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TEST BANK
CHAPTER 1: BASIC CONCEPTS AND METHODS
Multiple Choice Questions
TB_01_01_An Introduction to Human Development_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
The field of __________________ is the scientific study of age-related changes in behavior, thinking, emotion, and
personality.
A) biology
B) psychology
C) human development
TB_01_02_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
The Christian doctrine of ________ is the basis for the theory that human development occurs as a result of how
well or how poorly someone does at overcoming their innately sinful nature.
A) original sin
B) blank slate
C) behaviorism
D) innate goodness
TB_01_03_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following believed that humans are selfish by nature and must seek spiritual rebirth through religious
training?
A) St. Jean Rousseau
B) Augustine
C) John Locke
D) St. Mary
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TB_01_04_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
Who was the philosopher who believed that children are born with a mind that is a blank slate?
A) John Luc
B) Charles Darwin
C) Jean-Jacques Rousseau
TB_01_05_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
The ideas of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would suggest that the basis for human development is
A) a result of the struggle between an individual’s original sin nature and the Holy Spirit.
B) an individual’s response to external, environmental influences.
C) empiricism.
D) an individual’s effort to overcome his or her inborn potential.
TB_01_06_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
As a developmental psychologist, I believe that humans possess no inborn abilities and that a child’s parents can
mold them into whatever they want them to be. Which of the following would best describe my beliefs?
A) Empiricism
B) Innate goodness
C) Original sin
D) Darwinism
TB_01_07_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
The idea that the earth contains a wide variety of life forms, and that humans have developed as a result of the
interaction of heredity and environment, was proposed by
A) John Locke.
B) Charles Darwin.
C) Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
D) John Hall.
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TB_01_08_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following assertions regarding lifespan development can be attributed to both G. Stanley Hall and
Charles Darwin?
A) Humans evolved from other animals.
B) Biology dictates human personality.
C) Environment dictates healthy development.
D) Norms should be identified for each developmental stage.
TB_01_09_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 1.2
What is the term that Arnold Gesell used to describe genetically programmed sequential patterns of change such as
puberty or menopause?
A) Maturation
B) Growth
C) Social clock
D) Age norms
TB_01_10_Philosophical and Scientific Roots_LO 1.1_APA LO 2.4
What term is used to describe standardized tests that compare an individual child’s score to the average score of
others her age?
A) Empirical tests
B) Norm-referenced tests
C) Content-normed tests
D) Normative metric tests
TB_01_11_ The Lifespan Perspective_LO 1.2_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following best describes your text’s approach to human development?
A) Human development begins at conception and continues throughout the lifespan.
B) Human development begins at birth and becomes relatively stable by adolescence.
C) Human development begins slowly at birth and accelerates as we age.
D) Human development begins with the onset of puberty.
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TB_01_12_The Lifespan Perspective_LO 1.2_APA LO 1.2
If you are born in the 21st century, which of the following statements might apply to you?
A) You may well live to be 100 years old.
B) You are likely to live 30 or more years longer than your parents.
C) If you are the average person, you will live to be 76 years old.
D) Your life expectancy will likely be double that of your grandparents.
TB_01_13_The Lifespan Perspective_LO 1.2_APA LO 1.2
Because of our increasing lifespan, theorists have to include many types of information gathering to complete their
research. Which of the following is one of the key elements emphasized in the newer approaches to lifespan
development?
A) The unidimensional nature of development
B) Interdisciplinary research
C) Extra-generational implications
D) Rigidity
TB_01_14_The Lifespan Perspective_LO 1.2_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following theorists is known for his emphasis on the positive aspects of aging?
A) John Locke
B) Paul Baltes
C) Jean Piaget
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TB_01_15_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
What term is used to describe changes in size, shape, and characteristics of the body?
A) Psychological domain
B) Physical domain
C) Cognitive domain
D) Social domain
TB_01_16_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
What term is used to describe changes in thinking, memory, problem solving, and other intellectual skills?
A) Psychological domain
B) Physical domain
C) Cognitive domain
D) Social domain
TB_01_17_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
What term is used to describe changes in variables that are associated with the relationship of an individual to
others?
A) Psychological domain
B) Physical domain
C) Cognitive domain
D) Social domain
TB_01_18_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
Michael, age 16, has recently gained a considerable amount of weight but has not grown any taller.
Developmentalists would suggest that there is a problem in which of the following domains of developmental
psychology?
A) Physical
B) Cultural
C) Cognitive
D) Social
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TB_01_19_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
Which domain of developmental psychology examines interactions with others?
A) Biological
B) Cultural
C) Social
D) Psychological
TB_01_20_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
Stella, age 12, is in the 6th grade but still reads at a 3rd grade level. Developmentalists would suggest that there is a
problem in which domain of development?
A) Physical
B) Cultural
C) Cognitive
D) Social
TB_01_21_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
The three broad categories that are used to classify changes over the lifespan are called
A) domains of development.
B) domains of change models.
C) evolutionary stages.
D) psychosocial domains.
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TB_01_22_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
Periods of development describe which aspect of developmental theories?
A) Age-related changes
B) Domain-related changes
C) Biological changes
D) Prenatal changes
TB_01_23_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
Not all cultures define the boundaries of adolescence in the same way. For example, if you grew up in Great Britain,
you could do which of the following?
A) Buy alcohol at any age
B) Be unable to drive until the age of 21
C) Join the military at the age of 16
D) Be able to vote at age 15
TB_01_24_The Domains and Periods of Development_LO 1.3_APA LO 1.2
According to your text, when does middle childhood occur?
A) Once a child begins walking
B) Once a child begins talking
C) Once a child enters school
D) Once a child begins puberty
TB_01_25_Nature versus Nurture_LO 1.4_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following are central to the nature-nurture controversy?
A) Environmental continuity and psychological comfort
B) Change triggered by social processes or change caused by cultural influences
C) Inborn biases and genetic predispositions
D) Biological processes and experiential factors
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TB_01_26_Nature versus Nurture_LO 1.4_APA LO 1.2
Juanita’s father died when she was just a baby, but her family insists that she not only looks like him, she acts like
him as well. This might indicate that which of the following had a large impact on her development?
A) Nature
B) Environment
C) Nurture
D) Innate goodness
TB_01_27_Nature versus Nurture_LO 1.4_APA LO 1.2
Developmental psychologists have observed that babies seem to be born predisposed to respond to people in certain
ways, such as crying or smiling, in order to elicit attention from a caregiver. Psychologists call these inherent
tendencies
A) cultural biases.
B) maturational patterns.
C) nature and nurture tensions.
D) inborn biases.
TB_01_28_Nature versus Nurture_LO 1.4_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following is an example from your text of an inborn bias?
A) The fact that all male infants show a propensity toward aggression and female infants are more passive.
B) The fact that there are more blue-eyed children in the United States than brown-eyed children.
C) The fact that, universally, children’s speech begins with single words before proceeding onto sentences.
D) The fact that, universally, all children learn to crawl before they learn to walk.
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TB_01_29_Nature versus Nurture_LO 1.4_APA LO 1.2
“Mom, he’s looking at me! Make him stop!” These remarks imply that the very act of being looked at is offensive to
this child. Mom, on the other hand, doesn’t see the problem. This typical family dilemma illustrates
A) sibling rivalry.
B) nature versus nurture.
C) an issue of cognitive development.
D) internal models of experience.
TB_01_30_Continuity versus Discontinuity_LO 1.5_APA LO 2.4
Qualitative is to quantitative as
A) production is to comprehension.
B) specific is to individual.
C) continuous is to discontinuous.
D) discontinuous is to continuous.
TB_01_31_Continuity versus Discontinuity_LO 1.5_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following terms best describes a change in amount?
A) Qualitative change
B) Quantitative change
C) Significant change
D) Metric change
TB_01_32_Continuity versus Discontinuity_LO 1.5_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following terms best describes a change in kind or type?
A) Qualitative change
B) Quantitative change
C) Significant change
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TB_01_33_Continuity versus Discontinuity_LO 1.5_APA LO 2.4
If puberty begins for girls with the onset of menstruation, puberty could be considered a matter of
A) discontinuity.
B) continuity.
C) quantitative development.
TB_01_34_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following is an example of a normative age-graded change?
A) You have blue eyes even though both of your parents have brown eyes.
B) You are taller now than when you were two years old.
C) You moved to the United States when you were a teen and learned to speak English.
D) You learned to walk before you learned to crawl.
TB_01_35_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Our sense of “the right time” to go to college, marry, have children, or retire is determined by our
A) biological clock.
B) intuition.
C) social clock.
D) cultural and cohort continuity.
TB_01_36_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Roberta married for the first time at age 39, and at age 40 she is pregnant for the first time. She is now considering
starting college to become a computer systems engineer. When Roberta laughingly tells her friends, “I have never
done anything when I was supposed to!” what is she referring to?
A) Her social clock
B) Her biological clock
C) Her psychological clock
D) A critical period
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LO 1.6: How do the three kinds of age-related change differ?
APA LO: 1.2
TB_01_37_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
What is the term for a general negative attitude about aging, typified by the belief that older persons are incompetent
or unable to complete required job functions?
A) The social clock
B) Dotage pathway
C) Ageism
D) Maturity
TB_01_38_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
What is the term for changes that occur in most members of a cohort as a result of factors at work during a specific,
well-defined historical period?
A) Nonnormative change
B) General normative change
C) Normative age-graded change
D) Normative history-graded change
TB_01_39_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
What is the term for changes that result from unique, unshared events?
A) Nonnormative change
B) General normative change
C) Normative age-graded change
D) Normative history-graded change
TB_01_40_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
The basic idea that there may be significant periods in development when an organism is especially sensitive to the
presence or absence of some particular kind of experience or influence is referred to as a
A) cohort influence.
B) critical period.
C) collectivist cultural influence.
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TB_01_41_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Humans learn languages best in their childhood. In fact, some research indicates that if a child doesn’t learn to speak
a formal language before the age of 6, they may never learn to speak well at all. This would best illustrate which of
the following?
A) Critical period
B) Normative age graded changes
C) Individual differences
D) Cultural specificity
TB_01_42_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following best defines the sensitive period?
A) A time of psychological fragility, usually due to some type of loss such as the death of a spouse, termination of
employment, deterioration due to aging, etc.
B) The period of time during which developmental norms for physical development are reached or achieved.
C) A specific period in development when an organism is particularly responsive to specific forms of experience or
particularly influenced by their absence.
D) The time when the tension between nature and nurture is resolved in an organism’s development.
TB_01_43_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following is the best example of an “off–time” event that could have negative effects upon an
individual’s development?
A) The deaths of elderly parents
B) Being divorced at the age of 25
C) The death of one’s spouse at the age of 30
D) Experiencing a life-threatening illness at the age of 60
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TB_01_44_Three Kinds of Change_LO 1.6_APA LO 1.2
Adults in London, England, who were teenagers living there during the bombings of World War II, all report that
their lives were changed by those events. This exemplifies which of the following?
A) Normative age-graded changes
B) Normative critical periods
C) Normative history-graded changes
D) Non-normative life events
TB_01_45_Research Report_LO 1.7_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following is a finding of Glen Elder, et al., on individuals who grew up during the Great Depression?
A) The cohort born in 1920 suffered more than the cohort born in 1928.
B) Teenage girls were more likely than teenage boys to be forced into the work place prematurely because of
economic hardship.
C) Teenagers whose families experienced severe economic difficulty assumed adult responsibility prematurely.
D) The adolescents who were forced prematurely into the work force were better adjusted as adults.
TB_01_46_Contexts of Development_LO 1.7_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following developmental outcomes would be illustrative of the concept of vulnerability?
A) Very low IQ scores are more common among children who were born with a low birth weight and who are
reared in highly stressed, uninvolved families.
B) Normal birth weight infants born into upper socioeconomic status families invariably have superior levels of
intelligence.
C) Children born into caring, facilitative families rarely have sufficient protective factors to overcome or offset all
vulnerabilities that might potentially affect their development.
D) Positive developmental outcome is possible only for children with few vulnerabilities and many protective
factors.
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TB_01_47_Contexts of Development_LO 1.7_APA LO 1.2
Which of the following best defines a system of meanings and customs shared by an identifiable group and
transmitted across generations?
A) Age strata
B) Cohort
C) Collective identity
D) Culture
TB_01_48_The Goals of Developmental Science_LO 1.8_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following best describes the goals of developmental science?
A) To describe, explain, predict, and influence development
B) To understand and explain social norms
C) To study cohort effects across cultures
D) To explain, record, and influence human differences
TB_01_49_The Goals of Developmental Science_LO 1.8_APA LO 2.4
Sets of statements that propose general principles to explain development are known as
A) cross-sectional designs.
B) hypotheses.
C) theories.
D) constructs.
TB_01_50_The Goals of Developmental Science_LO 1.8_APA LO 2.4
Predictions that can be tested in an effort to explain human development are known as
A) theories.
B) hypotheses.
C) experiments.
D) constructs.
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LO 1.8: What are the goals of scientists who study human development?
APA LO: 2.4
TB_01_51_The Goals of Developmental Science_LO 1.8_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following statements is the BEST example of a hypothesis about human development?
A) Cross-cultural studies have determined that human breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infant brain
development.
B) Human breast milk contains nutrients that are essential for the formation of neurons and synapses in an infant’s
developing brain.
C) Because human breast milk is a superior form of nutrition for infants, all newly-delivered women should be
encouraged to breast feed their infants.
D) If breast milk is a superior supplement for infant brain development, children who were breast-fed as infants
should perform better on psychological tests than children who were not breast fed.
TB_01_52_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
Of the following, which is the BEST example of naturalistic observation?
A) The school psychologist has administered aptitude tests to the sophomore class of Martin Luther King, Jr. High
School.
B) A researcher interested in the effects of caffeine upon learning provides high-caffeine drinks to an experimental
group who are being taught a complicated game and provides caffeine-free drinks to a control group who are being
taught the same game.
C) A serial killer is subjected to a battery of psychological exams and intensive interviews in an effort to determine
the factors that influenced his developmental pathway to homicidal behavior.
D) Researchers interested in children’s gender-related interactions videotape children while they are playing during
recess and while they are engaged in cooperative learning assignments in their classrooms.
TB_01_53_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
The Maple Leaf Elementary School counselor, social worker, and the parents of eight-year-old Jimmy Jackson are
working as a cooperative team to determine why Jimmy exhibits a pattern of highly aggressive behavior toward his
peers and teachers. Jimmy’s behavior has been extensively observed, he has been subjected to a battery of
psychological tests, and his parents have been interviewed. This in-depth examination of Jimmy Jackson is an
example of
A) an ethnograph.
B) naturalistic observation.
C) a correlational study.
D) a case study.
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LO 1.9: What descriptive methods do developmental scientists use?
APA LO: 2.4
TB_01_54_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
How does observation in the laboratory differ from naturalistic observation?
A) There is no difference. The two terms are synonymous.
B) The researcher has more control over variables if they choose the natural environment carefully.
C) The researcher in a laboratory setting has some level of control over the variables that might influence the
participants’ behavior.
D) Laboratory observation is considered experimentation, while naturalistic observation is a descriptive method of
research.
TB_01_55_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
What is the term for the research method in which data is collected through participant responses to questions?
A) Experimental study
B) Correlational study
C) Survey
D) Case study
TB_01_56_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following is a true statement about correlations?
A) A correlation of zero indicates a strong relationship between two variables.
B) A correlation of –1.00 indicates a weak relationship between two variables.
C) A correlation of +1.00 provides clear evidence that one variable has a causative effect upon the other.
D) Correlations can range from –1.00 to +1.00 and describe the strength of a relationship between two variables.
TB_01_57_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
Researchers have found that children born to mothers who smoke during and after pregnancy are more likely to
develop respiratory illness. This is an example of which of the following?
A) A negative correlation
B) An experimental finding
C) A strong correlation
D) A positive correlation
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TB_01_58_Descriptive Methods_LO 1.9_APA LO 2.4
You are a taking part in a survey that asks about your attitudes toward the physical punishment of children. Even
though you believe that spanking is sometimes necessary, you answer that you are opposed to any sort of physical
punishment. Which of the following terms best describes why you answered the way that you did?
A) Social desirability
B) Experimenter bias
C) Randomness
D) Sample representation
TB_01_59_The Experimental Method_LO 1.10_APA LO 2.4
Which of the following is a key feature of an experimental study?
A) Controls for cohort effects
B) Nonrandom assignment
C) Absence of a control group
D) An independent variable
TB_01_60_The Experimental Method_LO 1.10_APA LO 2.4
An experiment is designed to study the effects of long lectures on the sleeping behavior of college students. In such
a study, the dependent variable is
A) the sleeping behavior of college students.
B) long lectures.
C) the length of time a lecture runs.
D) college students.