Research on low-level lead exposure and children’s development indicates that
A) low blood levels are associated with early onset diabetes.
B) higher blood levels are associated with distractibility, overactivity, and behavior
problems.
C) the majority of children overcome any negative cognitive effects by adolescence.
D) early exposure to lead can be neutralized by fluoride treatments in drinking water.
Which of the following children most likely receives more direct training in gender
roles?
A) Carole, age 4
B) Cindy, age 8
C) Jan, age 12
D) Marcia, age 16
In a sequential design,
A) participants are presented with a novel task, and researchers follow their mastery
over a series of closely spaced sessions.
B) groups of people differing in age are studied at the same point in time.
C) researchers conduct several cross-sectional or longitudinal investigations.
D) participants are studied repeatedly at different ages, and changes are noted as they
get older.
According to Piaget, 4-year-olds cannot solve a conservation-of-liquid problem because
they
A) focus on the height of the water, failing to realize that changes in width compensate
for the changes in height.
B) do not notice the difference in appearance between the water levels in the two
glasses.
C) have limited experience with the task materials.
D) do not understand the point of the question, “Which glass holds more water?”
Research on ethnic differences in IQ shows that
A) the black”white IQ gap disappears when parental education and income are held
constant.
B) both Hispanic-American and African-American children score, on average, 10 IQ
points below American white children.
C) no ethnic differences in mental test scores exist during the first few years of life.
D) ethnicity and SES account for only about one-fourth of the total variation in IQ.
Autobiographical memory refers to representations of
A) what occurs generally and the specific time frame in which it occurs.
B) fuzzy information that preserves essential content without specific details.
C) one-time events that are long-lasting because they are imbued with personal
meaning.
D) the vast, intricately organized knowledge system in long-term memory.
Bao, a 10-year-old growing up in China, is more likely to list __________ as a fear than
children of a similar age in the United States.
A) adult criticism
B) the possibility of war
C) the possibility of natural disasters
D) threats to parental health
Girls and women whose prenatal androgen levels were abnormally high show
__________ spatial rotation tasks.
A) below-average performance on
B) superior performance on
C) little interest in
D) an inability to comprehend
On average, a preschooler from a low-income family is read to for a total of _____
hours during early childhood, a middle-income child for _____ hours.
A) 25; 1,000
B) 100; 500
C) 500; 2,500
D) 1,000; 10,000
To study childhood and adolescent thought, Piaget
A) used psychoanalysis.
B) conducted open-ended clinical interviews.
C) observed young people from diverse cultures.
D) relied on classical and operant conditioning.
Which of the following is a biased social-cognitive attribution of proactively aggressive
children?
A) extremely low self-esteem
B) overly high self-esteem
C) high rates of empathy
D) advanced moral reasoning
The field of child development
A) is devoted to understanding human constancy and change throughout the lifespan.
B) is part of a larger, interdisciplinary field known as developmental science.
C) focuses primarily on children’s physical and emotional development.
D) focuses primarily on infants’ and children’s social and cognitive development.
The most effective sex education programs
A) focus on abstinence.
B) provide specific information about contraceptives and ready access to them.
C) last only a few sessions.
D) target teenagers who are already sexually active.
Which function of the family unit of our evolutionary ancestors was responsible for
training the young to become competent, participating group members?
A) reproduction
B) socialization
C) economic services
D) social order
One advantage of using meta-analysis to study sex differences is that it
A) allows conclusions based on single studies.
B) calculates conclusions using small samples.
C) provides an estimate of the size of the sex differences.
D) requires little data, yet provides precise information.
An investigator conducted a study in a second-grade classroom. She obtained
permission from the teacher and the principal only. Which of the following research
rights was violated?
A) protection from harm
B) beneficial treatments
C) informed consent
D) privacy
Which of the following statements is true about the effects of lead exposure in
childhood?
A) A stressed, disorganized home life seems to heighten lead-induced damage.
B) Investigators agree that the greatest period of vulnerability is middle childhood.
C) Children given drugs to induce excretion of lead (chelation) improve dramatically.
D) Negative cognitive consequences are not evident when the level of lead exposure is
below 10 g/dL.
__________-style toddlers think words are for naming things, whereas
__________-style toddlers believe words are for talking about people’s feelings and
needs.
A) Referential; expressive
B) Objective; social
C) Receptive; expressive
D) Expressive; referential
Temper tantrums tend to occur because toddlers
A) frequently compete with siblings for desired toys.
B) are easily overwhelmed and often have a difficult temperament.
C) recall that crying as an infant got them immediate adult attention.
D) cannot control the intense anger that often arises when an adult rejects their
demands.
During the college years, students’ exposure to multiple viewpoints leads to
A) a short-term identity crisis.
B) a greater risk for uncertainty and lower self-esteem.
C) the development of a more complex self-concept.
D) the formation of an unchanging set of traits and values.
According to the dynamic systems perspective, development occurs when
A) behavior is actively reorganized following a change in any part of the child’s
integrated system.
B) a child internalizes the behaviors of more skilled members of society.
C) a child is in the sensitive period for a particular behavior.
D) disequilibrium is experienced by the child in the home environment.
A zero correlation coefficient indicates __________ relationship.
A) a strong positive
B) a strong negative
C) a weak positive or negative
D) no
Which of the following activities would promote experience-expectant brain growth?
A) reading
B) writing
C) playing a computer game
D) singing a song
Research indicates that amount of TV viewing is negatively related to 8- to
18-month-olds’
A) motor development.
B) language process.
C) analogical problem solving.
D) visual development.
Higher-IQ children and adolescents tend to
A) have authoritarian parents.
B) struggle with anxiety and depression.
C) be bored at school.
D) be better-liked by their agemates.
Mr. and Mrs. Merkle have a daughter and a son. They are most likely to
A) work hard to assign “cross-gender” chores to their children to avoid gender
stereotyping.
B) assign their son chores that keep him close to home but allow their daughter to
engage in activities that take her further into the community.
C) pair control with autonomy for their daughter and engage in restrictive parenting
with their son.
D) use more directive speech with their daughter and grant their son more autonomy.
Tarah and her friends frequently engage in conversations about sexuality and romance.
This aspect of close friendship
A) provides opportunities to explore the self.
B) provides a foundation for future intimate relationships.
C) helps young people deal with the stresses of everyday life.
D) improves attitudes toward and involvement in school.
False-belief understanding is linked to gains in young children’s capacity to
A) discuss thoughts and feelings in conversations with friends.
B) correctly identify risky social situations.
C) understand that people always act consistently with their desires.
D) avoid making scale errors.
Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, Caucasian-American parents, regularly use physical punishment
with their son Max. Max will probably
A) develop respect for adults.
B) avoid delinquent peers.
C) show a decrease in aggressive behavior.
D) engage in aggressive and antisocial behavior.
According to an evolutionary perspective, the adult life of our male ancestors was
largely oriented toward
A) competing for mates.
B) hunting for food.
C) protecting the clan.
D) child rearing.
During the elementary school years, vocabulary increases __________, eventually
exceeding comprehension of _____ words.
A) twofold; 25,000
B) threefold; 30,000
C) threefold; 60,000
D) fourfold; 40,000
Describe pragmatic development, including factors that support early communication
skills.
Cite at least five ways to reduce children’s gender stereotyping and gender-role
conformity.
Describe and evaluate Gilligan’s claim that Kohlberg’s approach to moral development
underestimates the moral maturity of females.
Describe how children grapple with false beliefs as they develop a theory of mind.
Describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage of development, including follow-up research on
Piaget’s ideas.
Discuss the limitations of preoperational thought from Piaget’s point of view.
How do children use their categorical self in the development of their self-awareness?
Define educational self-fulfilling prophecies, and discuss how teacher bias affects
students.
What is emerging adulthood, and why do critics argue against calling it a “distinct
period of development”?
Discuss the concept of stranger anxiety.
What are scripts, and how do they influence memory and understanding in everyday
life?
What do adoption studies reveal about the effects of heredity and environment on IQ?
Summarize differences between continuous and discontinuous development.
Describe the core knowledge perspective of cognitive development.
Discuss the factors that contribute to adolescent moodiness.
Describe ethnography, noting its strengths and limitations.
Discuss attachment security in skipped-generation families.
Summarize the advantages of bilingualism, and describe a current approach to bilingual
education in the United States.