1. Psychology 41 - Life Span
Pretest - Chapters 1, 2
Summer 2009
1. The study of human development may best be described as an attempt to understand:
A) how and why people from diverse cultures are different.
B) how children learn to speak and understand language.
C) how and why people change and stay the same across the lifespan.
D) how humans and animals are similar and different.
2. The ecological-systems approach to the study of human development maintains that in order to understand
an individual's development, one needs to examine the:
A) historical context.
B) individual's family.
C) schools and community.
D) interplay between the individual, the family, schools and community and historical context.
3. The life-span approach:
A) examines the links between childhood and adulthood.
B) is only concerned with adulthood and old age.
C) is primarily concerned with characteristics of individuals that remain the same.
D) is interested in universalities across people, not in their differences.
4. A major contextual influence on development is:
A) genetics.
B) brain chemistry.
C) social class.
D) height.
5. Identify the group that is considered to be a cohort:
A) individuals born in the 1960s
B) individuals born in Asia
C) women who vote
D) men on public assistance
6. Dora, who is 75 years old, disagrees completely with her teenage granddaughter about the proper role of
women. Their arguments are most likely to arise from differences in which context?
A) cultural
B) ethnic
C) historical
D) socioeconomic
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2. 7. The values, assumptions, customs, clothing, technologies, and art that a group of people have developed
over the years as a design for living are referred to as their:
A) culture.
B) cohort.
C) ethnicity.
D) environment.
8. If a group of people have the same ancestors, religion, and language, they are said to be part of the same:
A) nation.
B) racial group.
C) culture.
D) ethnic group.
9. Michelle has an extreme phobia toward germs, causing her to wash her hands compulsively. The most
appropriate approach in treating her phobia is:
A) multidirectional.
B) multicontextual.
C) multidisciplinary.
D) multicultural
10. The scientific method:
A) is used only for the “hard” sciences, such as physics.
B) always involves conducting experiments.
C) requires systematic testing of hypotheses.
D) is not generally used in psychology, as it is quite susceptible to researcher bias.
11. Prior to drawing conclusions from a research study conducted in accordance with the scientific method,
what process must occur?
A) make findings available
B) refute the hypothesis
C) test the hypothesis
D) replicate the study
12. John is about to test his idea that giving children a good breakfast helps them learn more quickly than
children who haven't had a good breakfast. John's idea is a(n):
A) theory.
B) hypothesis.
C) experiment.
D) research question.
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3. 13. Scientific observation would probably be the best choice for a researcher interested in:
A) beliefs of parents about the drinking behavior of their children.
B) adolescents' risky sexual behavior.
C) obtaining extensive information about a single adolescent's nutritional behavior.
D) the frequency of bullying during school recess periods.
14. In comparing experiments with observations:
A) observations allow the researchers greater control over the test conditions.
B) experiments provide opportunity to examine more possible explanations.
C) experiments better enable the researcher to establish cause.
D) conclusions from observations apply more accurately to the general population.
15. A researcher was interested in whether watching violence affected children's behaviors. To examine this,
he showed a violent film to one group of preschoolers and a nonviolent film to a second group of
preschoolers. Following the films, the behaviors of the two groups were compared. In this study, the
comparison group was the:
A) children who watched the violent film.
B) children who watched the nonviolent film.
C) children whose behavior was the inspiration for the study.
D) children who watch at least four hours of television per day.
16. In an experiment, the group of participants who receive no special condition or imposed treatment is
called the:
A) independent group.
B) dependent group.
C) experimental group.
D) comparison group.
17. A researcher has just completed a study of Princess Diana, including her family background, life history,
and expressed opinions. This is an example of:
A) the survey method.
B) representative sampling.
C) a case study.
D) objective testing.
18. Compared with other methods, the case study has a major limitation in that:
A) it is less intensive and thus less informative.
B) it does not provide sufficient detail on the individual.
C) its conclusions might not apply to anyone else.
D) it requires the consent of the individual being studied.
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4. 19. In cross-sectional research on development, each of the groups studied is of a different:
A) sex.
B) social class.
C) age.
D) political affiliation.
20. Research on people growing up in one historical time period might not apply to people growing up in
another time because of:
A) cultural differences.
B) longitudinal sampling.
C) cross-sequential discontinuities.
D) cohort differences.
21. A researcher is interested in whether children who have more friends before they transition from
elementary school to middle school get better grades in middle school. The research design best able to
answer this question is:
A) cross-sequential.
B) experimental.
C) cross-sectional.
D) longitudinal.
22. After he got his first job and a regular paycheck, Juan found himself buying more and more DVDs,
especially as he got pay raises. The correlation between his the size of his paycheck and the DVDs is:
A) positive.
B) negative.
C) zero
D) causal.
23. Julie is demonstrating probability to a group of school age children by repeating flipping a coin, predicting
heads or tails. The data she collects is:
A) hypothetical.
B) correlational.
C) quantitative.
D) qualitative.
24. Research data that is open-ended and not easily transferable to numbers is:
A) quantitative.
B) qualitative.
C) correlational.
D) hypothetical.
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5. 25. Some theories are called grand theories because they:
A) are consistently accurate.
B) offer the only important insights regarding development.
C) provide a framework for understanding the development of all people.
D) are considered to be the new theories of the future.
26. Emergent theories:
A) include insights from many disciplines.
B) are considered unimportant for understanding the core aspects of human development.
C) are a traditional part of psychology.
D) are fully comprehensive.
27. Katie's 9-month-old son Jason sucks and chews on just about everything he finds—toys, books, fingers,
and so forth. According to psychoanalytic theory, Jason is in the:
A) oral stage.
B) sensorimotor stage.
C) attachment stage.
D) anal stage.
28. Freud would agree that:
A) parents should wean infants from the breast or bottle as soon as possible.
B) how conflicts over weaning, toilet training, and sexual curiosity are resolved determine an individual's
personality.
C) individuals who smoke cigarettes probably had trouble learning how to toilet train.
D) people's relationships to their family and culture are more important in determining development than
are their sexual urges.
29. According to Freud, sexual needs are relatively quiet during:
A) toddlerhood.
B) latency.
C) adulthood.
D) infancy.
30. The psychosocial stage that occurs at the same time as Freud's anal stage is:
A) industry vs. inferiority.
B) initiative vs. guilt.
C) autonomy vs. shame and doubt.
D) trust vs. mistrust.
31. The psychosocial stage in which people try to see their lives as a worthy and justifiable whole is:
A) identity vs. role confusion.
B) the formal operational stage.
C) integrity vs. despair.
D) the genital stage.
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6. 32. Behaviorism focuses on which of the following?
A) actions
B) unconscious urges
C) thoughts
D) emotions
33. Identify an example of classical conditioning:
A) laughing at a funny movie
B) crying with the pain of a stubbed toe
C) feeling happy at the smell of baking cookies
D) wearing layers in the winter
34. According to behaviorists, a child who frequently hits other children is doing this because:
A) of the child's innate tendencies.
B) the child has been reinforced for this behavior.
C) the child is expressing unconscious aggression.
D) the child has been classically conditioned to do this.
35. In operational conditioning, punishment has what effect on an individual's behavior?
A) makes the behavior more likely
B) makes the behavior less likely
C) ensures that the behavior will completely disappear
D) causes an individual to think harder about his or her behavior
36. Social learning theory emphasizes learning through:
A) cooperation with others.
B) observation and imitation.
C) reinforcers.
D) understanding how one's behavior affects other people.
37. Cognitive theories emphasize the:
A) development of thought processes and their effect on behavior.
B) role of unconscious urges and impulses.
C) control that external forces have over the direction of human development.
D) crisis that each individual must resolve at each stage of life.
38. Piaget's theory of development focused primarily on:
A) how our thinking changes as we grow older.
B) biological and physical changes.
C) our unconscious issues.
D) the ways in which our environment influences us.
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7. 39. Piaget's second stage of cognitive development is called:
A) formal operational.
B) preoperational.
C) concrete operational.
D) sensorimotor.
40. According to Piaget, the two elements of adaptation are:
A) object permanence and decentering.
B) concrete and formal operations.
C) equilibrium and disequilibrium.
D) assimilation and accommodation.
41. If you were to see a man from the nation of Fiji, but had never seen someone from there before, you
would still recognize him as a human being. This cognitive process is called:
A) accommodation.
B) assimilation.
C) object permanence.
D) disequilibrium.
42. According to the sociocultural theory, the primary means of learning is:
A) from more knowledgeable members of our society.
B) by observing others.
C) by learning at the same time as others.
D) through one's own discoveries.
43. Emil was taught as a child to surrender his chair to the elderly if there were an insufficient number of
chairs in a room. His action demonstrates:
A) psychoanalytic theory.
B) epigenetic theory.
C) sociocultural theory.
D) cognitive theory.
44. The concept of the zone of proximal development suggests that the parent or teacher:
A) dictate the child's interests and abilities.
B) urge the child far beyond his or her current skill level.
C) hold the child back until he or she can perform the skills independently.
D) provide support as the child takes on new challenges.
45. Epigenetic theory holds that:
A) environmental influences are much more important than genetics.
B) individuals can change their genes by behaving in particular ways.
C) every aspect of development is set in advance by genes.
D) all traits are influenced by genes.
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8. 46. Developmentalists' argument over the relative importance of hereditary and environmental influences is
called the:
A) social-context controversy.
B) genetic-engineering controversy.
C) social-engineering controversy.
D) nature-nurture controversy.
47. When psychologists say that a given trait is due more to nature than nurture, they mean that the trait:
A) is universal; that is, it is found in everyone.
B) is a result of experiences.
C) is mostly influenced by the traits inherited at the moment of conception.
D) cannot be influenced by the environment.
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