Compared to his Caucasian-American agemates, Leonard, an African-American fourth
grader, is more likely to have
A) low self-esteem.
B) a weaker sense of ethnic pride.
C) higher self-esteem and a stronger sense of ethnic pride.
D) lower self-esteem, but a stronger sense of ethnic pride.
From third to sixth grade, boys tend to __________ their identification with
“masculine” personality traits, whereas girls’ identification with “feminine” personality
traits __________.
A) strengthen; declines
B) weaken; strengthens
C) steadily maintain; accelerates over time
D) weaken; remains steady
Which of the following statements about nontraditional students is true?
A) They especially value forming new relationships and sharing opinions.
B) They rarely require academic advising assistance.
C) They do not qualify for professional internship opportunities.
D) Most reap great personal benefits but do not do well academically.
Among new marriages in the United States, _____ percent are between partners of a
different race or ethnicity.
A) 10
B) 15
C) 20
D) 25
Around 7 to 9 months, infants
A) can detect words that start with weak syllables.
B) start to talk in sentences.
C) begin to prefer their native language to foreign languages.
D) begin to divide the speech stream into wordlike units.
__________ contributes to preschoolers’ improved emotional self-regulation.
A) Permissive child rearing
B) Authoritarian child rearing
C) Language
D) Family size
Educators who advocate a phonics approach argue that
A) as long as reading is kept whole and meaningful, children will be motivated to
discover the specific skills they need.
B) from the beginning, children should be exposed to text in its complete form.
C) reading should be taught in a way that parallels natural language learning.
D) children should learn the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds
before being given complex reading material.
Which of the following statements about diets and dieters is true?
A) About one-third of Americans on weight-reduction diets are within their normal
weight range.
B) Diet programs utilizing group counseling are less effective than programs with
individual counseling.
C) Most dieters lose weight and maintain their weight loss for five or more years.
D) Repeat dieters are more likely than weight-loss maintainers to confront problems
directly.
At Kohlberg’s __________ level, morality is externally controlled.
A) preconventional
B) conventional
C) postconventional
D) universal ethical
Which of the following statements about emotional self-regulation is true?
A) Collectivist cultures place less emphasis on socially appropriate emotional behavior
than individualistic cultures.
B) Girls get more training than boys in suppressing negative emotions.
C) By the end of the first year, Chinese and Japanese infants smile and cry less than
American infants.
D) By the end of the first year, Chinese and Japanese infants smile and cry more than
American infants.
Coating the neural fibers with an insulating fatty sheath during the process of
__________ improves the efficiency of message transfer.
A) myelination
B) neuroimaging
C) synaptic pruning
D) neurotransmission
Girls __________ are more likely to become lesbian or bisexual.
A) who are later in birth order
B) exposed prenatally to very high levels of androgens or estrogens
C) who have a higher-than-average number of older brothers
D) who are gender-deviant in dress or behavior
Two-year old Mason placed a crayon on paper and quickly drew a line across the page,
explaining, “Car zooms!” Which of the following statements best describes Mason’s
drawing progress?
A) His gestures rather than the resulting scribbles contained the intended representation.
B) His gesture made a recognizable shape, and then he labeled it.
C) He used lines to represent the boundaries of objects.
D) His drawing contained perceptual distortions because he had just begun to represent
depth.
People who cohabit after separation or divorce __________ than never-married
cohabiters.
A) are more likely to move toward marriage
B) report stronger relationship commitment
C) have poorer-quality relationships
D) cohabit longer
_________ adults are better than __________ adults at coping with stress.
A) Young; middle-aged
B) Middle-aged; young
C) Lower-SES; high-SES
D) Male; female
Sixteen-year-old Max has been introspective lately. He has been wondering who he
really is, thinking about his values, and pondering the direction he will pursue in the
future. Max is
A) considering a moral dilemma.
B) adopting his parents’ values as his own.
C) constructing his identity.
D) building his self-esteem.
Which of the following is Tord most likely to experience in his Finnish classroom?
A) ability grouping and emphasis on individual achievement
B) emphasis on native ability
C) a nationally mandated curriculum aimed at cultivating creativity
D) intense competition and rote memorization
Today, Albert Bandura’s theory stresses the importance of
A) behavior modification.
B) punishment.
C) cognition.
D) reinforcement.
Thomas decreased his activity level and interacted less frequently as he aged. He
became more preoccupied with his inner life. At the same time, society freed Thomas
from employment and family responsibilities. According to the __________ theory,
mutual withdrawal between Thomas and society took place in anticipation of death.
A) activity
B) socioemotional selectivity
C) continuity
D) disengagement
Six-month-old Eva drops her teething ring in a fairly rigid way, simply letting go and
watching it with interest. This example demonstrates Piaget’s belief that, at first,
schemes are
A) sensorimotor action patterns.
B) deliberate.
C) creative.
D) awkward and disorganized.
Midlife career changes
A) are seldom radical.
B) typically involve leaving one line of work for an unrelated one.
C) are often extreme.
D) are rarely successful.
According to Vaillant, men become “keepers of meaning,” or guardians of their culture,
in their
A) twenties.
B) thirties and forties.
C) fifties and sixties.
D) seventies.
Which of the following statements about school transitions is true?
A) Grade point averages increase and feelings of anonymity decline after each school
change.
B) Girls fare better than boys with both the middle- and high school transitions.
C) Adolescents facing added strains at school transitions are at greatest risk for
self-esteem and academic difficulties.
D) For well-adjusted youths, grade point averages tend to increase with the high school
transition.
Piaget acknowledged that __________ is our most flexible means of mental
representation.
A) imagination
B) language
C) intentional behavior
D) deferred imitation
Three-year-old Nathan is a gender-schematic child. Because Nathan does not like
raisins, he is likely to conclude that
A) nobody likes raisins.
B) only girls like raisins.
C) only boys like raisins.
D) everybody else likes raisins.
The __________ reflex protects an infant from strong stimulation.
A) moro
B) eye blink
C) sucking
D) palmar grasp
__________ gene”environment correlation becomes common at older ages.
A) Passive
B) Active
C) Evocative
D) Stagnant
Which of the following statements about caregivers of older adults with dementia is
true?
A) The majority of home caregivers are older adults themselves.
B) Caregiving of older adults with dementia is sometimes known as the “36-hour day”
because of its constant demands.
C) Few communities offer interventions designed to support family caregivers.
D) The number of hours dedicated to caregiving decreases with caregiver age.
According to Bandura’s revised social-cognitive theory, as children grow older they
A) become more selective in what they imitate.
B) become less selective in what they imitate.
C) imitate more than they model.
D) respond more favorably to punishment than reinforcement.
With regard to teaching mathematics, most experts agree that
A) a blend of both drill in computing and “number sense,” or understanding, is most
beneficial.
B) complex skills can only be learned by drill in computation and rote memorization.
C) reasoning about number concepts should replace drill in computation in elementary
school.
D) because children need to retrieve mathematical answers automatically, children
should be exclusively taught by rote.
Which of the following statements about research on homosexuality is true?
A) There is limited information about the sex lives of homosexuals because many
people who are gay do not report themselves as such in surveys.
B) Unlike heterosexuals, homosexuals tend to seek out partners with vastly different
educational and economic backgrounds to themselves.
C) In homosexual relationships, partners in committed relationships report having sex
less often and being less satisfied than singles who are casually dating.
D) Unlike heterosexuals, homosexuals report that the overall frequency of sex in
committed relationships is high.