. correlation coefficient. c. cohort.
b. independent variable. d. dependent variable.
Diff: Hard
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.104 Yuri is interested in finding out whether exercise affects boys’ and girls’ performance on a memory task. The
dependent variable in this situation is
a. memory performance. c. the age of the children.
b. the amount of exercise. d. gender.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.105 A strength of experimental studies is that
a. they measure behavior in a natural setting.
b. no manipulation of variables is done.
c. they allow conclusions about cause and effect.
d. only a single study is needed to definitely settle a question.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.106 A weakness of experimental studies is that
a. they cannot be used to determine cause and effect.
b. results may not be representative of real-life behavior.
c. they cannot be used in a laboratory setting.
d. they are usually expensive.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.107 Dr. Land conducted a study in a preschool to test his hypothesis that the amount of unstructured time (free
play) in a day affects the amount of unruliness that children display. Teachers systematically varied the
amount of free play each day for a month, and Dr. Land’s research assistants recorded the amount of
unruliness children displayed each day. This study would best be described as a(n)
a. correlational study. c. field experiment.
b. laboratory experiment. d. quasi-experiment.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.108 Professor Jameson is interested in studying the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on early infant
development. Professor Jameson’s study would best be described as a(n)
a. correlational study. c. field experiment.
b. laboratory experiment. d. quasi-experiment.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.109 Marcio studies developmental changes in intelligence by testing one group of subjects when they are 4, 8, 12,
and 16 years of age. What kind of design is Marcio using?
a. self-report c. cross-sectional
b. observational d. longitudinal
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.110 A microgenetic study would best be described as
a. a very short longitudinal study. c. a very short cross-sectional study.
b. a very long longitudinal study. d. a very long cross-sectional study.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.111 Which of the following is a disadvantage of longitudinal studies?
a. the development of “test–wise” subjects
b. the complication of interpretation of differences between groups
c. the sample of subjects over the course of the research stays the same
d. the cost of conducting a longitudinal study is relatively low
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.112 Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of a longitudinal approach?
a. They cannot answer questions about the continuity or discontinuity of behavior.
b. Subject dropout may alter results.
c. Results may be specific to a particular cohort.
d. Repeated testing may distort results.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.113 Cohort effects are most likely to be a problem in __________ studies.
a. experimental c. longitudinal
b. correlational d. cross-sectional
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Hard
1.114 Differences between age groups resulting from environmental events, rather than developmental processes,
are referred to as
a. response biases. c. representative samplings.
b. cohort effects. d. artificial settings.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
24
1.115 The fact that differences between age groups in a cross-sectional study may result as easily from chance
environmental events as from significant developmental processes is
a. an example of the sample constancy problem.
b. a major problem of longitudinal studies.
c. a problem with a random sample from a population of interest.
d. a major disadvantage of the cross-sectional approach.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.116 Olivia wants to find out how many calories children of various ages consume. She asks parents of children
aged 2 to 6 to bring their children to the laboratory for an hour session. While there, children are encouraged
to eat as much as they want. Which of the following designs is Olivia using?
a. longitudinal c. cross-sectional
b. microgenetic d. longitudinal-sequential
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.117 Different sequences of children are tested longitudinally in a study with a
a. cross-sectional design. c. longitudinal-sequential design.
b. longitudinal design. d. microgenetic design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.118 Different sequences of children are tested longitudinally in a study with a
a. cross-sectional design. c. longitudinal-sequential design.
b. longitudinal design. d. microgenetic design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Easy
1.119 Professor Fischer observes three different age groups over a period of 10 years to chart changes in memory.
What kind of research is this?
a. cross-sectional design. c. longitudinal-sequential design.
b. longitudinal design. d. microgenetic design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.120 Which of the following designs used in child-development research provides information about continuity
and allows researchers to determine the presence of practice and cohort effects?
25
a. microgenetic design c. longitudinal-sequential design
b. cross-sectional design d. quasi-experimental design
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.121 Dr. Roberts wants to compare the results of many studies that have looked at the relation between gender and
math ability. Dr. Roberts would find a _______ most appropriate for his needs.
a. microgenetic design c. longitudinal-sequential design
b. meta-analysis d. quasi-experimental design
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.122 ________ is a tool that allows researchers to synthesize the results of many studies to estimate relations
between variables.
a. Quasi-experimental design c. Naturalistic observation
b. Microgenetic design d. Meta-analysis
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.123 Which of the following is an ethical responsibility that researchers have to the participants in their research?
a. Researchers do not need to explain the use of deception in their studies.
b. Children’s data should be linked with their names so that they can be identified easily.
c. Researchers should minimize the potential for harm or stress to their participants.
d. Researchers do not need to describe the research to participants before they decide to participate.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.124 Deciding whether a research study is ethical is
a. usually done by the researcher alone.
b. typically done by a review board.
c. arbitrary because no one has established uniform guidelines for making decisions about whether research
is ethical.
d. determined by whether a study is deemed as being worthy of publication.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
1.125 Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that the human infant is a tabula rasa such that experience molds the
individual.
Diff: Moderate
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage
1.126 The American Psychological Society was formed in 1933 in an effort to bring together an interdisciplinary
group dedicated to improving children’s lives through research.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage
1.127 Applied developmental science uses developmental research to promote healthy development, particularly for
vulnerable children and families.
Chapter Module: Setting the Stage
1.128 A theory is supported when research results match the theory’s predictions.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.129 According to maturational theory, parents should carefully construct their children’s environments so that
behaviors like speech, play, and reasoning will all emerge.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.130 One well-known example of a critical period comes from the work of Lorenz and is work on imprinting.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.131 The ego, one of Freud’s components of personality, tries to resolve the conflicts between one’s biological
desires and society’s standards.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.132 According to Erikson, the challenge during adolescence is to develop a sense of trust in the world.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
Diff: Easy
1.133 According to Erikson, the challenge during early childhood is to develop a sense of initiative.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.134 Adolescents who do not meet the challenge of developing an identity will not establish truly intimate
relationships.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.135 Making a child do extra chores when she doesn’t clean her room is an example of positive reinforcement.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.136 According to Bandura, self-efficacy beliefs help determine when children will imitate others.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.137 During Piaget’s preoperational period, knowledge of the world is based on an infant’s sensory and
motor skills.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.138 Abstract thinking characterizes thought during Piaget’s stage of formal operational thinking.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.139 According to Vygotsky, a child’s development must be considered against the backdrop of his or her culture’s
beliefs, customs, and skills.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.140 Piaget viewed development as an apprenticeship in which children develop when they work with skilled
adults, including teachers and parents.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.141 According to the contextual perspective, development reflects children’s efforts to understand the world.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
1.142 The belief that outgoing 5-year-olds become outgoing adults is consistent with the belief that development is
discontinuous.
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
1.143 Development is shaped by the interaction of nature and nurture.
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
1.144 The view that children are active in their development means that children are at the mercy of their
environments.
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
1.145 Structured observations may be difficult to use with behaviors that are rare or that typically occur in private
settings.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.146 A strength of correlational research is that it can be used to determine cause and effect.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.147 A correlation coefficient of .85 indicates that two variables are positively related (e.g., children who watch
many violent TV shows are more aggressive).
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
29
1.148 A correlation coefficient of -.85 indicates that there is no relationship between two variables (e.g., children’s
aggressive behavior and watching violent TV shows are not related).
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.149 The results of a correlational study illustrate the causal relationship between the two variables of interest.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.150 A strength of field experiments is that the results are more likely to be representative of behavior in real–
world settings than results obtained in a laboratory.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.151 A field experiment typically involves examining the impact of an independent variable by using groups that
were not created with random assignment.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.152 One strength of cross-sectional studies is that they allow researchers to chart the continuity or discontinuity of
behavior.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.153 One disadvantage of cross-sectional studies is that repeated testing may change participants’ behaviors.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.154 Different sequences of children are tested longitudinally in a microgenetic design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
1.155 Research participants do not need to be told if deception is part of an experiment.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Diff: Moderate
Answer: False
Page(s): 34
Type: Conceptual
Rationale: Researchers are ethically required to notify participants about deception.
1.156 Children’s names should be linked with their data so that they are easy to identify.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Answer: False
Page(s): 34
Type: Conceptual
Rationale: Participants’ names should be anonymous or confidential.
1.157 Children under the age of 18 are not legally capable of giving informed consent to participate in research,
therefore their parents or guardians must be asked for consent as well.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Answer: True
Page(s): 34
Type: Factual
Rationale: Children are minors and are not legally capable of giving consent.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS
1.158 Name and briefly describe the eight stages of Erikson’s psychosocial development theory.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
Page(s): 10
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.159 Name and briefly describe the four stages of Piaget’s cognitive development theory.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
Page(s): 13
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.160 Summarize the five developmental perspectives (e.g., biological, psychodynamic, etc.) and list which theories
belong with each perspective.
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
Page(s): 14
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.161 Describe four themes or issues that often arise in the study of child development.
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
Page(s): 16–18
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.162 Using self-reports is a special case of using tasks to measure children’s behavior. Describe the strengths and
weaknesses of self-reports.
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
Page(s): 21–22
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.163 Describe the correlational and experimental research designs. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each
design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 24–28
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.164 Describe longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs. What are strengths and weaknesses of each
design?
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 29–33
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.165 Describe the four key guidelines of ethical research.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 33–34
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
1.166 Do you believe that the potential benefits to research justify the use of deception by the researcher? Support
your answer.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 34
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Hard
Answer: A good answer will include the following key points:
33
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1.167 Your sister Kumi is having problems with her 2-year-old daughter. Your niece, Kayla, has been throwing
tantrums to get her own way. As you watch Kumi and Kayla interact, you see that Kumi will say “no” to
Kayla, Kayla will scream and cry, and then Kumi will give in to her. What can you tell Kumi about the
principles of operant conditioning that might help her deal with the situation?
Chapter Module: Foundational Theories of Child Development
Page(s): 10–11
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.168 Your friends have a new baby girl named Kaycee and they have told you that they can’t wait to raise her
because they will create a wonderful environment that Kaycee will love. For example, they will never let
Kaycee watch worthless shows on television, and she will love to read because they will read to her all the
time when she is a baby. What can you tell your friends about the issue of the child being active versus
passive in her development?
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
Page(s): 17
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.169 One day you and a friend are talking and your friend states, “Development is the result of the genes that you
inherit, and those genes put you on a developmental path that stays the same throughout your life.” What can
you tell your friend about the issues of nature versus nurture and continuity versus discontinuity?
Chapter Module: Themes in Child-Development Research
Page(s): 16–17
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.170 A researcher is interested in studying cooperative and competitive behavior in siblings. How might he or she
use (1) systematic observations, and (2) self-reports to measure sibling behavior? Explain each type of
measure, and give an example of how each could be used to measure cooperation and competition between
siblings.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 20-22
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.171 Using examples from everyday life, explain why a correlation between two variables does not prove a cause
and effect relation between the variables.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 24–26
Type: Conceptual
Diff: Hard
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.172 A researcher wants to see if watching a violent movie leads to more aggressive behavior in preschool
children. How should the researcher proceed? Be sure to discuss sampling, assignment to conditions, and
choice of independent and dependent variables.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 26–27
Type: Applied
Diff: Hard
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following:
1.173 A researcher wants to examine the changes in the stability of friendship between first and third grade. Should
the researcher use a cross-sectional or a longitudinal design? Explain your choice. Give the advantages and
disadvantages of each design.
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 29–33
Type: Applied
Diff: Hard
1.174 Two first-grade teachers were interested in boys’ aggressive behavior that seemed to happen during recess.
One teacher believed that the aggressive behavior was more likely to happen when the boys and girls got to
play together during recess while the other teacher believed that the boys’ aggressive behavior was worse
when they played among themselves. To settle their debate, for one week they had the boys play alone
(without the girls) during recess. The following week they had the boys play with the girls during recess.
The teachers monitored boys’ aggressive behavior each week. What potential ethical problems do these
teachers have? How could this problem be corrected and avoided?
Chapter Module: Doing Child-Development Research
Page(s): 33–34
Type: Applied
Diff: Moderate
Answer: A good answer will be similar to the following: