A criticism of the information-processing approach is that it
A) focuses too heavily on creativity and imagination.
B) lacks scientific research.
C) has little to say about nonlinear cognition.
D) views children as blank slates.
Newell is fearful and inhibited. Newell will benefit most if his parents
A) adopt an authoritarian child-rearing style.
B) take over and help him solve social problems.
C) become overprotective and restrict his activities.
D) provide extra encouragement to be assertive and express his autonomy.
Brothers, Patrick and Michael, do not look very much alike. Patrick has green eyes and
blond, curly hair like his mother. Michael has blue eyes and dark brown, straight hair
like his father. These directly observable characteristics are
A) phenotypes.
B) genotypes.
C) chromosomes.
D) DNA.
Which of the following statements is true regarding boys’ and girls’ use of computers?
A) Girls more often than boys connect to the Internet to download music.
B) Girls more often than boys use spreadsheets and graphics programs.
C) By the end of elementary school, girls spend more time with computers than boys.
D) More boys than girls rate their computer skills as “excellent.”
Competence, rationality, and assertiveness are examples of __________ traits that are
typically considered to be __________.
A) expressive; feminine
B) expressive; masculine
C) instrumental; feminine
D) instrumental; masculine
Preschoolers seem to use __________ when they must grapple with unfamiliar topics,
too much information, or contradictory facts that they cannot reconcile.
A) illogical reasoning
B) mental representation
C) analogical problem solving
D) logical thought
A special form of communication called __________ separates the experiences of
secure from insecure babies.
A) interactional synchrony
B) harmonious rhythm
C) goodness-of-fit
D) the maternal waltz
A neuroimaging technique that works well in infancy and early childhood is
A) event-related potentials (ERPs).
B) near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).
C) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
D) positron emission tomography (PET).
Ms. Allan developed a test intended to measure eighth-grade children’s knowledge of
mathematics. Although children who took the new test twice received similar scores on
both occasions, the test contained only multiplication problems. Ms. Allan’s test has
__________ reliability and __________ validity.
A) high; low
B) low; low
C) high; high
D) low; high
Gordon, an African-American male, is used to seeing the women in his family going to
work every day. As a result, Gordon will most likely
A) believe that women should stay at home and take care of children.
B) expect to be a stay-at-home father when he becomes an adult.
C) hold rigid stereotypes of males and females.
D) hold less stereotyped views of females than do Caucasian-American children.
__________ is the best available predictor of infant survival and healthy development.
A) Ultrasound
B) Apgar score
C) Maternal age
D) Birth weight
Two-year-old Jonathan asks his father to read him a story before leaving him with a
babysitter. According to Bowlby’s theory of attachment, Jonathan is in the __________
phase.
A) preattachment
B) “attachment-in-the-making”
C) “clear-cut” attachment
D) reciprocal relationship
Elementary and secondary school students describe good teachers as __________,
__________, and __________.
A) fun; easy graders; positive role models
B) laid back; not too serious; funny
C) caring; helpful; stimulating
D) authoritarian; professional; challenging
Girls in the Nyansongo settlement in Kenya are afforded more freedom and
independence than most cultures, which leads them to score higher than
A) boys of other tribal and village cultures in dominance, assertiveness, and playful
roughhousing.
B) boys in caregiving responsibilities and emotional support.
C) girls of other tribal and village cultures in dominance, assertiveness, and playful
roughhousing.
D) girls of other tribal and village cultures in androgyny.
Twelve-year-old Luca comes from a middle-class Italian-American family. With which
of the following individuals is Luca most likely to be friends?
A) 10-year-old Frank, who lives near Luca’s cousin
B) 12-year-old Sam, a low-SES Italian immigrant
C) 13-year-old Aiden, who also comes from a middle-class Italian-American family
D) 14-year-old Hannah, a popular Hispanic girl who plays softball with Luca’s older
sister
Recently, suicide has risen among __________; the current rate approaches that of
__________.
A) African-American females; African-American males
B) African-American males; Caucasian-American males
C) Native-American males; Hispanic males
D) Hispanic males; Hispanic females
Compared to normal-weight children, obese children
A) are less responsive to internal hunger cues.
B) are less responsive to external stimuli associated with food.
C) eat much slower.
D) tend to chew more thoroughly.
Children who possess an incremental view of ability
A) attribute task failure to insufficient ability.
B) tend to give up easily when faced with a challenging task.
C) credit task success to genetics.
D) believe that ability can be increased through effort.
The overall stability of temperament is __________ in infancy and toddlerhood and
__________ from the preschool years on.
A) moderate; high
B) low; moderate
C) low; high
D) high; moderate
Parents with a(n) __________ internal working model of attachment tend to idealize
their own parents without being able to recall specific experiences. What they do recall
is discussed intellectually, with little emotion.
A) autonomous/secure
B) dismissing
C) preoccupied
D) unresolved
Sexual maturation in __________ usually begins with __________.
A) girls; menarche
B) boys; the appearance of pubic hair
C) girls; the budding of the breasts
D) boys; voice change
Research indicates that infants who look and smile more at video images of others than
at video images of themselves
A) have not yet developed self-awareness.
B) are viewing another person as a potential social partner.
C) have a limited self-conceptualization.
D) cannot yet distinguish strangers from familiar caregivers.
Ella is African American. As she goes through middle childhood, she will
A) become less conscious of ethnic stereotypes.
B) become increasingly conscious of ethnic stereotypes.
C) be immediately assigned to remedial classes when she performs poorly on an IQ test.
D) be indifferent to ethnic stereotypes.
__________ exposes children to great breadth of language knowledge, and is especially
helpful in modeling how to communicate in a clear, coherent narrative style.
A) Independent exploration of picture books
B) Dialogue with caregivers about storybooks
C) Reading aloud with same-age peers
D) Observing adults’ conversations
Harley was born with Klinefelter syndrome. Which of the following statements is true?
A) Harley is missing an X chromosome.
B) Harley has an extra Y chromosome.
C) Harley will probably need hormone therapy at puberty to stimulate development of
sex characteristics.
D) Harley will probably need special education to treat spatial ability problems.
Which of the following children is likely to display the most intense anger reaction?
A) a hungry newborn
B) a bored 6-month-old
C) a 12-month-old who has just had a toy taken away by a playmate
D) an 18-month-old who has been put down for an unwanted nap
Which of the following teenagers is more likely to use cigarettes, alcohol, hard drugs,
or marijuana to self-medicate for anxiety and depression?
A) Nicole, a middle-SES female who lives in a rural area
B) Natalie, a low-SES female who lives in an inner-city neighborhood
C) Nathan, a low-SES male who lives in an inner-city neighborhood
D) Nick, a high-SES male who lives in the suburbs
Researchers use __________ to infer the role of heredity in complex human
characteristics.
A) gene”environment interaction
B) heritability estimates
C) canalization
D) niche-picking
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS)
A) is specially designed for use with newborns at risk for developmental problems.
B) is useful in Western cultures, but is not helpful in cross-cultural evaluations.
C) evaluates a baby’s reflexes, muscle tone, state changes, and responsiveness to
physical and social stimuli.
D) evaluates a baby’s skin color, complexion, pulse rate, reflex irritability, muscle tone,
and breathing.
In __________, the amount of time children spend with parents __________.
A) early childhood; declines steadily
B) middle childhood; declines dramatically
C) adolescence; fluctuates
D) middle childhood; rises dramatically
Which of the following grammatical morphemes is acquired earliest by
English-speaking children?
A) noun possessive (Mary‘s cat)
B) verb present progressive ending (Laura jumping)
C) noun plural (Boys)
D) verb regular past tense ending (She spilled)
ERP brain-wave recordings reveal that around 5 months, babies
A) become sensitive to syllable stress patterns in their own language.
B) begin to prefer the sound of their mother’s voice.
C) divide the speech stream into wordlike units.
D) have no statistical learning capacity.
Ms. Xavier opposes physical punishment in schools. She believes that such punishment
makes children fear teachers. Ms. Xavier is most aligned with which historical
prospective?
A) medieval times
B) the Reformation
C) the Enlightenment
D) the Puritans, after they emigrated to the New World