✏️ CLEP Central

Human Growth and Development

A comprehensive, exam-focused study guide covering every tested topic

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Exam Overview

What the Exam Tests

The CLEP Human Growth and Development exam covers material typically taught in a one-semester college course in child psychology, educational psychology, or developmental psychology. It emphasizes development from conception through death, testing knowledge of theories, research methods, and developmental processes across the lifespan.

💡 Tip A score of 50 (scaled) is required to pass. This exam heavily overlaps with the Introductory Psychology exam — developmental concepts (Piaget, Erikson, Vygotsky, Kohlberg) are especially important to master cold.

Content Area Breakdown

  • Research Methods & Theories — 8–12%
  • Biological Development — 8–12%
  • Perceptual & Motor Development — 4–6%
  • Cognitive Development — 16–20%
  • Language & Communication — 6–8%
  • Social & Emotional Development — 20–24%
  • Personality Development — 6–8%
  • Intelligence — 4–6%
  • Atypical Development — 6–8%
  • Cultural & Environmental Factors — 6–8%
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Research Methods & Theories

8–12%

Research Designs

  • Cross-sectional — compare different age groups at one point in time; fast and cheap; problem: cohort effects (different generations grew up differently)
  • Longitudinal — follow the same group over time; more valid for developmental change; problems: slow, expensive, attrition (dropout), practice effects
  • Cross-sequential (cohort-sequential) — combines both; follows multiple cohorts over time; controls for cohort effects while being more efficient than pure longitudinal
  • Microgenetic — intensive observation over a short period when change is expected; captures the process of change as it happens
🔑 Cross-sectional vs. Longitudinal Cross-sectional is fast but confounds age with cohort. Longitudinal is valid but slow. The cross-sequential design is the best compromise — know when each is appropriate.

Data Collection Methods

  • Naturalistic observation — watch behavior in real settings; high ecological validity; no control over variables
  • Structured observation — observe in a controlled lab setting; standardized but less natural
  • Self-report / interview — participants describe their own behavior; subject to social desirability bias and memory distortion
  • Case study — in-depth study of one individual; rich data but cannot generalize
  • Survey — large samples quickly; surface-level data
  • Physiological measures — heart rate, brain imaging (fMRI, EEG); objective but expensive
  • Habituation paradigm — used with infants; decreased looking time to a repeated stimulus signals learning/memory

Major Theoretical Perspectives

  • Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic (Freud, Erikson) — unconscious drives and early experiences shape development; stage-based
  • Behavioral / Social Learning (Watson, Skinner, Bandura) — development shaped by environment, conditioning, and observation
  • Cognitive-Developmental (Piaget) — children actively construct knowledge through stages; qualitative changes in thinking
  • Information Processing — development as improving memory capacity, attention, speed of processing; no discrete stages
  • Ethological / Evolutionary (Lorenz, Bowlby) — behavior shaped by evolution; critical/sensitive periods; attachment as adaptive
  • Ecological Systems (Bronfenbrenner) — development shaped by nested environmental systems
  • Sociocultural (Vygotsky) — cognitive development driven by social interaction and cultural tools
  • Bioecological — integrates biological maturation with ecological context

Key Debates in Developmental Psychology

  • Nature vs. nurture — how much is genetic vs. environmental? Modern view: interaction (gene-environment interplay)
  • Continuity vs. discontinuity — gradual quantitative change vs. distinct qualitative stages
  • Critical vs. sensitive periods — critical = must occur in window (e.g., language in deaf children); sensitive = optimal window but learning can still occur later
  • Active vs. passive — do children shape their own development, or are they shaped by forces around them?
  • Stability vs. change — do early characteristics persist, or can development change course?

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

  • Microsystem — immediate settings child directly experiences (family, school, peers, neighborhood)
  • Mesosystem — interactions between microsystems (e.g., parent-teacher relationship)
  • Exosystem — systems that affect child indirectly (parent's workplace, local government policies)
  • Macrosystem — broader cultural values, laws, customs, and ideology
  • Chronosystem — the dimension of time; historical events and life transitions affect development
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Biological Development

8–12%

Genetics & Heredity

  • Chromosomes — humans have 46 (23 pairs); sex chromosomes: XX (female), XY (male)
  • Genes — segments of DNA that code for proteins; dominant vs. recessive inheritance
  • Genotype — actual genetic makeup; phenotype — observable characteristics (genotype + environment)
  • Polygenic traits — most human traits (height, intelligence, personality) are influenced by many genes
  • Heritability — proportion of variance in a trait attributable to genetic differences; does NOT mean % of trait caused by genes in any individual
  • Epigenetics — environmental factors that turn genes on or off without changing DNA sequence; explains gene-environment interaction
  • Twin studies — identical (MZ) twins share 100% of genes; fraternal (DZ) share ~50%; comparing concordance rates separates genetic from environmental influence

Prenatal Development

  • Germinal period (0–2 weeks) — fertilization, cell division, implantation in uterine wall
  • Embryonic period (2–8 weeks) — major organs and structures form; most vulnerable to teratogens; heart begins beating around week 4
  • Fetal period (8 weeks – birth) — growth and refinement; brain development continues; viability at ~22–24 weeks
  • Teratogens — agents that cause birth defects; effect depends on timing, dose, and genetic vulnerability
  • Alcohol — most common behavioral teratogen; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD); no safe amount established
  • Other teratogens: tobacco (low birth weight, premature), rubella (heart/eye defects), cocaine, radiation, certain medications
⚠️ Timing Matters The embryonic period (weeks 2–8) is the most critical for teratogen exposure — this is when organ systems form. The same teratogen can have very different effects depending on when exposure occurs.

Neonatal Period & Infancy

  • Reflexes — automatic responses present at birth: rooting (turns toward touch on cheek), sucking, Moro/startle (spreads arms to sudden movement), Babinski (toe fan), palmar grasp, stepping
  • States of arousal — regular sleep, irregular sleep, drowsy, alert, fussing, crying; newborns sleep 16–18 hours/day
  • Brain development — at birth, brain is 25% of adult weight; synaptic overproduction (blooming) followed by pruning; myelination continues into early adulthood
  • SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) — risk reduced by "back to sleep" (supine position), firm mattress, no smoking

Physical Growth Across the Lifespan

  • Cephalocaudal — head-to-tail; head develops before lower body
  • Proximodistal — center-to-periphery; trunk develops before limbs
  • Puberty — maturation of primary and secondary sex characteristics; average onset: girls 8–13, boys 9–14; driven by HPG axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad); secular trend toward earlier onset
  • Early vs. late maturation — early maturing girls at risk for depression and eating disorders; early maturing boys initially advantaged socially
  • Menopause — cessation of menstruation (~51 years); decline in estrogen; hot flashes, bone density loss
  • Aging — skin changes, muscle loss (sarcopenia), bone loss (osteoporosis), reduced immune function, slower reaction time; brain shrinks modestly; fluid intelligence declines but crystallized intelligence maintained
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Perceptual & Motor Development

4–6%

Perceptual Development in Infancy

  • Vision — least developed sense at birth; acuity ~20/400 (legal blindness); prefer faces, high contrast, curved lines; adult-level acuity by ~6–12 months
  • Hearing — most developed sense at birth; can hear in womb from ~25 weeks; prefer mother's voice and native language; categorical perception of phonemes
  • Smell & taste — functional at birth; prefer sweet, reject bitter/sour; recognize mother's smell within days
  • Touch — well-developed at birth; pain perception present; essential for bonding
  • Intermodal (cross-modal) perception — ability to integrate information across senses; present from birth; infants recognize by touch objects seen before
  • Visual cliff (Gibson & Walk) — apparatus with apparent drop-off; infants 6+ months hesitate, showing depth perception; even younger infants show heart rate changes
  • Size/shape constancy — understanding objects stay same size/shape despite changing retinal image; develops in first months

Motor Development

  • Gross motor — large muscle control; sequence: roll → sit → crawl → stand → walk (~12 months) → run; universal sequence but timing varies
  • Fine motor — small muscle control; palmar grasp → pincer grasp (thumb + forefinger, ~9 months) → drawing → writing
  • Dynamic systems theory (Thelen) — motor development emerges from interaction of neurological maturation, body proportions, and environmental opportunities; not a simple unfolding of a genetic program
  • Experience-expectant — brain development that requires typical environmental input (light for visual system); universal
  • Experience-dependent — brain development driven by specific individual experiences; accounts for individual differences
💡 Tip Motor milestones follow the cephalocaudal (head before feet) and proximodistal (center before periphery) patterns. These two principles explain why babies control their head before their legs, and their arms before their fingers.

Perceptual Changes in Adulthood & Aging

  • Vision — presbyopia (difficulty focusing on close objects) begins ~40s; cataracts; glaucoma; macular degeneration; reduced dark adaptation
  • Hearing — presbycusis (age-related hearing loss); high-frequency sounds lost first; affects speech comprehension; most common sensory impairment in older adults
  • Touch/pain — reduced sensitivity; slower pain response; importance for fall risk
  • Reaction time — slows with age (neural slowing); affects driving and daily tasks
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Cognitive Development

16–20%

Piaget's Theory

Children actively construct knowledge through interaction with the environment. Development proceeds through four qualitatively distinct stages; all children pass through in the same order.

  • Key processes: schemas (mental frameworks), assimilation (fit new info into existing schema), accommodation (modify schema for new info), equilibration (drive to balance assimilation and accommodation)
  • Sensorimotor (0–2) — learns through senses and action; object permanence develops (~8–12 months); deferred imitation by end of stage
  • Preoperational (2–7) — symbolic/representational thinking; language explosion; egocentrism (can't take another's perspective — three-mountains task); animism; centration; irreversibility; lack of conservation
  • Concrete operational (7–11) — logical thinking about concrete objects; achieves conservation (liquid, mass, number); decentration; reversibility; classification; seriation
  • Formal operational (12+) — abstract, hypothetical, systematic thinking; propositional logic; imaginary audience and personal fable (adolescent egocentrism — Elkind)
🔑 Criticisms of Piaget Piaget underestimated children's abilities (e.g., object permanence appears earlier with looking-time methods) and overestimated the role of individual discovery — Vygotsky showed social interaction is essential. Also, formal operational thinking is not universal.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) — the gap between what a child can do independently and what they can do with guidance from a more skilled person
  • Scaffolding — temporary support adjusted to the child's current level; gradually withdrawn as competence grows
  • Private speech — children talking to themselves while working; not a sign of immaturity but a cognitive tool; internalizes into inner speech
  • Cultural tools — language, writing, number systems; transmit knowledge across generations and shape thinking
  • More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) — anyone (adult or peer) who has greater skill in the task

Information Processing Approach

  • Views cognitive development as improvements in attention, memory, processing speed, and executive function — no discrete stages
  • Working memory — limited capacity short-term store; expands with age through better strategies and automaticity
  • Memory strategies: rehearsal (repeating), organization (categorizing), elaboration (connecting to prior knowledge); develop through middle childhood
  • Metacognition — thinking about one's own thinking; improves dramatically from ages 5–12; predicts academic success
  • Executive function — inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory updating; centered in prefrontal cortex; develops through adolescence into early adulthood
  • Fuzzy trace theory (Brainerd & Reyna) — memory stored as both verbatim traces (exact) and gist traces (general meaning); gist more resistant to forgetting

Theory of Mind

  • Understanding that others have mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions) that differ from one's own
  • False belief task (Wimmer & Perner; Sally-Anne task) — child must predict where a character will look for an object moved while they were absent; typically passed at ~4 years
  • Children with autism spectrum disorder often struggle with theory of mind tasks
  • Linked to language development and social interaction experience

Cognitive Development in Adulthood & Aging

  • Fluid intelligence — ability to reason and solve novel problems; peaks in mid-20s, declines gradually with age
  • Crystallized intelligence — accumulated knowledge and verbal ability; maintained or increases through middle age, declines only in very late life
  • Postformal thought (Labouvie-Vief) — adult thinking that acknowledges ambiguity, contradiction, and context; goes beyond Piaget's formal operations
  • Wisdom — rich factual and procedural knowledge about life; expert knowledge system; does not necessarily decline with age
  • Normal aging memory changes: slowed processing speed, reduced working memory, episodic memory most affected; semantic and procedural memory relatively preserved
  • Dementia vs. normal aging — normal aging: slower but accurate; dementia: impaired daily functioning, significant episodic memory loss, confusion
  • Alzheimer's disease — most common dementia; amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles; begins in hippocampus; progressive
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Language & Communication

6–8%

Language Development Milestones

  • Prenatal — fetus responds to mother's voice; learns prosodic patterns of native language
  • 0–2 months — cooing (vowel-like sounds)
  • 6–8 months — babbling (consonant-vowel repetition: "bababa"); all infants babble similarly, including deaf infants (initially)
  • 8–10 months — babbling narrows to native language sounds; joint attention develops
  • 10–13 months — first words (holophrases — single word carries sentence meaning)
  • 18 months — vocabulary spurt / word explosion (~50 words); fast mapping (learning word after one exposure)
  • 18–24 months — two-word telegraphic speech ("want milk," "daddy go")
  • 2–3 years — sentences; overregularization errors ("goed," "mouses") — shows rule learning, not imitation
  • 3–5 years — complex grammar; 1,000+ words; asks "why"; can tell simple stories
  • School age — metalinguistic awareness; reading; understanding ambiguity, humor, idioms

Theories of Language Acquisition

  • Behaviorist (Skinner) — language learned through imitation and reinforcement; cannot explain creativity, overregularization, or the speed of acquisition
  • Nativist (Chomsky) — Language Acquisition Device (LAD); innate universal grammar; explains universal milestones and critical period
  • Interactionist — language emerges from interaction of biological readiness and social experience; Child-Directed Speech (CDS / "motherese") facilitates learning
  • Social-pragmatic (Tomasello) — joint attention and intention-reading drive word learning; shared intentionality is uniquely human
💡 Tip Overregularization errors ("goed," "foots") are a sign of progress — they prove children are applying grammatical rules, not just imitating adults. This is strong evidence against the pure behaviorist view of language learning.

Critical Period & Bilingualism

  • Critical period hypothesis — there is an optimal window (birth to puberty) for native-like language acquisition; evidence from deaf children given sign language after age 5 and "wild children" (Genie)
  • Bilingualism — no cognitive disadvantage; executive function advantages (better inhibitory control); code-switching is normal and not a sign of confusion
  • Language and thought — Whorf's linguistic relativity: language influences (not determines) perception and cognition; evidence for weaker version

Language in Adulthood & Aging

  • Vocabulary and verbal knowledge continue to grow through middle adulthood
  • Older adults experience increased tip-of-the-tongue states; slower word retrieval
  • Discourse comprehension relatively preserved; narrative ability maintained
  • Hearing loss affects language comprehension in later life
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Social & Emotional Development

20–24%

Emotional Development in Infancy

  • Basic emotions — happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust; present in first months; universal across cultures
  • Social smile — genuine (Duchenne) smile in response to faces; ~6–8 weeks
  • Stranger anxiety — fear of unfamiliar people; peaks ~8–12 months; indicates secure attachment forming
  • Separation anxiety — distress when caregiver leaves; peaks ~14–18 months; declines as object permanence and understanding of caregiver's return solidifies
  • Social referencing — using caregiver's emotional reaction to guide own response to ambiguous situations; ~12 months
  • Self-conscious emotions — shame, guilt, pride, embarrassment; require self-awareness; emerge ~18–24 months
  • Emotional regulation — ability to manage emotional responses; develops with prefrontal cortex; early strategy = gaze aversion; later = cognitive reappraisal

Temperament

  • Biologically-based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation; stable over time
  • Thomas & Chess (NYLS) — three types: easy (40% — regular, adaptable, positive mood), difficult (10% — irregular, intense, slow to adapt), slow-to-warm-up (15% — initially withdrawn but adapts with time); 35% don't fit categories
  • Kagan — behavioral inhibition vs. uninhibited; inhibited infants show high reactivity, become shy/anxious children
  • Goodness of fit — match between child's temperament and parenting style/environment; poor fit → adjustment problems even in easy children
  • Temperament influenced by both genes and prenatal environment; moderately heritable

Attachment

  • Bowlby — attachment is an evolved biological system; promotes proximity to caregiver for protection; internal working model shapes expectations of future relationships
  • Harlow's monkeys — contact comfort more important than feeding for attachment; wire mother with food vs. cloth mother without; time on cloth mother shows comfort function of attachment
  • Ainsworth Strange Situation — standardized lab procedure to assess attachment quality:
  • Secure (~65%) — explores freely, distressed at separation, quickly comforted on return; sensitive caregiving
  • Anxious-ambivalent/resistant (~10–15%) — clingy, very distressed, not soothed on return; inconsistent caregiving
  • Avoidant (~20%) — little distress, ignores caregiver on return; consistently rejecting caregiving
  • Disorganized (~5–10%) — contradictory behavior, dazed; associated with frightening/abusive caregiving; highest risk for later problems
🔑 Sensitive Responsiveness The single strongest predictor of secure attachment is caregiver sensitive responsiveness — consistently reading and appropriately responding to the infant's signals. Secure attachment predicts better social competence, emotion regulation, and academic outcomes.

Peer Relationships & Play

  • Parten's play categories: unoccupied → solitary → onlooker → parallel (same space, not interacting) → associative (interaction without organization) → cooperative (organized, complementary roles); progression with age but all types persist
  • Sociodramatic play — pretend/fantasy play with others; peaks ages 3–6; supports language, creativity, theory of mind
  • Peer acceptance — sociometric categories: popular, average, rejected (aggressive vs. withdrawn), neglected, controversial
  • Friendship — understanding deepens with age: shared activities (young children) → loyalty and mutual understanding (middle childhood) → intimacy and self-disclosure (adolescence)
  • Bullying — repeated aggressive behavior in a power imbalance; types: physical, verbal, relational, cyberbullying; bystanders play key role in reducing or perpetuating

Adolescent Social Development

  • Identity formation (Erikson stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion) — central task of adolescence; Marcia's statuses: diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement
  • Peer influence peaks in early adolescence; susceptibility to peer pressure declines in later adolescence
  • Cliques and crowds — small friendship groups vs. larger reputation-based groups (jocks, brains, etc.)
  • Parent-adolescent conflict — increases in early adolescence, especially over autonomy; fundamental attachment to parents remains
  • Risk-taking — heightened in adolescence due to imbalance between early-maturing limbic system (reward-seeking) and late-maturing prefrontal cortex (inhibitory control)

Social Development in Adulthood

  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (Erikson stage 6) — forming close, committed relationships; young adulthood; failure → isolation
  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (Erikson stage 7) — middle adulthood; contributing to next generation through parenting, mentoring, or creating; failure → stagnation
  • Integrity vs. Despair (Erikson stage 8) — late adulthood; reviewing life with sense of fulfillment (integrity) or regret (despair)
  • Socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen) — as time horizon shrinks, older adults prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships over new acquaintances; social network shrinks but satisfaction increases
  • Convoy model — social support network travels with person through life; close relationships remain stable while peripheral ones change
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Personality Development

6–8%

Freud's Psychosexual Stages

  • Oral (0–18 months) — pleasure centered on mouth; feeding; trust in world; fixation → dependency or aggression
  • Anal (18 months–3 years) — pleasure in elimination/retention; toilet training; fixation → orderliness or messiness
  • Phallic (3–6 years) — pleasure in genitals; Oedipus complex (boys) / Electra complex (girls); identification with same-sex parent; conscience (superego) develops
  • Latency (6–puberty) — sexual impulses repressed; focus on skills and peer relationships
  • Genital (puberty+) — mature sexual interests; capacity for adult love relationships

Erikson's Psychosocial Stages (full lifespan)

  • Trust vs. Mistrust (0–18 months) — consistent caregiving → trust; neglect → mistrust; virtue: hope
  • Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (18 months–3 years) — independence in toileting/feeding; virtue: will
  • Initiative vs. Guilt (3–6 years) — purpose-directed play and exploration; virtue: purpose
  • Industry vs. Inferiority (6–12 years) — mastery of academic/social skills; virtue: competence
  • Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence) — cohesive sense of self; virtue: fidelity
  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood) — deep relationships; virtue: love
  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood) — contributing to society/next generation; virtue: care
  • Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood) — life review; virtue: wisdom
💡 Tip Erikson's stage 5 (Identity vs. Role Confusion) is the most tested. Know Marcia's four identity statuses that build on it: diffusion (no exploration, no commitment), foreclosure (commitment without exploration), moratorium (exploring, uncommitted), achievement (explored and committed).

Trait Approaches & Stability

  • Big Five (OCEAN) — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism; most empirically supported trait model; moderately heritable
  • Personality stability — rank-order stability increases with age; mean-level changes: agreeableness and conscientiousness increase; neuroticism decreases through adulthood ("maturity principle")
  • Person-situation debate (Mischel) — situational factors are powerful; behavior is less consistent across situations than trait theories predict
  • Reciprocal interaction — personality shapes environments people choose, which in turn reinforce personality (niche-picking)

Self-Concept Development

  • Rouge test (mirror self-recognition) — self-awareness emerges ~18–24 months; also seen in great apes
  • Early childhood — concrete, observable self-descriptions ("I am fast," "I have brown hair"); all-or-nothing thinking
  • Middle childhood — trait-like, comparative self-descriptions; social comparison becomes important; self-esteem differentiates by domain
  • Adolescence — abstract, psychological self-descriptions; identity exploration; imaginary audience (feeling observed) and personal fable (sense of uniqueness/invulnerability — Elkind)
  • Adulthood — stable self-concept; possible selves (images of what one might become); life review in late adulthood
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Intelligence

4–6%

Theories of Intelligence

  • Spearman — general intelligence (g factor) underlies all cognitive abilities; specific abilities (s) are secondary
  • Thurstone — 7 primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension, word fluency, numerical ability, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, reasoning); no general g
  • Cattell-Horn — fluid intelligence (Gf: reasoning with novel problems) vs. crystallized intelligence (Gc: accumulated knowledge); diverge in aging
  • Gardner's multiple intelligences — 8+ intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist; valued for educational implications; criticized as lacking empirical support for independence
  • Sternberg's triarchic theory — analytical (academic problem-solving), creative (novel situations), practical (everyday adaptation); only analytical measured by standard IQ tests

IQ Testing

  • Binet & Simon — first practical intelligence test (1905); mental age concept; designed to identify children needing special education
  • Stanford-Binet — American adaptation; IQ = (mental age / chronological age) × 100; modern version uses deviation IQ
  • Deviation IQ — score relative to same-age peers; mean = 100, SD = 15; ~68% score between 85–115
  • Wechsler scales (WPPSI, WISC, WAIS) — most widely used; verbal and performance subtests; yields Full Scale IQ plus index scores
  • Reliability — IQ tests are highly reliable (consistent); validity — predict academic and occupational success moderately well
  • Flynn effect — IQ scores have risen ~3 points per decade across the 20th century; likely due to improved nutrition, education, test familiarity; has leveled off in some countries

Nature, Nurture, and Group Differences

  • Heritability of IQ is moderate in childhood (~50%) and increases to ~70–80% in adulthood
  • Adoption studies — children adopted into high-SES homes show significant IQ gains
  • Group differences in IQ scores — substantial overlap between groups; differences explained by environmental factors (SES, education access, stereotype threat, test bias) not genetics
  • Stereotype threat (Steele) — awareness of negative stereotype impairs test performance; accounts for part of observed group differences
  • Intellectual disability — IQ below ~70 with deficits in adaptive behavior; causes: Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Fragile X, PKU, fetal alcohol syndrome, environmental deprivation
  • Giftedness — IQ above ~130; Terman's longitudinal study showed gifted children generally healthy and well-adjusted
⚠️

Atypical Development

6–8%

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) — deficits in social communication and interaction; restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests; wide range of severity; 4:1 male:female ratio; onset in early childhood; genetic basis strong; no link to vaccines
  • ADHD — inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity; most common neurodevelopmental disorder; boys diagnosed more; persists into adulthood in ~60%; responds to stimulant medication (methylphenidate) and behavioral intervention
  • Specific learning disabilities — dyslexia (reading), dyscalculia (math), dysgraphia (writing); average or above-average intelligence; neurological basis; require differentiated instruction
  • Intellectual disability — IQ below ~70 + adaptive behavior deficits; mild (most common), moderate, severe, profound; Down syndrome = most common chromosomal cause

Internalizing & Externalizing Problems

  • Internalizing — directed inward: anxiety disorders, depression, somatic complaints, social withdrawal; more common in girls
  • Externalizing — directed outward: aggression, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder; more common in boys
  • Childhood depression — often manifests as irritability rather than sadness; frequently co-occurs with anxiety; underdiagnosed
  • Conduct disorder — persistent pattern of violating others' rights and social norms; risk factor for antisocial personality disorder in adulthood; associated with low empathy, harsh parenting, peer deviance
  • Childhood anxiety — separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety, selective mutism, specific phobias; often first emerge in early to middle childhood

Risk, Resilience & Protective Factors

  • Risk factors — poverty, maltreatment, parental mental illness, prenatal substance exposure, neighborhood violence, poor schools
  • Resilience — positive adaptation despite significant adversity; not a fixed trait but a process
  • Protective factors — secure attachment to at least one caring adult, easy temperament, high intelligence, strong self-efficacy, supportive school environment, community resources
  • Child maltreatment — physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect; consequences: insecure attachment, aggression, depression, PTSD, cognitive delays; neglect is most common and often most damaging form
  • Kauai longitudinal study (Werner & Smith) — followed high-risk children from birth; ~1/3 became competent, caring adults despite adversity — emphasized resilience and protective factors
🌍

Cultural & Environmental Factors

6–8%

Parenting Styles

Baumrind's parenting styles — two dimensions: demandingness (control) and responsiveness (warmth):

  • Authoritative — high demandingness + high responsiveness; firm limits with warmth and explanation; best outcomes across cultures for social competence, self-esteem, academic achievement
  • Authoritarian — high demandingness + low responsiveness; strict rules, little warmth, obedience expected; associated with obedient but lower self-esteem children; more normative in collectivist cultures
  • Permissive (indulgent) — low demandingness + high responsiveness; warm but few limits; associated with impulsivity, low persistence
  • Uninvolved (neglectful) — low demandingness + low responsiveness; worst outcomes; associated with all domains of poor adjustment
🔑 Cultural Context Authoritative parenting predicts best outcomes in Western individualist cultures, but the advantage is weaker in some collectivist cultures where authoritarian parenting is normative and expected. Context always matters when applying developmental research.

Family Structure & Context

  • Birth order — firstborns often higher achievers; later-borns often more sociable and open to experience; large family size associated with lower IQ scores (resource dilution)
  • Divorce — short-term disruption common; long-term outcomes depend more on quality of post-divorce parenting and co-parenting than on divorce itself; high parental conflict most damaging
  • Single-parent families — higher poverty risk; outcomes mediated by economic resources, social support, and parenting quality
  • Nonparental care / childcare — quality and stability matter more than type; high-quality early childcare associated with cognitive gains; NICHD study showed hours matter for behavioral outcomes
  • Siblings — provide socialization opportunities; sibling conflict teaches negotiation; older sibling tutoring benefits both parties

Socioeconomic Status & Poverty

  • SES is one of the strongest predictors of developmental outcomes — cognitive, health, social
  • Mechanisms: reduced access to books/stimulation, poorer nutrition, higher stress, less stable housing, lower-quality schools, fewer enrichment activities
  • Cumulative risk — multiple simultaneous risk factors are far more damaging than any single risk factor alone
  • Language gap (Hart & Risley) — children from low-SES families hear 30 million fewer words by age 3 than high-SES peers; predicts later vocabulary and reading achievement
  • Intervention programs — Head Start, Perry Preschool Project, Abecedarian Project; high-quality early intervention shows lasting academic and social benefits; ROI strongest for earliest interventions

Culture, Ethnicity & Gender

  • Culture shapes developmental norms, goals, and pathways — e.g., age of independence, sleeping arrangements, educational expectations
  • Individualism vs. collectivism — affects self-concept, parenting, moral reasoning, and definitions of academic success
  • Gender development — gender identity stable by ~3 years; gender stereotypes and preferences emerge by age 2–3; socialization and cognitive factors both contribute
  • Gender schema theory (Bem) — children use gender as an organizing schema for understanding the world; influences what they attend to and remember
  • Media and technology — screen time effects on attention, sleep, and social development; social media linked to body image concerns and depression in adolescent girls
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Key Theorists

TheoristEraTheory / ConceptKey Idea
Jean Piaget1900sCognitive Development4 stages of cognitive development; schemas, assimilation, accommodation; child as "little scientist"
Lev Vygotsky1900sSociocultural TheoryZPD, scaffolding, private speech; cognitive development driven by social interaction and cultural tools
Erik Erikson1900sPsychosocial Development8 lifespan stages; each has a crisis; successful resolution builds ego strength/virtue
Sigmund Freud1800s–1900sPsychosexual Stages5 stages; fixation at any stage shapes adult personality; unconscious drives central
John Bowlby1900sAttachment TheoryAttachment is an evolved biological system; internal working model shapes future relationships
Mary Ainsworth1900sAttachment StylesStrange Situation; secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized attachment styles
Harry Harlow1900sContact ComfortRhesus monkey studies; contact comfort more important than feeding for attachment formation
Urie Bronfenbrenner1900sEcological Systems TheoryMicrosystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem; nested environmental influences
Albert Bandura1900s–2000sSocial Learning / Self-EfficacyObservational learning; Bobo doll; modeling; self-efficacy influences development throughout life
Lawrence Kohlberg1900sMoral Development3 levels (preconventional, conventional, postconventional); Heinz dilemma; builds on Piaget
Carol Gilligan1900s–2000sEthics of CareCritiqued Kohlberg's male-biased justice focus; women use care/relationship orientation in moral reasoning
Diana Baumrind1900s–2000sParenting StylesAuthoritative, authoritarian, permissive; demandingness × responsiveness dimensions
Alexander Thomas & Stella Chess1900sTemperament (NYLS)Easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit between child and environment
Jerome Kagan1900s–2000sBehavioral InhibitionInhibited vs. uninhibited temperament; biologically based; predicts later anxiety/shyness
Konrad Lorenz1900sImprinting / EthologyCritical period for imprinting in birds; applied ethological perspective to human attachment
Laura Carstensen1900s–2000sSocioemotional Selectivity TheoryAs time horizon shrinks, older adults prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships; paradox of aging
Carol Dweck1900s–2000sMindset TheoryFixed vs. growth mindset; praise for effort vs. ability shapes motivation and resilience
Emmy Werner1900s–2000sResilience (Kauai Study)Longitudinal study of high-risk children; identified protective factors enabling resilience despite adversity
📖

Key Terms

Accommodation
Piaget: modifying an existing schema to fit new information that doesn't fit current schemas
Assimilation
Piaget: incorporating new information into an existing schema without changing the schema
Attachment
Deep emotional bond between infant and caregiver; secure attachment is the foundation for healthy development
Babbling
Consonant-vowel repetitions (e.g., "bababa") beginning ~6 months; universal prelinguistic milestone
Cephalocaudal principle
Development proceeds from head downward; head and upper body develop before lower body and legs
Conservation
Piaget: understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance; absent in preoperational stage
Critical period
Time window during which specific experience must occur for normal development; missing it causes permanent deficits
Cross-sectional design
Comparing different age groups at one time point; fast but vulnerable to cohort effects
Crystallized intelligence
Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; maintained or increases through midlife; declines only in very late life
Egocentrism
Piaget: preoperational child's inability to take another person's perspective; demonstrated by three-mountains task
Epigenetics
Environmental influences that alter gene expression without changing DNA sequence; bridges nature and nurture
Fast mapping
Ability to learn the approximate meaning of a new word after only one or two exposures; peaks in early childhood
Fluid intelligence
Ability to reason and solve novel problems independent of prior knowledge; peaks in mid-20s, then declines
Flynn effect
Rising IQ scores across generations throughout the 20th century; attributed to nutrition, education, and test familiarity
Goodness of fit
Match between a child's temperament and their environment; poor fit predicts adjustment problems
Habituation
Decreased response to a repeated stimulus; used to study infant cognition — renewed interest signals discrimination
Internal working model
Bowlby: mental representation of attachment relationships that guides expectations of future social relationships
Longitudinal design
Following the same group of people over time; high validity but slow, expensive, and subject to attrition
Metacognition
Thinking about one's own thinking; awareness and regulation of cognitive processes; develops through middle childhood
Object permanence
Understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight; emerges during sensorimotor stage (~8–12 months)
Overregularization
Applying a grammatical rule too broadly (e.g., "goed," "foots"); evidence of rule learning, not regression
Proximodistal principle
Development proceeds from center outward; trunk develops before limbs, arms before fingers
Resilience
Positive adaptation despite significant adversity; a dynamic process, not a fixed trait; supported by protective factors
Scaffolding
Vygotsky: temporary support adjusted to a learner's current ability within the ZPD; withdrawn as competence grows
Schema
Piaget: organized mental framework for understanding and interacting with the world; modified through assimilation/accommodation
Sensitive period
Optimal time window for a particular type of learning; missing it does not cause permanent deficits (unlike critical period)
Social referencing
Using caregiver's emotional reaction to interpret an ambiguous situation; emerges ~12 months
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Carstensen: as perceived time horizon shrinks, people prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships over new ones
Temperament
Biologically-based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation; stable from infancy; influences personality
Teratogen
Any agent (drug, disease, chemical, radiation) that can cause birth defects; most harmful during embryonic period
Theory of mind
Understanding that others have mental states (beliefs, desires) that differ from one's own; typically develops ~4 years
Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky: what a learner can do with guidance but not yet independently; the optimal zone for instruction
▶️

Video Resources

🎓

Modern States – Human Growth & Development

Full free CLEP-aligned course covering the complete lifespan. Best single free resource.

FREE CLEP COURSE
▶️

CrashCourse Psychology (PBS)

40-episode YouTube series — covers developmental psychology topics in depth with clear visuals.

YOUTUBE SERIES
🎯

Khan Academy – Human Development

Free videos on prenatal development, infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

FREE
▶️

Mr. Sinn – AP Psychology

Clear, exam-focused YouTube videos on developmental psychology aligned with CLEP content.

YOUTUBE
📝

Powerhouse Prep – Free Practice Tests

Free CLEP Human Growth & Development practice tests and targeted study guides.

FREE PRACTICE
▶️

CLEP HGD Study Videos on YouTube

Search YouTube for targeted exam reviews, mnemonics, and stage breakdowns specific to this exam.

YOUTUBE
✏️

Practice Exam — 200 Questions

Click any question to reveal the answer and explanation.

1
A researcher studies the same group of children at ages 4, 8, and 12. This is a:
▼
  • A) Cross-sectional design
  • B) Longitudinal design ✓
  • C) Cross-sequential design
  • D) Microgenetic design
B — Longitudinal. The same group is followed over time. Cross-sectional compares different age groups at one time. Cross-sequential combines both. Longitudinal is most valid but slow and prone to attrition.
2
The main advantage of a cross-sectional design over a longitudinal design is that it is:
▼
  • A) Faster and less expensive ✓
  • B) Free of cohort effects
  • C) More valid for studying change over time
  • D) Less vulnerable to attrition
A — Faster and less expensive. Cross-sectional studies gather all data at once. The tradeoff is vulnerability to cohort effects — different age groups grew up in different historical contexts, which can confound results.
3
Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory includes the "chronosystem," which refers to:
▼
  • A) The child's immediate family environment
  • B) Broader cultural values and ideology
  • C) Interactions between two microsystems
  • D) The dimension of time, including historical events and life transitions ✓
D — Time dimension. The chronosystem adds time as a layer — historical events (e.g., a recession, pandemic) and personal transitions (e.g., divorce, moving) affect development. The other options describe microsystem, macrosystem, and mesosystem.
4
The debate over whether development occurs in distinct stages or as a gradual, continuous process is known as the:
▼
  • A) Nature vs. nurture debate
  • B) Continuity vs. discontinuity debate ✓
  • C) Stability vs. change debate
  • D) Critical vs. sensitive period debate
B — Continuity vs. discontinuity. Stage theories (Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg) favor discontinuity — qualitative leaps. Information processing and behavioral approaches favor continuity — gradual quantitative change.
5
Researchers use the habituation paradigm to study infant cognition because infants:
▼
  • A) Can report their preferences verbally
  • B) Show consistent motor responses to familiar stimuli
  • C) Look longer at novel stimuli than familiar ones ✓
  • D) Cry less when shown preferred images
C — Looking time. When infants dishabituate (look longer) at a new stimulus after habituating to an old one, it shows they can discriminate between the two. This reveals perception, memory, and cognitive abilities without requiring language.
6
During which prenatal period are developing structures most vulnerable to teratogens?
▼
  • A) Germinal period
  • B) Embryonic period ✓
  • C) Fetal period
  • D) Perinatal period
B — Embryonic period (weeks 2–8). This is when organ systems form — exposure to teratogens during this window can cause major structural defects. The fetal period involves growth and refinement; damage is still possible but typically less severe.
7
A pregnant woman drinks alcohol heavily during her first trimester. Her baby is most at risk for:
▼
  • A) Down syndrome
  • B) Phenylketonuria (PKU)
  • C) Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) ✓
  • D) Tay-Sachs disease
C — FASD. Alcohol is the most common behavioral teratogen. FASD includes intellectual disability, facial abnormalities, and behavioral problems. Down syndrome = chromosomal (trisomy 21). PKU and Tay-Sachs = genetic metabolic disorders.
8
The neonatal reflex in which a baby automatically grasps an object placed in its palm is called the:
▼
  • A) Rooting reflex
  • B) Moro reflex
  • C) Palmar grasp reflex ✓
  • D) Babinski reflex
C — Palmar grasp. Rooting = turning toward cheek touch. Moro = startle/spreading arms. Babinski = toe fan when sole is stroked. All are involuntary survival reflexes present at birth that fade as the cortex matures.
9
The secular trend in pubertal development refers to:
▼
  • A) Later onset of puberty in developed countries
  • C) Earlier onset of puberty across successive generations ✓
  • D) Greater gender differences in pubertal timing
C — Earlier onset across generations. Over the past 150 years, puberty has begun progressively earlier in developed nations, attributed to improved nutrition, higher body fat, and possibly environmental endocrine disruptors.
10
Which of the following cognitive abilities is most preserved in healthy older adults?
▼
  • A) Fluid intelligence
  • B) Processing speed
  • C) Working memory capacity
  • D) Crystallized intelligence ✓
D — Crystallized intelligence. Accumulated verbal knowledge and skills remain stable or increase through midlife and decline only in very late life. Fluid intelligence, processing speed, and working memory capacity all show earlier age-related decline.
11
Gibson and Walk's "visual cliff" experiment demonstrated that infants as young as 6 months:
▼
  • A) Cannot perceive depth at all
  • B) Will crawl over any surface if a caregiver calls to them
  • C) Perceive depth and are reluctant to cross an apparent drop-off ✓
  • D) Prefer high-contrast patterns over depth cues
C — Depth perception by 6 months. Most crawling infants refuse to cross the "deep" side even when caregivers encourage them. Even younger infants show heart rate changes to the deep side, suggesting earlier depth perception before motor caution develops.
12
The principle that development proceeds from head to tail — with head and upper-body control developing before lower-body control — is called:
▼
  • A) Cephalocaudal principle ✓
  • B) Proximodistal principle
  • C) Dynamic systems theory
  • D) Experience-expectant development
A — Cephalocaudal. Head-to-tail. Proximodistal = center-to-periphery (trunk before limbs, arms before fingers). Together these two principles describe the universal sequence of physical and motor development.
13
The most common age-related sensory loss in older adults, particularly affecting high-frequency sound discrimination, is called:
▼
  • A) Presbyopia
  • B) Presbycusis ✓
  • C) Macular degeneration
  • D) Tinnitus
B — Presbycusis. Age-related hearing loss beginning with high frequencies; affects speech comprehension (consonants). Presbyopia = age-related difficulty focusing on near objects. Macular degeneration = central vision loss. Tinnitus = ringing in the ears.
14
A 5-year-old watches a researcher flatten a ball of clay into a pancake shape and insists there is now "more clay." According to Piaget, this child lacks:
▼
  • A) Object permanence
  • B) Egocentrism
  • C) Conservation ✓
  • D) Seriation
C — Conservation. Conservation = understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance. It is absent in the preoperational stage due to centration (focusing only on one dimension — the shape) and irreversibility (can't mentally reverse the action).
15
Piaget's three-mountains task was designed to assess:
▼
  • A) Object permanence
  • B) Conservation of number
  • C) Egocentrism ✓
  • D) Formal operational thinking
C — Egocentrism. Children in the preoperational stage assume others see the three-mountain display the same way they do. They cannot mentally take another person's visual perspective — a cognitive limitation, not selfishness.
16
Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) best supports which instructional strategy?
▼
  • A) Discovery learning without adult guidance
  • B) Rote memorization of facts
  • C) Scaffolded instruction adjusted to the child's current level ✓
  • D) Peer competition to motivate learning
C — Scaffolded instruction. The ZPD is the gap between what a child can do alone and with help. Scaffolding provides temporary support calibrated to that gap, then withdraws as competence grows. Discovery learning alone misses the social dimension Vygotsky emphasized.
17
Which is the correct order of Piaget's stages of cognitive development?
▼
  • A) Preoperational → Sensorimotor → Concrete → Formal
  • B) Sensorimotor → Preoperational → Concrete operational → Formal operational ✓
  • C) Sensorimotor → Concrete → Preoperational → Formal
  • D) Formal → Concrete → Preoperational → Sensorimotor
B — Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete, Formal. All children pass through in this order. Ages are approximate: 0–2, 2–7, 7–11, 12+. The sequence is universal; the timing varies by individual and culture.
18
A 4-year-old child is asked where a character will look for a toy that was moved while the character was away. The child correctly says the character will look in the original location. This shows the child has developed:
▼
  • A) Object permanence
  • B) Conservation
  • C) Theory of mind ✓
  • D) Formal operational thought
C — Theory of mind. The false belief task (Sally-Anne paradigm) requires understanding that another person holds a false belief based on their limited knowledge. Passing at ~4 years marks a milestone in understanding other minds. Children with ASD often fail this task.
19
The information processing view of cognitive development differs from Piaget's theory primarily in that it:
▼
  • A) Emphasizes biological maturation over environment
  • B) Proposes more than four cognitive stages
  • C) Views cognitive development as continuous improvement rather than discrete stages ✓
  • D) Focuses on social context as the driver of development
C — Continuous, not stage-based. Information processing sees development as gradual improvements in attention, memory, and speed — no qualitative stage shifts. Piaget proposed discrete stages with qualitative changes in thinking structure. Vygotsky emphasized social context (option D).
20
Adolescent egocentrism, as described by David Elkind, involves two key components. The belief that one's thoughts and feelings are unique and that no one else could understand them is called the:
▼
  • A) Imaginary audience
  • B) Personal fable ✓
  • C) Identity diffusion
  • D) Formal operational illusion
B — Personal fable. Personal fable = sense of uniqueness, invulnerability ("it won't happen to me"), and that one's experiences are unprecedented. Imaginary audience = belief that others are constantly watching and evaluating you. Both reflect formal operational thought turning inward on the self.
21
Postformal thought, as described by Labouvie-Vief, is characterized by:
▼
  • A) A return to concrete operational reasoning in old age
  • B) Mastery of Piaget's formal operational stage in adolescence
  • C) Recognition of ambiguity, contradiction, and context in problem-solving ✓
  • D) Decline in abstract reasoning after age 40
C — Ambiguity and context. Postformal thought goes beyond formal operations — adults recognize that problems have multiple valid solutions, that context matters, and that emotion and logic both play roles. It represents cognitive growth beyond Piaget's final stage.
22
Which type of long-term memory is most affected by normal aging?
▼
  • A) Episodic memory ✓
  • B) Semantic memory
  • C) Procedural memory
  • D) Implicit memory
A — Episodic memory. Memory for personal events (episodic) is most vulnerable to age-related decline. Semantic memory (general knowledge), procedural memory (motor skills), and implicit memory are relatively spared in normal aging.
23
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by which structural brain changes?
▼
  • A) Enlarged ventricles and dopamine depletion
  • B) Demyelination of axons in the cerebellum
  • C) Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, beginning in the hippocampus ✓
  • D) Degeneration of substantia nigra neurons
C — Plaques and tangles. Beta-amyloid plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles are the hallmark pathology of Alzheimer's, beginning in the hippocampus and spreading to the cortex. Enlarged ventricles relate to schizophrenia; substantia nigra degeneration causes Parkinson's.
24
A toddler says "goed" instead of "went" and "mouses" instead of "mice." This error is called:
▼
  • A) Telegraphic speech
  • B) Holophrase error
  • C) Overregularization ✓
  • D) Fast mapping
C — Overregularization. The child has learned grammatical rules (add -ed for past tense; add -s for plural) and applies them too broadly to irregular forms. This shows rule-based learning, not imitation — a strong argument against Skinner's behaviorist view of language acquisition.
25
Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device (LAD) best explains which observation about language development?
▼
  • A) Children learn language faster when parents use baby talk
  • B) Bilingual children show executive function advantages
  • C) Children across all cultures reach language milestones in the same order ✓
  • D) Vocabulary size predicts reading comprehension in school
C — Universal sequence. The LAD proposes innate universal grammar. The strongest evidence is that children everywhere — regardless of language or culture — babble, produce holophrases, then two-word speech, then full sentences in the same sequence and similar time frame.
26
Child-directed speech (CDS, or "motherese") is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Complex grammar and large vocabulary to enrich input
  • B) Silent observation to avoid interfering with natural language acquisition
  • C) Higher pitch, slower pace, exaggerated intonation, and simple sentences ✓
  • D) Use of technical vocabulary to expand the child's lexicon
C — Simplified, melodic speech. CDS naturally highlights word boundaries, key words, and sentence structure. Cross-cultural evidence shows CDS is widespread and that infants prefer it. It supports the interactionist view that social input shapes language acquisition alongside biological readiness.
27
The critical period hypothesis for language acquisition is best supported by evidence from:
▼
  • A) Children who learn two languages simultaneously before age 5
  • B) Adults who learn foreign languages faster than children
  • C) Deaf children who receive sign language input after age 5 showing reduced grammatical mastery ✓
  • D) Bilingual adults who show stronger working memory
C — Late sign language exposure. Deaf children exposed to sign language after age 5 never achieve native-like grammatical mastery, even with years of practice. This mirrors cases like Genie (feral child) — strong evidence that there is an optimal early window for full language acquisition.
28
Harlow's research with rhesus monkeys demonstrated that attachment is primarily based on:
▼
  • A) Feeding and nutritional satisfaction
  • B) Contact comfort and physical warmth ✓
  • C) The mother's presence during birth
  • D) Classical conditioning to the mother's smell
B — Contact comfort. Infant monkeys spent far more time clinging to the cloth "mother" (comfort but no food) than the wire "mother" (food but no comfort). This challenged the drive-reduction theory that attachment forms because the mother provides food, and supported Bowlby's biological view of attachment.
29
In Ainsworth's Strange Situation, a child who clings to the caregiver before separation, is very distressed during separation, but is not soothed upon the caregiver's return is classified as:
▼
  • A) Securely attached
  • B) Anxious-ambivalent (resistant) ✓
  • C) Anxious-avoidant
  • D) Disorganized
B — Anxious-ambivalent. Associated with inconsistent, unpredictable caregiving — the child can't rely on the caregiver being available. Secure = distressed but quickly comforted. Avoidant = appears indifferent. Disorganized = contradictory behavior; associated with frightening caregiving.
30
Thomas and Chess identified three temperament types in the New York Longitudinal Study. The "difficult" child is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Initial withdrawal followed by gradual adaptation
  • B) Regular routines, adaptability, and positive mood
  • C) Irregular schedules, intense reactions, and slow adaptation to change ✓
  • D) High activity level and strong approach tendencies
C — Irregular, intense, slow to adapt. Difficult children (~10%) are more likely to develop behavioral problems, but outcomes depend heavily on goodness of fit. Easy children (~40%) are regular, adaptable, and positive. Slow-to-warm-up (~15%) are initially withdrawn but gradually adapt.
31
A 12-month-old looks at her father's face before touching a new toy. This behavior is called:
▼
  • A) Separation anxiety
  • B) Stranger anxiety
  • C) Social referencing ✓
  • D) Secure base behavior
C — Social referencing. Using a caregiver's emotional expression to guide behavior in an ambiguous situation. If the parent looks fearful, the infant avoids; if positive, the infant approaches. This is a key milestone in emotional and social development around 12 months.
32
According to Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory, why do older adults tend to have smaller but more satisfying social networks than younger adults?
▼
  • A) They have less physical energy for socializing
  • B) Cognitive decline limits their ability to maintain relationships
  • C) As perceived time is limited, they prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships ✓
  • D) Social isolation is a normal and inevitable part of aging
C — Prioritizing meaning. When time feels limited (not just in old age — also when young people face a terminal diagnosis), people shift goals toward emotional meaning and close relationships. This explains the "paradox of aging" — life satisfaction often increases despite objective losses.
33
Parten's most advanced category of play, in which children take on complementary roles and work toward a shared goal, is called:
▼
  • A) Associative play
  • B) Parallel play
  • C) Cooperative play ✓
  • D) Sociodramatic play
C — Cooperative play. Children work together with organized roles (e.g., playing house with assigned roles). Associative = interaction without organization. Parallel = side by side but independent. Sociodramatic = fantasy/pretend play with others — related but specifically about role enactment.
34
Erikson's stage for middle adulthood (approximately ages 40–65) involves the conflict of:
▼
  • A) Identity vs. Role Confusion
  • B) Intimacy vs. Isolation
  • C) Generativity vs. Stagnation ✓
  • D) Integrity vs. Despair
C — Generativity vs. Stagnation. The challenge is contributing to the next generation — through parenting, teaching, mentoring, or creating lasting work. Stagnation = self-absorption and feeling unproductive. Virtue: care. Integrity vs. Despair = late adulthood (reviewing life's meaning).
35
Research on adolescent risk-taking consistently shows it is highest when peers are present. This is best explained by:
▼
  • A) Adolescents having fully mature prefrontal cortex function
  • B) Peer pressure eliminating all personal judgment
  • C) An imbalance between early-maturing reward systems and later-maturing inhibitory control ✓
  • D) Lack of knowledge about consequences
C — Developmental imbalance. The limbic system (emotion, reward) matures earlier than the prefrontal cortex (inhibition, planning). Peers activate reward circuitry further, tipping the balance toward risk. This is not pure peer pressure — even without explicit pressure, peer presence increases reward sensitivity.
36
A child's self-recognition in a mirror (rouge test) typically emerges at approximately:
▼
  • A) 6–8 months
  • B) 12–14 months
  • C) 18–24 months ✓
  • D) 30–36 months
C — 18–24 months. When a spot of rouge is placed on an infant's nose and they see their reflection, only infants 18–24+ months reliably touch their own nose (not the mirror), showing self-recognition. This milestone also marks the emergence of self-conscious emotions like shame and pride.
37
According to Erikson, successful resolution of the Trust vs. Mistrust stage depends primarily on:
▼
  • A) The infant's innate temperament
  • B) The quality of peer interactions in the first year
  • C) Consistent, responsive caregiving that meets the infant's needs ✓
  • D) Successful weaning from breastfeeding
C — Consistent caregiving. When caregivers reliably meet the infant's physical and emotional needs, the infant develops a sense that the world is safe and people are dependable (trust). Inconsistent or neglectful caregiving fosters mistrust. Virtue of successful resolution: hope.
38
James Marcia's identity status of "foreclosure" describes adolescents who:
▼
  • A) Are actively exploring options but have not yet committed
  • B) Have explored and committed to an identity
  • C) Have committed to an identity without exploring alternatives ✓
  • D) Have neither explored nor committed to any identity
C — Committed without exploring. Foreclosed adolescents adopt an identity handed to them (usually by parents) without questioning it. Moratorium = exploring, no commitment. Achievement = explored and committed. Diffusion = neither explored nor committed — lowest developmental status.
39
Carol Dweck's research on mindset found that children praised for their intelligence (rather than effort) tend to:
▼
  • A) Take on more challenging tasks to demonstrate their ability
  • B) Develop a growth mindset that increases resilience
  • C) Avoid challenging tasks and give up more easily after failure ✓
  • D) Show no difference from children praised for effort
C — Avoid challenge; less resilient. Praising intelligence creates a fixed mindset — children believe ability is fixed and avoid failure that would contradict the label. Praising effort creates a growth mindset — failure is information, not identity. This has major implications for educational practice.
40
Research on personality stability in adulthood shows that on average, people become more _____ and less _____ as they age into midlife:
▼
  • A) Neurotic; conscientious
  • B) Agreeable and conscientious; neurotic ✓
  • C) Open to experience; extraverted
  • D) Extraverted; agreeable
B — More agreeable and conscientious; less neurotic. The "maturity principle" — mean-level personality changes with age show increases in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability (lower neuroticism). This pattern is found across many cultures, suggesting partly biological roots.
41
According to Cattell and Horn, the type of intelligence that involves reasoning with novel problems and is most affected by aging is:
▼
  • A) Fluid intelligence ✓
  • B) Crystallized intelligence
  • C) Spatial intelligence
  • D) Analytical intelligence
A — Fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence (novel reasoning, working memory, processing speed) peaks in the mid-20s and declines gradually. Crystallized intelligence (vocabulary, general knowledge) is maintained through midlife. This distinction has important implications for understanding aging and assessment.
42
The Flynn effect refers to:
▼
  • A) The decline of IQ scores in populations exposed to lead
  • B) Higher IQ scores in firstborn children compared to later-borns
  • C) Rising average IQ scores across generations throughout the 20th century ✓
  • D) Greater IQ heritability in high-SES families
C — Rising IQ across generations. Documented by James Flynn — IQ scores rose ~3 points per decade across many countries. Explanations include better nutrition, more formal education, greater familiarity with abstract test-taking, and reduced environmental toxins. Has leveled off in some developed nations.
43
Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences is most criticized for:
▼
  • A) Including too few types of intelligence
  • B) Overemphasizing academic, school-based abilities
  • C) Lacking empirical evidence that the intelligences are truly independent ✓
  • D) Failing to account for cultural influences on intelligence
C — Lack of independence evidence. Critics argue that Gardner's intelligences are correlated with each other and with g (general intelligence), not truly independent. The theory is valued for educational practice but is criticized as more philosophical than empirically validated.
44
A child scores 70 on a standardized IQ test and has significant deficits in adaptive behavior (daily living skills, communication). This child would most likely be diagnosed with:
▼
  • A) Autism spectrum disorder
  • B) Specific learning disability
  • C) Intellectual disability ✓
  • D) ADHD
C — Intellectual disability. Requires both a low IQ score (~70 or below) AND deficits in adaptive functioning. IQ score alone is insufficient for diagnosis. Down syndrome (trisomy 21) is the most common chromosomal cause; Fragile X is the most common inherited cause.
45
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is primarily characterized by deficits in:
▼
  • A) Motor coordination and balance
  • B) Intelligence and academic achievement
  • C) Social communication and restricted, repetitive behaviors ✓
  • D) Attention and impulse control
C — Social communication + repetitive behaviors. ASD involves deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, and relationship development, plus restricted/repetitive behaviors and interests. IQ ranges widely. There is no link to vaccines. Genetic factors strongly implicated.
46
Werner and Smith's Kauai longitudinal study is notable for demonstrating that:
▼
  • A) Early childhood IQ scores perfectly predict adult outcomes
  • B) High-risk environments always lead to poor developmental outcomes
  • C) Many children exposed to serious risk factors develop into competent, caring adults ✓
  • D) Parenting style is the single most important predictor of resilience
C — Resilience is possible. About one-third of the high-risk children in Kauai became competent, caring adults. Werner and Smith identified protective factors (caring adults, good temperament, self-efficacy) that buffered against risk — foundational research establishing the concept of developmental resilience.
47
Which behavior problem is more common in girls and involves distress directed inward?
▼
  • A) Conduct disorder
  • B) Oppositional defiant disorder
  • C) Internalizing disorders (anxiety, depression) ✓
  • D) ADHD — hyperactive type
C — Internalizing disorders. Girls are more likely to internalize (anxiety, depression, somatic complaints). Boys are more likely to externalize (conduct disorder, ODD, ADHD — hyperactive type). Both patterns have biological and socialization components.
48
Which parenting style is characterized by high demandingness AND high responsiveness, and is associated with the best outcomes in Western cultures?
▼
  • A) Authoritarian
  • B) Authoritative ✓
  • C) Permissive
  • D) Uninvolved
B — Authoritative. Combines firm limits (high demandingness) with warmth and explanation (high responsiveness). Children tend to show higher self-esteem, better academic achievement, and stronger social skills. Authoritarian = strict but cold. Permissive = warm but few rules. Uninvolved = neither.
49
Hart and Risley's research on the "language gap" found that by age 3, children from low-SES families had heard approximately how many fewer words than high-SES peers?
▼
  • A) 1 million words
  • B) 10 million words
  • C) 30 million words ✓
  • D) 100 million words
C — 30 million words. This "30 million word gap" predicted later vocabulary and reading achievement. The difference was not just quantity but quality — higher-SES parents used more varied vocabulary, more questions, and more positive feedback. Early intervention programs (like Head Start) aim to close this gap.
50
Bem's gender schema theory proposes that children:
▼
  • A) Are born with innate knowledge of gender roles
  • B) Learn gender roles exclusively through reinforcement from parents
  • C) Actively organize their experience using gender as a cognitive schema ✓
  • D) Do not develop stable gender identity until adolescence
C — Active schema use. Children use gender as an organizing framework that guides what they attend to, remember, and imitate. Once a child knows their gender, they preferentially process gender-consistent information. This cognitive approach to gender development goes beyond simple imitation or reinforcement.
51
The germinal stage of prenatal development refers to the period:
▼
  • A) From conception to the third week when major organs begin forming
  • B) From conception to approximately 2 weeks, ending with implantation of the blastocyst ✓
  • C) From week 3 to week 8 when all major body structures develop
  • D) From week 9 to birth when growth and refinement occur
B — Conception through ~2 weeks, ending with implantation. The three prenatal periods: germinal (0–2 weeks; cell division, blastocyst formation, implantation), embryonic (weeks 3–8; organogenesis, highest teratogen risk), fetal (week 9–birth; growth, refinement, viability). The embryonic period is most vulnerable to teratogens because all major organ systems are forming.
52
The "rooting reflex" in newborns is elicited by:
▼
  • A) A sudden loud noise, causing the infant to extend arms and then bring them together
  • B) Touching the infant's cheek, causing the head to turn and mouth to open in search of a nipple ✓
  • C) Stroking the sole of the foot, causing the toes to fan out
  • D) Holding the infant upright with feet touching a surface, causing stepping movements
B — Cheek touch causes head turn and mouth opening. Key neonatal reflexes: rooting (survival — helps find food), sucking (feeding), Moro/startle (loud noise/sudden drop → arms extend then embrace), palmar grasp (object in palm → grasp), Babinski (sole stroke → toes fan), stepping (upright with feet down → stepping). Most primitive reflexes disappear by 4–6 months as the cortex develops.
53
In Piaget's sensorimotor stage (birth–2 years), "object permanence" — the understanding that objects continue to exist even when not visible — typically emerges at approximately:
▼
  • A) 1–2 months
  • B) 4–5 months
  • C) 8–12 months ✓
  • D) 18–24 months
C — 8–12 months. Before ~8 months, infants don't search for hidden objects (out of sight = out of mind). By 8–12 months, they search but make the "A-not-B error" (continue searching in original hiding place). Full object permanence is complete by ~18–24 months. Baillargeon's preferential-looking research suggests rudimentary object permanence may appear as early as 3.5 months — a major challenge to Piaget's timeline.
54
"Deferred imitation" — imitating an action seen in the past — is significant developmentally because it indicates the infant has developed:
▼
  • A) Object permanence and causal reasoning
  • B) Mental representation — the ability to hold an internal image of past events ✓
  • C) Full theory of mind and perspective-taking ability
  • D) Formal operational thinking and hypothetical reasoning
B — Mental representation of past events. Deferred imitation (Piaget: substage 6 of sensorimotor, ~18–24 months) requires storing a mental image of the model's action and reproducing it later. Meltzoff showed deferred imitation occurs earlier (~9 months), again suggesting Piaget underestimated infant cognition. This ability is a precursor to symbolic thought, language, and make-believe play.
55
Piaget's formal operational stage, which begins around age 11–12, is characterized by:
▼
  • A) The ability to think logically about concrete objects and events only
  • B) The development of conservation and reversibility
  • C) The ability to think abstractly, hypothetically, and systematically about possibilities ✓
  • D) The emergence of object permanence and symbolic play
C — Abstract, hypothetical, and systematic reasoning. Formal operations allow hypothetical-deductive reasoning (generating and testing hypotheses), propositional thought (reasoning about abstract statements without concrete referents), and systematic problem-solving (varying one factor at a time). Not all adults reach full formal operations; Piaget noted cross-cultural variability. Characteristic adolescent behaviors (idealism, imaginary audience) reflect new formal operational capacities.
56
Vygotsky argued that all higher cognitive functions originate in:
▼
  • A) Biological maturation of the brain
  • C) Social interaction and are then internalized by the individual ✓
  • D) Biological instincts refined by trial-and-error learning
C — Social interaction, then internalized. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory: cognitive development is fundamentally a social process. Functions appear first on the interpsychological plane (between people) before appearing on the intrapsychological plane (within the individual). Language is the primary tool of thought — inner speech (private speech turning silent with age) is internalized social dialogue. This contrasts with Piaget's view of the child as an individual explorer.
57
Scaffolding, as it applies to Vygotsky's theory, refers to:
▼
  • A) Using physical objects to make abstract concepts concrete
  • B) Providing temporary, adjustable support that helps learners accomplish tasks within their ZPD, gradually reducing help as competence grows ✓
  • C) Organizing learning in a hierarchical structure from simple to complex
  • D) Setting clear behavioral expectations and consequences
B — Temporary, adjustable support within the ZPD. Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, and Ross applied Vygotsky's ideas) involves a more skilled partner providing just enough help for the learner to succeed — asking guiding questions, providing hints, modeling — and then gradually withdrawing support (fading) as the learner masters the task. The goal is to transfer responsibility to the learner. Think of training wheels on a bike.
58
The information-processing approach to cognitive development views the mind as analogous to a computer. Which of the following is a central claim of this approach?
▼
  • A) Cognitive development proceeds through universal, qualitatively distinct stages
  • B) Cognitive development is a continuous increase in processing efficiency, strategy use, and cognitive capacity — not discrete stages ✓
  • C) Social interaction is the primary driver of cognitive change
  • D) Cognitive development is determined by biological maturation alone
B — Continuous growth in processing efficiency and strategy use. The information-processing approach focuses on how memory capacity expands, processing speed increases, and strategies for encoding and retrieval improve continuously with age. Unlike Piaget's stage theory, development is gradual and quantitative. Key concepts: working memory capacity, executive function, automaticity (skills becoming automatic with practice), and metacognition (thinking about one's own thinking).
59
Kohlberg's "preconventional" level of moral reasoning (typical in young children) is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Reasoning based on universal ethical principles
  • B) Following rules to maintain social order and meet expectations of authority
  • C) Reasoning based on direct consequences to the self — avoiding punishment and seeking rewards ✓
  • D) Reasoning that questions and evaluates social conventions
C — Self-interest: avoid punishment and seek rewards. Kohlberg's three levels, two stages each: Preconventional (stages 1–2): Stage 1 = obedience/punishment orientation (avoid punishment); Stage 2 = instrumental/naïve hedonism (what's in it for me?). Conventional (stages 3–4): good boy/girl orientation; law and order. Postconventional (stages 5–6): social contract; universal ethical principles. Moral reasoning is assessed through dilemmas (e.g., Heinz stealing medicine).
60
Carol Gilligan criticized Kohlberg's theory primarily because:
▼
  • A) His theory was based on hypothetical dilemmas rather than real moral decisions
  • B) It was developed using an all-male sample and did not account for a different moral orientation — an ethic of care — more common in women ✓
  • C) His stage sequence was not universal across cultures
  • D) He failed to account for the role of emotions in moral reasoning
B — Male-only sample missed an ethic of care. Gilligan (In a Different Voice, 1982) argued that Kohlberg's justice orientation (abstract, rule-based) reflects a male moral voice, while women often reason from an ethic of care (relationships, responsibilities, avoiding harm). She did not claim women are morally inferior — just that they reason differently. Subsequent research finds care reasoning is not exclusive to women, but Gilligan's critique transformed developmental psychology's approach to gender.
61
Erikson's stage of "Initiative vs. Guilt" occurs during the preschool years (ages 3–6) and involves:
▼
  • A) The child learning to control bodily functions and developing autonomy
  • B) The child developing the ability to plan and initiate activities, with the risk of guilt if initiative oversteps boundaries ✓
  • C) The child learning to use tools and master academic skills
  • D) The child building basic trust through consistent caregiver responsiveness
B — Planning and initiating activities; risk of excessive guilt. In Initiative vs. Guilt, children take on new activities and explore their environment with purpose. When initiative is encouraged, the virtue of "purpose" develops. When children are criticized or punished for their initiative, they develop excessive guilt. Contrast with adjacent stages: Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (toddlerhood — control of body), Industry vs. Inferiority (school age — mastery of skills).
62
Erikson's stage of "Industry vs. Inferiority" (approximately ages 6–12) focuses on:
▼
  • A) Developing intimate relationships and avoiding isolation
  • B) Learning to use tools and master academic and social skills, with the risk of feeling inferior if unsuccessful ✓
  • C) Exploring and committing to an identity
  • D) Contributing to the next generation and leaving a legacy
B — Mastering tools and skills; risk of inferiority. The school-age child is in Erikson's Industry vs. Inferiority stage. Success produces the virtue of "competence." Failure leads to a sense of inferiority. This stage corresponds to Piaget's concrete operational period and Freud's latency period. Schools play a central role in this stage — academic and social successes or failures shape the child's emerging sense of competence.
63
Erikson's final stage, "Ego Integrity vs. Despair" (late adulthood), involves:
▼
  • A) Choosing to commit to long-term intimate relationships
  • B) Establishing care for the next generation through parenting, mentoring, or creative work
  • C) Reviewing one's life and finding meaning and acceptance, versus feeling regret and bitterness ✓
  • D) Resolving one's identity as distinct from one's role models
C — Life review: meaning and acceptance vs. regret and bitterness. In Ego Integrity vs. Despair, older adults review their lives. Those who feel they lived well, made meaningful choices, and contributed develop ego integrity — accepting mortality without fear. Those filled with regret experience despair — bitter that time has run out. The virtue is "wisdom." Butler's "life review therapy" is a clinical application of this concept.
64
Thomas and Chess's "slow-to-warm-up" temperament type is characterized by:
▼
  • A) High adaptability, regular biological rhythms, and positive mood
  • B) Negative reactions, irregular rhythms, and intense emotional responses
  • C) Mild negative reactions to novelty that gradually become positive with repeated exposure ✓
  • D) Low activity level, neutral mood, and low reactivity
C — Mild negative reactions that improve with repeated exposure. Thomas and Chess's three types: Easy (~40%): regular, adaptable, positive mood; Difficult (~10%): irregular, slow to adapt, intense negative reactions; Slow-to-warm-up (~15%): low activity, mildly negative initial reactions that improve with time. The remaining ~35% showed mixed patterns. "Goodness of fit" — how well the child's temperament matches parenting/environmental demands — is crucial for development.
65
The concept of "internal working models" in attachment theory (Bowlby) refers to:
▼
  • A) Neurological models of how infants process sensory information
  • B) Mental representations of the self and relationships, based on early attachment experiences, that guide future relationship expectations and behaviors ✓
  • C) The infant's innate behavioral system for seeking proximity to caregivers
  • D) Models used to classify attachment styles in the Strange Situation
B — Mental representations guiding future relationship expectations. Bowlby proposed that infants form internal working models — cognitive-emotional schemas of themselves (worthy/unworthy of care) and others (reliable/unreliable) — based on early caregiver experiences. These models become templates for adult relationships. Hazan and Shaver extended this to adult romantic attachment, finding that early attachment patterns predict adult relationship styles.
66
Research on the effects of parenting style shows that children raised by authoritarian parents (high demandingness, low responsiveness) tend to:
▼
  • A) Show the best academic outcomes but poor social skills
  • B) Be obedient but have lower self-esteem, social competence, and happiness compared to children raised by authoritative parents ✓
  • C) Show high creativity but frequent conduct problems
  • D) Perform best on measures of independence and autonomy
B — Obedient but lower self-esteem, social skills, and happiness. Baumrind's research (extended by Maccoby and Martin) found: Authoritative → highest self-esteem, competence, happiness, academic achievement; Authoritarian → compliant but lower self-esteem and social skills; Permissive → lower self-regulation, higher impulsivity; Uninvolved → poorest outcomes across all domains. Cultural context matters — authoritarian parenting has less negative impact in some collectivist cultures.
67
James Marcia's identity status of "moratorium" describes adolescents who are:
▼
  • A) Have committed to an identity without exploration
  • B) Actively exploring identity options but have not yet made a firm commitment ✓
  • C) Have neither explored nor committed to an identity
  • D) Have both explored and committed to an identity
B — Actively exploring, not yet committed. Marcia's four identity statuses based on exploration and commitment: Diffusion (no exploration, no commitment — apathetic), Foreclosure (commitment without exploration — took on parents' values without questioning), Moratorium (active exploration, no commitment — in crisis), Identity Achievement (exploration AND commitment — optimal outcome). Moratorium and achievement are considered higher statuses; diffusion is the least mature.
68
Research on early vs. late pubertal timing shows that for girls, early maturation is associated with:
▼
  • A) Better peer relationships and higher academic achievement
  • B) Greater risk of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and involvement with older peers who may encourage risky behaviors ✓
  • C) Higher self-esteem and body satisfaction
  • D) More positive outcomes due to social advantages of physical maturity
B — Higher risk of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and risky peer influence. For girls, early puberty is associated with social and psychological challenges: attracting older boys with different norms, body dissatisfaction (more body fat), and being socially out of sync. For boys, early maturation is generally advantageous (more muscular, higher status). Late-maturing boys may experience anxiety about status. These patterns highlight the social nature of puberty's impact.
69
The concept of "emerging adulthood" (Arnett) refers to a distinct life stage (approximately ages 18–25) characterized by:
▼
  • A) The transition from adolescence to full independence at age 18
  • B) A prolonged period of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and a sense of possibilities ✓
  • C) The developmental period characterized by the intimacy vs. isolation conflict
  • D) A universal life stage in all cultures during which young adults establish careers
B — Identity exploration, instability, self-focus, in-between feeling, possibilities. Arnett proposed emerging adulthood as a culturally specific (mostly Western, industrialized nations) life stage where higher education and career establishment delay full adult commitments (marriage, stable career, parenthood). The five features: identity explorations, instability, self-focused, feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood, and age of possibilities. This stage is becoming more common globally with economic development.
70
Crystallized intelligence (Gc) differs from fluid intelligence (Gf) in that Gc:
▼
  • A) Peaks in early adulthood and declines steadily after age 30
  • B) Involves accumulated knowledge and vocabulary and tends to increase through middle adulthood ✓
  • C) Is measured by abstract pattern recognition and novel problem-solving
  • D) Is more heritable than fluid intelligence
B — Accumulated knowledge; increases through middle adulthood. Cattell and Horn's model: Fluid intelligence (Gf) = capacity to reason with novel material, solve new problems (peaks ~20s, declines); Crystallized intelligence (Gc) = accumulated knowledge, verbal skills, expertise (stable through midlife, often increases into late middle age). This explains why experienced professionals can outperform young adults on domain-specific tasks despite slower processing speed.
71
Kübler-Ross's stage model of grief describes five stages people facing death may experience. The CORRECT order of these stages is:
▼
  • A) Anger → denial → bargaining → depression → acceptance
  • B) Denial → anger → bargaining → depression → acceptance ✓
  • C) Denial → bargaining → anger → depression → acceptance
  • D) Depression → denial → anger → bargaining → acceptance
B — Denial → Anger → Bargaining → Depression → Acceptance. Kübler-Ross (On Death and Dying, 1969) proposed these five stages based on interviews with dying patients. Important caveats: not everyone goes through all stages; stages don't always occur in order; people may revisit stages. The model applies broadly to grief over any major loss (divorce, job loss). The model has been criticized as prescriptive; contemporary grief researchers (Worden, Stroebe) prefer flexible task models or the dual-process model.
72
The "activity theory" of successful aging argues that:
▼
  • A) Older adults should gradually withdraw from social roles to ease the transition to death
  • B) Older adults who maintain social activities and replace lost roles with new ones have higher life satisfaction ✓
  • C) Selective narrowing of emotional goals in later life leads to greater well-being
  • D) Genetic factors are the primary determinants of successful aging
B — Maintaining and replacing activities → higher life satisfaction. Activity theory (Havighurst) directly challenges disengagement theory. It argues that staying active — replacing lost roles (retirement, widowhood) with new ones — is key to psychological well-being in old age. Research generally supports this, though the specific activities matter: meaningful activities have a greater impact than mere busyness. Socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen) adds nuance about which activities older adults choose.
73
A major limitation of the cross-sectional research design in developmental psychology is:
▼
  • A) It takes too many years to complete
  • B) Differences found between age groups may reflect cohort effects (differences in generation) rather than true developmental change ✓
  • C) It cannot compare different age groups at the same point in time
  • D) Participants often drop out before the study is complete
B — Age differences may reflect cohort effects, not development. Cross-sectional studies compare people of different ages at one time point. The threat: 60-year-olds and 20-year-olds grew up in completely different historical contexts. What looks like aging effects might be generational differences (cohort effects). Longitudinal designs avoid this but introduce attrition and practice effects. Sequential designs (combining both) offer the best solution but are costly.
74
The nature vs. nurture debate in developmental psychology is BEST resolved by:
▼
  • A) Concluding that genes determine outcomes and environment modifies only minor details
  • B) Concluding that environment is the primary determinant of development
  • C) Recognizing that genes and environment continuously interact — each affects how the other influences development ✓
  • D) Separating development into purely biological milestones and purely social learning stages
C — Genes and environment continuously interact. Modern developmental science embraces gene-environment interaction (GxE): genetic predispositions are expressed differently depending on environmental conditions, and environments affect people differently depending on their genetic makeup. Scarr's gene-environment correlation theory shows genes influence which environments people select and evoke. Epigenetics demonstrates that experience can alter gene expression. Neither extreme position (pure nature or pure nurture) is supported.
75
Which of the following is an example of a teratogen?
▼
  • A) A nutrient that promotes normal fetal brain development
  • B) Thalidomide — a drug taken for morning sickness in the 1950s–60s that caused severe limb malformations ✓
  • C) A genetic mutation caused by parental chromosomal abnormality
  • D) Elevated cortisol in the mother due to normal pregnancy stress
B — Thalidomide, causing severe limb malformations. Teratogens are environmental agents (drugs, alcohol, radiation, infections, environmental toxins) that cause prenatal damage. Principles: timing matters (embryonic period most sensitive); dosage matters; individual genetic susceptibility varies. Other examples: alcohol (FAS), cocaine (prematurity, low birth weight), rubella (deafness, heart defects), mercury (neurological damage). Thalidomide's tragedy led to rigorous drug testing requirements for pregnant women.
76
Erikson's stage of "Intimacy vs. Isolation" corresponds to which life period?
▼
  • A) Adolescence (12–18)
  • B) Young adulthood (approximately 20s–30s) ✓
  • C) Middle adulthood (40–65)
  • D) Late adulthood (65+)
B — Young adulthood (~20s–30s). In Intimacy vs. Isolation, the young adult must develop the capacity for deep, committed relationships. Success produces the virtue of "love." Failure results in isolation and superficial relationships. This stage assumes a foundation of identity achieved in the previous stage (Identity vs. Role Confusion). Erikson's stages are sequential — each builds on the resolution of prior conflicts, though challenges continue throughout life.
77
In Kohlberg's postconventional reasoning, Stage 6 — the highest stage — involves:
▼
  • A) Following laws as a social contract even when they are imperfect
  • B) Following universal ethical principles (justice, human dignity) even when they conflict with laws ✓
  • C) Maintaining social order and obeying legitimate authority
  • D) Reasoning based on what is good for one's immediate relationships
B — Universal ethical principles above laws. Stage 6 reasoners (rare) act on self-chosen abstract principles — justice, equality, human dignity — even when law conflicts with them. Examples: Mahatma Gandhi refusing unjust laws; refusing to participate in historical atrocities even when ordered. Kohlberg believed this stage was achievable but rarely reached. Stage 5 is more common: recognizing laws as social contracts that can and should be changed through democratic processes.
78
The concept of "secure base" in Bowlby's attachment theory means that:
▼
  • A) A physically stable home environment is necessary for healthy attachment
  • B) A securely attached infant uses the caregiver as a base from which to explore the environment, knowing the caregiver will be available if needed ✓
  • C) The mother is always the primary attachment figure
  • D) Children need a secure base of peer friendships to explore socially
B — Caregiver as safe base for exploration. The secure base concept is central to attachment theory. When the caregiver is present and responsive, the infant feels safe to explore. When frightened or stressed, the infant seeks proximity to the caregiver for comfort (safe haven function). This dual function — secure base for exploration + safe haven for comfort — is present in both infant-caregiver and adult romantic attachment relationships.
79
The "disorganized/disoriented" (Type D) attachment pattern, identified by Main and Solomon, is most associated with:
▼
  • A) Parents who are consistently warm but permissive
  • B) Caregivers who are a source of both fear and comfort — often associated with abuse, neglect, or severe parental trauma ✓
  • C) Infants who have not yet formed an attachment due to institutional care
  • D) Parents who respond inconsistently but are never threatening
B — Caregiver is both frightening and the source of comfort. Disorganized attachment (Type D) involves contradictory, disoriented behaviors — approaching the caregiver while looking away, freezing, rocking. This occurs when the attachment figure is simultaneously frightening (abusive) and the source of comfort, creating an unsolvable conflict. Disorganized attachment is the strongest childhood predictor of later psychopathology, particularly dissociation and borderline personality features.
80
The Moro (startle) reflex in newborns involves:
▼
  • A) Automatic sucking when lips are touched
  • C) Extending the arms outward and then pulling them inward in a "hugging" motion in response to a sudden stimulus ✓
  • D) Fanning of the toes when the sole of the foot is stroked
C — Arms extend then embrace in response to sudden stimulus. The Moro reflex is triggered by loud noises, sudden movement, or the sensation of falling. Evolutionarily, it may reflect a grasping reflex to clutch the mother. It typically disappears by 3–4 months as cortical inhibition develops. An asymmetric or absent Moro reflex may indicate neurological damage. Its presence is routinely tested in newborn assessments.
81
The Babinski reflex (fanning of the toes when the sole is stroked) is normal in infants but indicates neurological damage if present in adults because:
▼
  • A) Adults lack the neural pathways that produce this reflex
  • B) In healthy adults, cortical development suppresses this primitive spinal reflex; its reappearance indicates corticospinal tract damage ✓
  • C) The muscles of adult feet are too strong to produce the fanning response
  • D) The Babinski reflex is caused by a different stimulus in adults
B — Adult cortical development suppresses it; reappearance = corticospinal damage. Primitive reflexes (Moro, Babinski, palmar grasp, rooting) are mediated by the spinal cord and brainstem. As the cortex matures during the first year, higher cortical centers inhibit these primitive reflexes. In adults, positive Babinski sign indicates damage to the corticospinal (pyramidal) tract — as in stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury. This makes neonatal reflex testing clinically significant throughout life.
82
The longitudinal study design has a major limitation called "attrition." Attrition is problematic because:
▼
  • A) It takes too many years to produce publishable results
  • B) Participants who drop out may differ systematically from those who remain, biasing the remaining sample ✓
  • C) The same measures may not be valid across different age periods
  • D) Practice effects make participants perform differently over time
B — Dropouts may differ systematically, biasing the sample. In longitudinal studies, participants who remain over many years tend to be healthier, wealthier, and more educated than those who drop out — producing a survivorship bias that makes the sample increasingly unrepresentative. This can make development appear more positive than it is (the healthiest participants remain). Practice effects (getting better at tests through repetition) are a separate limitation of longitudinal designs.
83
Which of the following statements about the sensorimotor stage BEST characterizes its final substage (substage 6, ~18–24 months)?
▼
  • A) The infant can only respond to stimuli directly present in the environment
  • B) The child develops mental combinations — the ability to mentally represent problems and their solutions before acting ✓
  • C) The child develops object permanence for the first time
  • D) The child begins using language to direct action but cannot form mental images
B — Mental combinations: can mentally represent and solve problems. Substage 6 marks the transition from purely sensorimotor to representational thinking. The child can mentally represent actions before carrying them out (deferred imitation, pretend play, solving a problem "in their head"). This is Piaget's bridge between the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage. It sets the foundation for language, symbolic play, and later logical reasoning.
84
Research on Kohlberg's theory consistently finds that most adults reason at which level?
▼
  • A) Preconventional — self-interest and avoiding punishment
  • B) Conventional — maintaining social rules and meeting others' expectations ✓
  • C) Postconventional — social contract and universal principles
  • D) Adults vary so widely that no modal level can be identified
B — Conventional reasoning is most common in adults. Cross-cultural research consistently finds most adults operate at the conventional level (stages 3 and 4) — reasoning based on maintaining relationships, meeting social expectations, and following laws to preserve social order. Fewer than 20% consistently show postconventional reasoning. Preconventional is most common in young children. The finding of conventional as modal in adults across cultures is one of the most replicated findings in moral development research.
85
The "goodness of fit" concept in temperament research refers to:
▼
  • A) The genetic compatibility of parents' temperaments
  • B) The match between a child's temperamental characteristics and the demands and expectations of their environment ✓
  • C) How well a child's temperament predicts adult personality
  • D) The degree to which siblings share similar temperament types
B — Match between child's temperament and environmental demands. Thomas and Chess argued that outcomes depend not on temperament type alone but on goodness of fit. A "difficult" child in a patient, flexible family may thrive; the same child in a rigid, high-stress family may develop problems. Similarly, a slow-to-warm-up child pushed into overwhelming situations may struggle. This concept has major implications for parenting advice: match parenting style to the child's temperament.
86
According to Erikson, the "Generativity vs. Stagnation" conflict of middle adulthood is resolved through:
▼
  • A) Finding meaning in one's past and accepting one's mortality
  • B) Contributing to the next generation through parenting, mentoring, or creative and civic work ✓
  • C) Forming deep intimate relationships with a partner
  • D) Exploring and committing to an occupational and ideological identity
B — Contributing to next generation through parenting, mentoring, or creativity. Generativity includes biological generativity (parenting), parental generativity (guiding one's children), work generativity (mentoring others), cultural generativity (creating or preserving culture). The virtue is "care." Stagnation occurs when adults become self-absorbed and fail to contribute beyond themselves. McAdams extended this with narrative identity research showing that highly generative adults construct "redemption narratives" of their lives.
87
Which of the following characterizes the preoperational stage (ages 2–7) according to Piaget?
▼
  • A) Mastery of conservation, reversibility, and classification by multiple dimensions
  • B) Use of language and symbols, but egocentric thinking and inability to conserve ✓
  • C) Abstract reasoning and systematic hypothesis testing
  • D) Knowledge entirely based on sensorimotor exploration
B — Symbols and language, with egocentrism and lack of conservation. Preoperational achievements: language, symbolic play, and mental imagery. Limitations: egocentrism (difficulty taking another's perspective), centration (focusing on one dimension at a time), irreversibility (cannot mentally undo actions), and inability to conserve (don't understand quantity remains constant across transformations). Vygotsky criticized Piaget's view of the egocentric child, arguing social speech is primary from the start.
88
The "secular trend" in growth and puberty timing refers to:
▼
  • A) The tendency for puberty to occur later in each successive generation due to environmental toxins
  • B) The historical trend toward earlier puberty onset and greater adult height over the past 150 years, attributed to improved nutrition and health ✓
  • C) Cultural differences in pubertal timing across different societies
  • D) The tendency for high-stress environments to delay puberty onset
B — Earlier puberty onset and greater height over the past 150 years. In industrialized nations, the average age of menarche has fallen from ~17 years in the mid-1800s to ~12–13 today. Adult height has also increased. Cause: improved nutrition, better disease control, and reduced childhood illness. The trend appears to be leveling off in the most developed nations. However, accelerating childhood obesity may be further lowering puberty onset age in some populations.
89
The "uninvolved" (neglectful) parenting style is characterized by:
▼
  • A) High warmth and low control
  • B) High control and low warmth
  • C) Low demandingness AND low responsiveness ✓
  • D) High demands with inconsistent warmth
C — Low demandingness AND low responsiveness. Uninvolved parenting (Maccoby and Martin's extension of Baumrind) involves emotional disengagement and minimal supervision. Causes range from parental depression or substance abuse to extreme stress. Outcomes are most consistently negative across all domains: poorest academic achievement, lowest self-esteem, highest rates of delinquency and substance use. Even in cultures where authoritarian parenting has less impact, uninvolved parenting is associated with poor outcomes.
90
Piaget's concept of "conservation" refers to the understanding that:
▼
  • A) Creatures adapt to their environment through evolution
  • B) The amount (quantity, volume, mass) of a substance remains the same even when its shape or appearance changes ✓
  • C) Children conserve energy by sleeping more as they age
  • D) Once learned, cognitive schemas are resistant to change
B — Quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance. Conservation develops during the concrete operational stage (7–11). A classic task: pour water from a short wide glass into a tall narrow glass. Preoperational children say the tall glass has more (centering on height). Concrete operational children understand quantity is conserved. Children master different types at different ages: number (~6–7), liquid (~7–8), weight (~9–10), volume (~11–12) — a phenomenon Piaget called décalage.
91
Regarding adolescent moral development, research shows that the transition from conventional to postconventional reasoning is:
▼
  • A) Universal and automatic as the brain matures in adolescence
  • B) Not automatic — postconventional reasoning requires both formal operational thinking AND relevant social and educational experiences ✓
  • C) Primarily driven by peer relationships during adolescence
  • D) Completed by age 16 in most individuals in all cultures
B — Requires formal operations AND relevant experience — not automatic. Formal operational thinking (the ability to reason abstractly) is a necessary but not sufficient condition for postconventional moral reasoning. Higher education, exposure to diverse perspectives, and moral discourse also contribute. Cross-cultural studies find that postconventional reasoning is less common in traditional societies and more common in complex, pluralistic ones — suggesting social/environmental facilitation beyond biological maturation.
92
The "hospice" approach to end-of-life care is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Aggressive curative medical treatment to extend life as long as possible
  • B) Palliative care focused on comfort, quality of life, and dignity rather than curing the terminal illness ✓
  • C) Isolation from family to reduce emotional distress at the end of life
  • D) Pharmaceutical management of all emotional responses to dying
B — Palliative care: comfort, quality of life, dignity. Hospice care (Cicely Saunders founded the modern hospice movement) prioritizes pain management, emotional support, and dignity over life extension. It involves the family in care, can be provided at home or in a facility, and includes bereavement support for survivors. Research shows hospice patients sometimes live as long as or longer than those receiving aggressive treatment, often with better quality of life. Advance directives (living wills) are related tools for end-of-life decision-making.
93
The "imaginary audience" component of adolescent egocentrism (Elkind) refers to:
▼
  • A) The adolescent's belief that their experiences are uniquely special and no one can understand them
  • B) The belief that others are constantly watching and evaluating them, leading to heightened self-consciousness ✓
  • C) The tendency to create fictional social media audiences to validate self-concept
  • D) An inability to distinguish between one's own thoughts and others' perspectives
B — Belief that others are constantly watching and evaluating you. Elkind identified two components of adolescent egocentrism: imaginary audience (adolescents think they are on stage — their new zit is noticed by everyone) and personal fable (their experiences are unique and special — "No one understands me"). Both reflect formal operational thinking turned inward but applied without realistic perspective-taking. They typically decline in late adolescence as social cognition matures.
94
Research on infant attachment shows that the quality of early attachment predicts later outcomes. Which of the following outcomes is most associated with secure attachment in infancy?
▼
  • A) Higher IQ scores on standardized intelligence tests
  • B) Better social competence, emotional regulation, and resilience in childhood and adolescence ✓
  • C) Reduced risk of all forms of psychopathology throughout life
  • D) Higher academic achievement in elementary school regardless of SES
B — Better social competence, emotional regulation, and resilience. Securely attached children develop more positive internal working models and use the caregiver as a secure base, which supports exploration and competence. By school age, securely attached children show better peer relationships, more empathy, better emotional regulation, and greater resilience under stress. Insecure attachment (particularly disorganized) predicts more problems, though early attachment is not deterministic — later experiences can modify outcomes.
95
The "social convoy" model of social development in adulthood (Kahn and Antonucci) describes:
▼
  • A) The tendency for social networks to grow larger as adults age
  • B) A network of close relationships that moves with a person through life, changing in composition over time ✓
  • C) The social roles that organize adult development into predictable stages
  • D) How social media has changed the nature of adult friendships
B — A network of close relationships moving with you through life. The social convoy consists of concentric circles: innermost (closest relationships: spouse, best friends), middle (important but less close), outer (more peripheral). Members are added and lost over time (marriage, divorce, death), but the convoy provides a stable core of support throughout adulthood. This model helps explain why older adults' smaller but more satisfying social networks still provide excellent support.
96
In developmental psychology, the "sensitive period" concept differs from a "critical period" in that:
▼
  • A) Sensitive periods apply only to language; critical periods apply only to sensory development
  • B) Sensitive periods are windows when development is optimal but not impossible outside that window; critical periods involve outcomes that cannot occur if the window is missed ✓
  • C) Critical periods are longer in duration than sensitive periods
  • D) Sensitive periods are determined entirely by genetics; critical periods by environment
B — Sensitive: optimal window; Critical: must happen within window or not at all. Critical period: if the experience doesn't occur during the window, the ability cannot develop normally (e.g., visual cortex development requires patterned light in the first months; imprinting in birds). Sensitive period: development occurs most easily if the experience happens at a particular time, but can occur outside that window with more difficulty (e.g., second-language acquisition is easiest before puberty but possible afterward, with an accent).
97
Which of the following BEST captures the "personal fable" aspect of adolescent egocentrism?
▼
  • A) An adolescent who is acutely self-conscious because they feel everyone is watching them
  • B) An adolescent who believes "I'm special — it won't happen to me" when taking risks, because their experiences feel uniquely immune to consequences ✓
  • C) An adolescent who creates detailed fictional narratives about their own future
  • D) An adolescent who idolizes a celebrity and models their behavior on that person
B — "I'm special and immune to consequences." The personal fable is the belief in one's uniqueness and invincibility — "Other people get pregnant/get in accidents/get addicted, but not me." It contributes to adolescent risk-taking behavior. Research by Arnett suggests personal fable may be adaptive: believing one is special may be necessary for developing a unique identity. It tends to decline through late adolescence as identity consolidates and perspective-taking improves.
98
In Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, the "exosystem" includes:
▼
  • A) The direct relationships between the child and their immediate environments (family, school, peers)
  • B) Settings that affect the child indirectly — such as a parent's workplace or community resources — even though the child does not directly participate ✓
  • C) The cultural values, laws, and customs that shape development
  • D) The historical and temporal changes that influence development over time
B — Indirect settings like parent's workplace that affect the child. Bronfenbrenner's nested systems: microsystem (direct settings: family, school, peers), mesosystem (connections between microsystems), exosystem (settings affecting the child indirectly: parent's work schedule, neighborhood resources, siblings' school experiences), macrosystem (cultural ideology, laws, customs), chronosystem (historical time and life events). The exosystem matters — a parent with a stressful workplace brings home that stress, affecting the child even though the child never enters the workplace.
99
Which theorist is most associated with the concept that language precedes and shapes thought, making speech the primary tool of cognitive development?
▼
  • A) Jean Piaget
  • B) Noam Chomsky
  • C) Lev Vygotsky ✓
  • D) Jerome Bruner
C — Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky argued that language is the primary tool of thought. Children first use language socially (to communicate with others), then internalize it as private/inner speech that guides thought. This contrasts with Piaget, who saw language as reflecting cognitive development (thought comes first). Vygotsky studied how "private speech" (talking aloud to oneself while solving problems) transitions to inner speech — evidence that thinking is internalized social dialogue.
100
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of "successful aging" as described by Rowe and Kahn's model?
▼
  • A) Low risk of disease and disability
  • B) High cognitive and physical functioning
  • C) Active engagement with life
  • D) Acceptance of reduced social roles and gradual withdrawal from activities ✓
D — Withdrawal is NOT part of Rowe and Kahn's model. Rowe and Kahn's MacArthur Foundation model of successful aging has three components: (1) low probability of disease and disability, (2) high cognitive and physical functional capacity, (3) active engagement with life (social relationships and productive activity). This model explicitly rejects disengagement theory. Criticism: it may reflect a cultural bias (Western, individualist) and the "successful" standard may be unattainable for those with chronic illness or disability.
101
Which of the following substances is classified as a teratogen that can disrupt fetal development?
▼
  • A) Folic acid taken during the first trimester
  • B) Alcohol consumed during any trimester of pregnancy ✓
  • C) Light aerobic exercise performed by the mother throughout pregnancy
  • D) Iron supplements prescribed by an obstetrician
B — Alcohol is a teratogen at any trimester. Teratogens are agents that can cause birth defects or developmental abnormalities. Alcohol (ethanol) is one of the most damaging because it crosses the placenta freely and interferes with cell migration and neural development at any point in gestation. Folic acid prevents neural tube defects — it is protective, not harmful. Exercise and physician-prescribed supplements are generally beneficial. Critical periods are windows when developing structures are most vulnerable; the embryonic period (weeks 2–8) is generally the most sensitive, but the brain is vulnerable throughout all three trimesters to alcohol.
102
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) are primarily caused by prenatal alcohol exposure. Which of the following is a hallmark characteristic of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), the most severe FASD?
▼
  • A) Premature birth before 28 weeks' gestation
  • B) A pattern of abnormal facial features, growth deficiency, and central nervous system problems including intellectual disability ✓
  • C) Elevated cortisol levels and hyperactivity without cognitive impairment
  • D) Delayed motor development with normal cognitive and facial features
B — Abnormal facial features, growth deficiency, and CNS problems including intellectual disability. FAS diagnostic criteria: (1) characteristic facial features (smooth philtrum, thin upper lip, small palpebral fissures); (2) growth deficiency; (3) CNS problems (structural brain abnormalities, intellectual disability, behavioral dysregulation). FAS is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disability in the Western world. There is no safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy — "partial FAS" and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) occur with lower exposure. FASD effects are permanent; interventions focus on managing symptoms through education, behavioral support, and stable caregiving environments.
103
The concept of a "critical period" in prenatal development means that:
▼
  • A) Any teratogen exposure during pregnancy is equally damaging regardless of when it occurs
  • B) Each organ system has a specific time window during which it is most susceptible to teratogenic damage; exposure outside this window has less effect ✓
  • C) The third trimester is universally the most critical period because fetal weight gain peaks then
  • D) Critical periods apply only to behavioral development, not physical organ formation
B — Each organ system has a specific window of maximum teratogenic susceptibility. Critical periods in prenatal development: the embryonic period (weeks 2–8) is generally when organ systems are forming (organogenesis), making it the most sensitive overall period. But specific organs have their own windows: heart is most vulnerable weeks 3–6; neural tube closes by week 4 (folic acid prevents defects if taken before conception and in first weeks); eyes and limbs have their own critical periods. The fetal period (week 9 onward) is generally less susceptible to structural malformations but CNS growth continues throughout, remaining vulnerable to alcohol, heavy metals, and other agents.
104
John Bowlby's ethological theory of attachment proposed that infants are biologically predisposed to form attachments because:
▼
  • A) Attachment develops as a conditioned response to feeding — the caregiver becomes associated with pleasure
  • B) Infants have evolved innate behaviors (crying, clinging, smiling) that elicit caregiving, because proximity to a protective caregiver increased survival ✓
  • C) Attachment is primarily a cognitive achievement that occurs when infants develop object permanence
  • D) Infants form attachments only if caregivers consistently reward social interaction with food and warmth
B — Evolved innate behaviors eliciting caregiving; proximity increases survival. Bowlby drew on ethology (Lorenz's imprinting) and evolutionary theory: infants evolved a behavioral system that keeps them close to protective caregivers. Attachment behaviors (crying, reaching, clinging, following) are activated by threat and terminated by proximity. Harlow's rhesus monkey studies undermined the cupboard love (conditioning) theory — infant monkeys preferred the cloth-covered "comfort" mother to the wire "food" mother, showing attachment is not simply about feeding. Bowlby identified phases: pre-attachment (0–6 weeks), attachment in the making (6 weeks–6–8 months), clear-cut attachment (6–8 months on), reciprocal relationship (18–24 months on).
105
In Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure, an "anxious-avoidant" (insecurely attached) infant is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Distress upon separation from the caregiver and quick comfort and return to play upon reunion
  • B) Little distress when the caregiver leaves and active avoidance of or indifference to the caregiver upon return ✓
  • C) Intense distress upon separation and resistance to comfort upon reunion — cannot be soothed
  • D) Disorganized, contradictory behavior — approaching and then freezing or falling to the floor at reunion
B — Little distress at separation; avoidance or indifference at reunion. Ainsworth's attachment patterns in the Strange Situation: Secure (B) — moderate distress at separation, seeks and is easily comforted at reunion, returns to exploration. Insecure-Avoidant (A) — little visible distress at separation, ignores or avoids caregiver at reunion (physiological measures show hidden arousal). Insecure-Resistant/Ambivalent (C) — intense distress at separation, angry and hard to comfort at reunion. Disorganized (D — Main & Solomon addition) — no coherent strategy, bizarre behavior at reunion, associated with frightening/frightened caregiving and highest risk for later psychopathology.
106
Piaget's conservation tasks assess children's understanding that:
▼
  • A) Objects continue to exist when they are out of sight
  • B) The quantity, mass, number, or volume of a substance remains the same despite changes in its appearance or arrangement ✓
  • C) Others have mental states (thoughts, beliefs, desires) different from one's own
  • D) Rules of logic can be applied to abstract, hypothetical problems regardless of concrete content
B — Quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance or arrangement. Conservation tasks: pour liquid from a short wide glass into a tall narrow glass — preoperational children (2–7 years) say the tall glass has more (they attend to height, not compensating for width: centration). Roll a clay ball into a sausage — preoperational children say the sausage has more clay. Preoperational children lack: reversibility (mentally undoing operations), decentration (considering multiple dimensions simultaneously), and transformation reasoning. Conservation develops gradually: number (~6 years) → mass (~7) → weight (~9) → volume (~11). This sequence (horizontal décalage) was a key Piagetian finding.
107
A major criticism of Piaget's theory is that he:
▼
  • A) Overestimated the role of social and cultural factors in cognitive development
  • B) Underestimated children's cognitive abilities — simplified tasks reveal earlier competencies than Piaget believed, and development may be more continuous than his stages suggest ✓
  • C) Ignored the role of biological maturation, focusing only on environmental factors
  • D) Proposed too many stages, failing to account for individual differences in development
B — Underestimated children's abilities; simplified tasks show earlier competencies; development more continuous. Critiques: (1) Simplified tasks reveal earlier competence — Baillargeon's violation-of-expectation studies show object permanence as early as 3.5 months, far before Piaget's 8–12 months. (2) Development may not be as stage-like — abilities appear in different domains at different times (horizontal décalage) suggesting domain-specific rather than universal stages. (3) Underestimated social factors — Vygotsky showed social interaction and instruction accelerate development. (4) Cultural variation — Piaget's tasks rely on Western schooling experience. Neo-Piagetians (Case, Fischer) retained the stage concept but reconceived it in terms of information processing constraints.
108
Children's "overextension" errors in early language development refer to:
▼
  • A) Applying a word too narrowly — for example, using "dog" only for the family pet and not other dogs
  • B) Applying a word too broadly — for example, using "dog" for all four-legged animals ✓
  • C) Producing sentences that are longer than age-appropriate, including function words before they are mastered
  • D) Failing to produce words at all despite appearing to understand them in context
B — Applying a word too broadly (e.g., "dog" for all four-legged animals). Early vocabulary development errors: Overextension — the child's meaning is wider than the adult's ("ball" for any round object; "daddy" for any man). Underextension — meaning is narrower than adult's ("dog" only for the family's dog). Both errors reveal that children are actively hypothesis-testing about word meanings, not simply imitating. Telegraphic speech (two-word stage) omits function words (articles, prepositions) while retaining content words ("more milk," "daddy go"). Overregularization errors in morphology (adding -ed or -s to irregular forms: "goed," "foots") show children extract and overapply rules.
109
Kohlberg's Stage 4 of moral development ("Law and Order") is characterized by reasoning based on:
▼
  • A) Avoiding punishment and obeying authority figures to gain rewards
  • B) Following rules to maintain interpersonal relationships and be seen as a good person by others
  • C) Upholding laws and social rules to maintain the social order, because social stability requires everyone to follow the rules ✓
  • D) Following universal ethical principles of justice and human rights that may sometimes transcend law
C — Upholding laws/social rules to maintain social order; stability requires compliance. Kohlberg's six stages in three levels: Pre-conventional (Stages 1–2): Stage 1 — obedience/punishment avoidance; Stage 2 — instrumental purpose/exchange ("What's in it for me?"). Conventional (Stages 3–4): Stage 3 — interpersonal concordance (being a "good boy/girl"); Stage 4 — law and social order. Post-conventional (Stages 5–6): Stage 5 — social contract/utility; Stage 6 — universal ethical principles. Most adults reach Stage 3 or 4. Stage 6 (Ghandi, MLK figures) is rarely achieved. Kohlberg used the Heinz dilemma; reasoning process, not just answer, determined stage.
110
Carol Gilligan's critique of Kohlberg's moral development theory argued that:
▼
  • A) Moral development does not follow a stage sequence but is entirely determined by cultural context
  • B) Kohlberg's model was biased toward a male "justice" orientation; women's moral reasoning often emphasizes care, relationships, and context rather than abstract principles ✓
  • C) Post-conventional moral reasoning is culturally Western and cannot be applied cross-culturally
  • D) Moral reasoning ability declines in late adulthood due to cognitive decline
B — Kohlberg's model biased toward male justice orientation; women often emphasize care and relationships. Gilligan ("In a Different Voice," 1982): Kohlberg's model was built on research with male participants and scored women lower because they prioritized care and relationships (Stage 3) over abstract justice principles (Stages 4–6). Gilligan proposed a separate "care orientation" (caring for self → caring for others → integrating care for both). Research since Gilligan shows: both men and women use care and justice reasoning; contextual factors (personal vs. impersonal dilemmas) predict which orientation is used more than gender does. Gilligan's work nevertheless legitimized care ethics in moral philosophy.
111
James Marcia's "identity foreclosure" status describes adolescents who:
▼
  • A) Have explored identity alternatives and made firm commitments based on that exploration
  • B) Have made commitments without exploring alternatives — adopting an identity prescribed by parents or society without questioning it ✓
  • C) Are actively exploring identity alternatives but have not yet made commitments
  • D) Have neither explored nor committed to any identity, remaining in a state of apathy
B — Committed without exploration; adopted parental/societal prescription without questioning. Marcia's four identity statuses (expanding Erikson's identity vs. role confusion): Identity Achievement — explored + committed (healthy). Moratorium — exploring + not yet committed (active search). Foreclosure — committed without exploration (often adopts parents' values/career unquestioningly). Identity Diffusion — neither exploring nor committed (may indicate apathy or avoidance; most problematic outcome). Foreclosure is not automatically negative — some committed identities work out — but the lack of exploration can lead to crisis later if circumstances change. Identity development continues into adulthood beyond adolescence.
112
The "storm and stress" view of adolescence, associated with G. Stanley Hall, is best characterized as:
▼
  • A) A cross-culturally universal phase of intense conflict with parents, depression, and risky behavior
  • B) An early theory claiming adolescence is inherently turbulent; contemporary research shows most adolescents navigate it without severe disturbance ✓
  • C) A description of the rapid physical changes of puberty that cause temporary emotional disruption
  • D) A sociological concept describing the stressful transition to adult work roles in industrial societies
B — Early theory of inherent turbulence; contemporary research shows most navigate adolescence without severe disturbance. G. Stanley Hall (1904) coined "storm and stress" (from Sturm und Drang), viewing adolescence as universally turbulent — driven by biological changes. Margaret Mead's study in Samoa (Coming of Age in Samoa, 1928) challenged this by showing culturally peaceful adolescence — suggesting storm and stress is cultural, not universal (though Mead's findings have been later contested). Contemporary research (Arnett): there is somewhat elevated conflict with parents and mood variability in adolescence compared to childhood and adulthood, but severe psychopathology and parent-child estrangement affect only a minority (~20%). Most adolescents maintain positive relationships with parents.
113
Daniel Levinson's "seasons of a man's life" theory describes adult development as involving:
▼
  • A) A continuous, gradual accumulation of wisdom without distinct phases or transitions
  • B) Alternating periods of stable "life structure" building and transitional periods of reassessment and change, including the midlife transition ✓
  • C) A sequence of psychosocial crises that must be resolved before moving to the next stage
  • D) Three phases of early, middle, and late adulthood distinguished solely by biological aging processes
B — Alternating stable structure-building periods and transitional reassessment periods. Levinson (1978, "The Seasons of a Man's Life"): adult development involves building a "life structure" (relationships, career, goals) followed by transitional periods of questioning and change. Key transitions: age 30 (reassessment of early adult commitments), midlife transition (~40–45: questioning life structure, confronting mortality, potential restructuring). The midlife "crisis" is actually a transition that most navigate without crisis; about 20% experience it as a genuine upheaval. Later extended to women (1996). Influenced by Erikson's model but focused more on structural changes in adult life across specific age bands.
114
Erikson's stage of "generativity versus stagnation" occurs during:
▼
  • A) Late adolescence and early adulthood (ages ~18–40)
  • B) Middle adulthood (ages ~40–65), involving the challenge of contributing to future generations through parenting, mentoring, or creative work ✓
  • C) Late adulthood (ages 65+), involving review of one's life and achieving a sense of integrity
  • D) Young adulthood (ages ~20–40), involving the challenge of forming close intimate relationships
B — Middle adulthood (~40–65); contributing to future generations vs. self-absorption. Erikson's stages in adulthood: Young Adulthood — Intimacy vs. Isolation (forming close relationships; virtue: love). Middle Adulthood — Generativity vs. Stagnation (contributing to next generation through parenting, teaching, mentoring, creative work; virtue: care). Late Adulthood — Ego Integrity vs. Despair (life review — sense of meaning and acceptance vs. regret; virtue: wisdom). Generativity (McAdams' research) predicts well-being in midlife and is expressed through multiple channels — not just parenthood. Stagnation involves self-absorption, self-indulgence, and failure to contribute.
115
Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) are most accurately understood as:
▼
  • A) A fixed sequence that every dying or grieving person passes through in the same order
  • B) Common emotional responses to loss that are not necessarily sequential or universal — individuals may experience them in different orders, skip stages, or revisit them ✓
  • C) A medically validated treatment protocol for terminal patients that reduces the duration of each stage
  • D) Stages specific to terminal illness; grief from other losses follows a different pattern
B — Common responses to loss that are not necessarily sequential or universal. Kübler-Ross ("On Death and Dying," 1969) identified these responses from interviews with terminally ill patients. The model became widely influential in grief counseling, but it is frequently misapplied as a rigid sequence. Research shows: grief is highly individual; people may not experience all stages; the order varies; some people cycle back. Contemporary grief researchers (Stroebe, Wortman) find that chronic grief is rarer than assumed — many people show "resilience trajectories." The dual process model (Stroebe & Schut) proposes oscillation between loss-orientation (grief work) and restoration-orientation (adapting to new roles and life).
116
In Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model, the "mesosystem" refers to:
▼
  • A) The immediate setting in which the child directly participates (family, school, peer group)
  • B) The interconnections and relationships among the various microsystems in which the child participates ✓
  • C) Social settings that affect the child indirectly through their parents (parent's workplace, community organizations)
  • D) The overarching cultural values, ideologies, and legal systems of the society
B — Interconnections among the child's various microsystems. Bronfenbrenner's nested systems: Microsystem — direct interactions (family, school, peers, neighborhood). Mesosystem — connections between microsystems: parent-teacher relationships, how school rules affect home life, whether the family is involved in the child's peer group. Exosystem — settings that affect the child indirectly (parent's workplace policies, school district decisions). Macrosystem — cultural context: values, laws, customs, ideologies. Chronosystem — time dimension: historical events, life transitions (divorce, moving). A parent's job loss (exosystem) affects parenting stress (microsystem), impacting the child — a mesosystem connection.
117
Thomas and Chess's temperament research identified three primary temperamental types in infants. An "easy" temperament infant is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Low activity level, slow adaptation to new situations, and mild negative emotional reactions
  • B) Regular biological rhythms, positive approach to new stimuli, quick adaptation, and predominantly positive mood ✓
  • C) Intense negative reactions, irregular schedules, and slow adaptation to change
  • D) Consistently high activity level and strong approach tendencies toward novel stimuli
B — Regular rhythms, positive approach, quick adaptation, positive mood. Thomas and Chess's New York Longitudinal Study identified nine temperament dimensions and three clusters: Easy (~40%) — regular, positive, adaptable. Difficult (~10%) — irregular, intense negative reactions, slow adaptation. Slow-to-warm (~15%) — initially withdrawing and negative, gradually warming up with repeated exposure. ~35% didn't fit cleanly. Key concept: "goodness of fit" — outcomes depend not just on temperament but how well the child's temperament fits parental expectations and the environment. A difficult temperament child with patient, flexible parents may do well; the same child with rigid, stressed parents is at greater risk.
118
Parten's stages of play development in early childhood progress in which order?
▼
  • A) Solitary play → cooperative play → parallel play → onlooker play
  • B) Unoccupied/onlooker play → solitary play → parallel play → associative play → cooperative play ✓
  • C) Parallel play → solitary play → associative play → cooperative play → onlooker play
  • D) Solitary play → parallel play → solitary play again (alternating) → cooperative play
B — Unoccupied/onlooker → solitary → parallel → associative → cooperative. Parten (1932): Unoccupied — not playing, observing. Onlooker — watching others play. Solitary — plays alone with different toys than nearby children. Parallel — plays beside (not with) others with similar materials, no interaction. Associative — plays with others, sharing materials and conversation, but no organized roles or goals. Cooperative — organized play with shared goals, roles, and rules. The progression is general but children don't simply advance and never return to earlier forms — older children still engage in solitary play. Sociodramatic (fantasy) play within cooperative play supports cognitive and social development.
119
Gender constancy in gender development refers to a child's understanding that:
▼
  • A) Males and females differ biologically and that these differences are determined by chromosomes
  • B) One's gender is stable over time and across situational changes in clothing, hairstyle, or activities ✓
  • C) Gender roles are culturally determined and therefore vary across societies
  • D) Both males and females are capable of performing the same social roles if given equal opportunities
B — Gender is stable over time and across situational changes in appearance. Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of gender: children develop gender understanding in stages: Gender labeling (~2 years) — can label own gender. Gender stability (~3–4 years) — understands gender is stable over time ("I'll always be a girl"). Gender constancy (~6–7 years) — understands gender doesn't change with superficial changes (a girl who cuts her hair short is still a girl). Full gender constancy correlates with Piaget's conservation, suggesting shared cognitive basis. Gender schema theory (Bem) adds that children use gender as a cognitive organizing framework once they understand their own gender, selectively attending to gender-relevant information.
120
The LASS (Language Acquisition Support System), proposed by Jerome Bruner, emphasizes:
▼
  • A) The innate grammatical structures that all children are born with for language acquisition
  • B) The social-interactional scaffolding provided by caregivers — through routines, games, and joint attention — that supports language acquisition ✓
  • C) A computer-like system of rule application that children use to process linguistic input
  • D) The cultural transmission of language through formal schooling and literacy instruction
B — Social-interactional scaffolding by caregivers supporting language acquisition. Bruner proposed the LASS as a complement (not replacement) to Chomsky's LAD: while children may have biological predispositions for language, they also need social-interactional support to activate them. Components of LASS: joint attention (caregiver and infant both attending to the same object, facilitating word learning), proto-conversations (turn-taking in pre-linguistic interactions), formats (repeated routines like peekaboo that have predictable language frames), and child-directed speech (infant-directed "motherese" with higher pitch, slower pace, simplified vocabulary). This social-interactionist perspective bridges nativist and learning-based accounts.
121
Neo-Piagetian theorists such as Robbie Case modified Piaget's theory primarily by:
▼
  • A) Rejecting stages entirely in favor of continuous, domain-general development
  • B) Retaining the concept of stages but explaining stage progression in terms of increasing working memory capacity and executive control ✓
  • C) Replacing Piaget's cognitive stages with emotional and social developmental stages
  • D) Extending Piaget's stages into adulthood with additional post-formal operational stages
B — Retained stages but explained transitions via increasing working memory capacity and executive control. Neo-Piagetians accepted stage-like development but explained the mechanism differently from Piaget's "equilibration": Case proposed that central conceptual structures (structured mental networks) develop as working memory (M-space) increases with maturation. Children cannot pass to the next stage until their working memory has sufficient capacity to coordinate more complex mental operations. This bridges Piaget's theory with information processing approaches. Fischer's dynamic skill theory is another neo-Piagetian approach, emphasizing that skill levels are domain-specific and context-dependent rather than general stages applied uniformly across all domains.
122
Prosocial behavior in children — helping, sharing, and comforting others — is thought to develop through all of the following EXCEPT:
▼
  • A) Empathy — the ability to understand and share others' emotional states
  • B) Modeling and reinforcement from parents who demonstrate and reward helping
  • C) Perspective-taking — the cognitive ability to understand others' viewpoints
  • D) Reward deprivation — children are naturally selfish and only help others when basic needs are unmet ✓
D — "Reward deprivation" is not a recognized mechanism; prosocial behavior emerges from empathy, modeling, and perspective-taking. Research shows even young infants (~18 months) spontaneously help others without explicit training (Warneken and Tomasello). Prosocial development is facilitated by: empathy development (emotional resonance with others' distress); perspective-taking (Theory of Mind — understanding others' mental states); warm, authoritative parenting that models and explains altruism; and cultural norms promoting sharing and cooperation. The view that humans are inherently selfish ("reward deprivation" model) is not supported by developmental evidence — prosociality appears early and across cultures.
123
The concept of "scaffolding" in Vygotsky's approach to cognitive development refers to:
▼
  • A) The biological maturation of neural structures that support increasingly complex cognitive operations
  • B) Temporary, adjustable support provided by a more skilled partner that enables the learner to accomplish tasks within their Zone of Proximal Development ✓
  • C) The child's self-directed construction of mental schemas through active exploration of the environment
  • D) The cultural tools (language, number systems) that mediate all higher cognitive processes
B — Temporary, adjustable support enabling learner to accomplish tasks within the ZPD. Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the distance between what a child can do independently and what they can do with skilled help. Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, Ross — 1976, built on Vygotsky): effective support is calibrated to the learner's current level, gradually withdrawn as competence grows. Features: joint problem-solving, providing hints rather than answers, asking guiding questions, modeling, adjusting support based on performance. The child internalizes the scaffolded process and eventually performs independently. Vygotsky emphasized that all higher mental functions first exist between people (interpsychological) before being internalized (intrapsychological).
124
Successful aging theories include the "activity theory," which predicts that older adults maintain well-being by:
▼
  • A) Gradually withdrawing from social roles and activities to reduce stress and prepare for death
  • B) Staying active and replacing lost roles (retirement, widowhood) with new activities and social engagements ✓
  • C) Focusing inward through increased spirituality and reflection rather than external engagement
  • D) Accepting biological decline and reducing social expectations accordingly
B — Staying active and replacing lost roles with new activities. Activity theory (Havighurst, 1963): social engagement and productivity are central to well-being at all ages; successful aging means maintaining middle-aged activity levels as long as possible and replacing lost roles. Contrasted with Disengagement Theory (Cumming and Henry, 1961): aging involves a mutual, gradual withdrawal of the individual and society — the first major gerontological theory, now largely discredited. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen): older adults consciously narrow their social networks to focus on emotionally meaningful relationships — a form of active management, not withdrawal. Continuity Theory: adapting new activities that connect to past identity and interests.
125
The macrosystem in Bronfenbrenner's ecological model refers to:
▼
  • A) The most immediate environment the child directly experiences, including family and school
  • B) Settings that affect the child indirectly, such as the parent's workplace
  • C) The overarching cultural context — including values, ideologies, laws, and customs — that shapes all other levels of the system ✓
  • D) The connections between the child's various immediate environments
C — Overarching cultural context: values, ideologies, laws, and customs. The macrosystem is the "cultural blueprint" — the shared values, economic systems, laws, and ideologies of a society that shape the form and content of all other systems. Examples: a culture that values competitive individualism structures families, schools, and workplaces differently than one emphasizing collective interdependence. Government policies (healthcare, parental leave, education funding) are macrosystem elements that affect children's development through all other levels. The chronosystem adds the dimension of time — historical changes in the macrosystem (changing divorce laws, shifting gender norms) alter developmental contexts.
126
Marcia's "identity moratorium" status describes adolescents who:
▼
  • A) Have made firm commitments after actively exploring identity alternatives
  • B) Are actively exploring identity alternatives but have not yet made firm commitments — in a period of active searching ✓
  • C) Have accepted an identity prescribed by parents without exploring alternatives
  • D) Have made no identity commitments and are not actively searching
B — Actively exploring without yet having made commitments; active searching. Moratorium (from the Latin for "delay"): the adolescent is in the midst of an identity crisis — exploring options in career, values, relationships, politics — but has not reached resolution. This is often an anxious but productive state. Erikson's "psychosocial moratorium" was the normal adolescent delay before adult commitments. Marcia saw moratorium as a transitional state typically resolving to identity achievement. Research (Kroger): identity development is not complete at adolescence — many people return to moratorium and rework commitments in young adulthood and middle age. Identity achievement is associated with better psychological well-being and more complex ego development.
127
Which of the following BEST describes the "secure base" function of attachment in infancy?
▼
  • A) The caregiver provides food and warmth, creating a conditioned association with positive feelings
  • B) The attachment figure serves as a safe haven in distress and a secure base from which the infant explores the environment with confidence ✓
  • C) The infant remains close to the caregiver at all times, preventing exposure to dangerous situations
  • D) The caregiver structures the environment to prevent the infant from encountering new or unfamiliar stimuli
B — Safe haven in distress; secure base for confident exploration. Bowlby's concept: the attachment figure serves two complementary functions: (1) Safe haven — when threatened, infant retreats to caregiver for comfort and protection; (2) Secure base — when feeling safe, infant uses caregiver as a base from which to explore, returning when needed. This explains the exploration pattern in the Strange Situation: securely attached infants explore confidently, check back periodically, seek the caregiver when distressed. Insecure children either fail to explore (ambivalent) or explore without using the caregiver as a base (avoidant). Internal working models (mental representations of attachment relationships) carry these patterns into adult relationships.
128
The formal operational stage in Piaget's theory (beginning ~12 years) is primarily characterized by the ability to:
▼
  • A) Use symbols and language to represent objects, and engage in intuitive rather than logical thinking
  • B) Apply logical operations to concrete, observable situations using conservation and classification
  • C) Think abstractly and hypothetically — reasoning about possibilities, not just actualities, and applying systematic logic to hypothetical problems ✓
  • D) Coordinate sensorimotor schemes to develop object permanence and means-end sequences
C — Abstract, hypothetical thinking; reasoning about possibilities; systematic logic. Formal operations hallmarks: Hypothetico-deductive reasoning — start with a hypothesis and systematically test it (unlike concrete ops children who test unsystematically). Abstract reasoning — can reason about concepts not tied to concrete objects (love, justice, infinity). Propositional logic — can reason from premises regardless of real-world truth. Adolescent egocentrism (Elkind): formal ops also brings the "imaginary audience" (everyone is watching me) and "personal fable" (I am unique and invulnerable) — both products of new ability to think about others' thoughts about oneself. Not all adults achieve full formal operations — culturally and educationally variable.
129
Telegraphic speech in toddlers (approximately 18–24 months) refers to utterances that:
▼
  • A) Are single words that carry the meaning of an entire sentence (holophrases)
  • B) Contain two or more content words but omit function words (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs), resembling the language of a telegram ✓
  • C) Include correct grammatical morphology — articles, tense markers, and prepositions — but shorter sentences
  • D) Consist entirely of imitated phrases heard from caregivers rather than novel constructions
B — Content words present, function words omitted; resembles telegram language. Telegraphic speech: "more milk," "daddy gone," "big dog" — essential content words are retained, grammatical function words (a, the, is, -ing, -ed) are omitted. This is not random omission; children systematically keep the words that carry the most meaning. Brown (1973) documented the order of morpheme acquisition: present progressive (-ing) and in/on → plural (-s) → possessive (-'s) → copula (is) → articles (a, the). The predictable order of acquisition across children suggests an underlying rule-extraction system, consistent with both nativist and usage-based theories. Overregularization errors begin in this period ("foots," "goed," "mouses").
130
Gender schema theory (Sandra Bem, 1981) proposes that children develop gender-typed behavior because:
▼
  • A) Biological hormones push boys toward masculine activities and girls toward feminine activities regardless of social context
  • B) Once children acquire their gender label, they use gender as a cognitive organizing schema — selectively attending to and encoding gender-relevant information ✓
  • C) Parents consistently reinforce gender-appropriate behavior and punish cross-gender behavior
  • D) Children identify with the same-sex parent and adopt their gender role through the process of identification
B — Children use gender as a cognitive organizing schema, selectively attending to gender-relevant information. Bem's gender schema theory integrates cognitive and social learning approaches: children first learn society's gender schema (which behaviors, traits, objects belong to each gender), then use this schema as an organizing framework. Once you know you are a girl, you attend to what girls do and selectively process gender-relevant information. "Gender-schematic" children are highly sensitive to gender cues; raising "gender-aschematic" children requires deliberately challenging cultural gender schemas. Contrasts with Kohlberg (gender constancy required before schema formation) — Bem argues schemas form earlier, as soon as gender labeling occurs.
131
Secure attachment in infancy is associated with which later developmental outcome?
▼
  • A) Higher rates of dependency and inability to tolerate separation in preschool
  • B) Better social competence with peers, greater emotional regulation, and higher academic readiness in childhood ✓
  • C) Identical outcomes to insecurely attached children when parenting quality in middle childhood is equivalent
  • D) Superior performance only on tasks involving spatial reasoning and fine motor skills
B — Better social competence, emotional regulation, and academic readiness. Longitudinal research (Minnesota Longitudinal Study — Sroufe and Egeland): secure attachment predicts better peer relationships, greater resilience, less anxiety, better emotion regulation, and greater school readiness. Internal working models (Bowlby) — mental representations of caregiver availability — generalize to expectations in other relationships. However, attachment security is not destiny: high-quality later caregiving can improve outcomes for insecurely attached children (continuity of experience matters, not just early attachment alone). Adult Attachment Interview (Main) assesses how adults narrate childhood attachment experiences, finding intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns.
132
A key distinction between Vygotsky's and Piaget's views on the relationship between language and thought is that:
▼
  • A) Piaget believed language causes cognitive development; Vygotsky believed cognitive development is independent of language
  • B) Vygotsky believed language is the primary tool of thought and precedes higher cognitive development; Piaget believed thought precedes and drives language development ✓
  • C) Both agreed that language and thought develop independently and merge only in adolescence
  • D) Piaget emphasized social speech while Vygotsky emphasized private (egocentric) speech as the driver of cognitive development
B — Vygotsky: language is primary tool of thought, precedes higher cognition; Piaget: thought precedes language. Piaget: cognitive development drives language — a child must first cognitively understand object permanence before using words for absent objects; language reflects underlying cognitive structures. Vygotsky: language is the most important cultural tool — it mediates all higher mental functions. Private (inner) speech (talking to oneself) is the mechanism by which social speech is internalized to direct thought. Piaget called self-directed speech "egocentric" (a symptom of cognitive immaturity that disappears); Vygotsky saw it as functional and adaptive — it goes underground to become inner speech rather than disappearing.
133
Adolescent peer influence on risk-taking behavior is best explained by which of the following?
▼
  • A) Adolescents have less accurate risk perception than adults and genuinely believe dangerous activities are safe
  • B) The presence of peers activates the social-emotional reward system in adolescents' brains, making risk-taking more rewarding when peers are watching ✓
  • C) Peer pressure consists of direct, explicit coercion that adolescents lack the assertiveness to resist
  • D) Adolescents only engage in risky behavior when they are rejected by their peer group and seek acceptance
B — Peers activate social-emotional reward systems, making risk-taking more rewarding when peers observe. Gardner and Steinberg's driving simulation study: adolescents took significantly more risks with peers watching than alone; adults were unaffected by peer presence. Neurobiological explanation: the adolescent brain has a fully developed limbic system (reward/emotional) but still-developing prefrontal cortex (regulation/judgment). Peers activate the limbic reward system, tilting the cost-benefit calculation toward risk. Importantly, adolescents are not less capable of recognizing risk when alone and deliberating — the problem is that the social context tips the balance in real-time emotional situations. This has implications for understanding why adolescent risky behavior is primarily social.
134
In the context of aging, the "terminal drop" phenomenon refers to:
▼
  • A) The gradual, steady decline in cognitive function that begins in the early 60s
  • B) A sharp decline in cognitive performance that appears in the last months or years before death, even among those who showed gradual decline previously ✓
  • C) The complete cessation of intellectual activity that occurs when death is imminent (within 24–48 hours)
  • D) The rapid loss of physical mobility that precedes cognitive decline in most older adults
B — Sharp cognitive decline in the last months/years before death. Terminal drop (Kleemeier, 1962): cognitive deterioration accelerates dramatically in the period immediately preceding death — regardless of age. This finding suggests that the gradual cognitive declines attributed to "normal aging" may partly reflect the inclusion of individuals close to death in cross-sectional samples. Implication: measuring distance-to-death rather than chronological age may better predict cognitive status. Distinguishes between "normal aging" cognitive changes (modest) and pathological declines associated with approaching death (steep). Relevant to the distinction between normal aging and neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer's).
135
Kohlberg's highest stage of moral development — Stage 6 (Universal Ethical Principles) — is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Following the law because social order requires that everyone obey established rules
  • B) Acting according to self-chosen, abstract ethical principles (justice, human dignity) that are applied universally, even if this means violating specific laws ✓
  • C) Making decisions based on maximizing social utility — what produces the greatest good for the greatest number
  • D) Following moral rules because society has agreed upon them through social contract, with provisions for necessary exceptions
B — Self-chosen abstract ethical principles applied universally, potentially above specific laws. Stage 6 reasoning: the individual is guided by self-chosen universal principles — justice, equality, human dignity. If a specific law violates these principles, the principled actor may break the law (civil disobedience — Thoreau, Gandhi, MLK). Stage 5 is similar but more law-bound: the social contract can be changed through democratic processes; Stage 6 appeals to principles that would be recognized by all rational beings. Kohlberg considered Stage 6 extremely rare and later questioned whether it was empirically distinct from Stage 5. Note: Stage 5 = social contract/utility; Stage 4 = law and order; Stage 3 = good interpersonal relations.
136
The concept of "disorganized attachment" (Type D), added by Main and Solomon, is associated with:
▼
  • A) Infants who cling tightly to the caregiver and resist all separation, showing excessive dependency
  • B) Infants whose behavior at reunion is contradictory and disorganized — approaching and then freezing, showing fear of the caregiver who is also the source of comfort ✓
  • C) Infants who show no preference for their primary caregiver over strangers
  • D) Infants raised in multiple-caregiver arrangements who cannot identify a primary attachment figure
B — Contradictory, disorganized behavior; fear of the caregiver who is also the source of comfort. Disorganized attachment (D): the infant's attachment system is activated by distress (needing the caregiver) but the caregiver is also a source of fear — creating an unresolvable contradiction ("fright without solution"). Associated with: frightened or frightening caregiver behavior, abuse, neglect, unresolved parental trauma/grief. Outcomes: disorganized attachment is the strongest childhood predictor of later psychopathology, dissociation, and borderline personality features. About 80% of maltreated children show disorganized attachment. Main's Adult Attachment Interview found that parents with unresolved trauma/loss tend to have disorganized-attachment children.
137
The preoperational child's "egocentrism" (Piaget), as demonstrated in the three-mountains task, means that the child:
▼
  • A) Is selfish and unwilling to share toys or attention with other children
  • B) Cannot mentally represent how a scene would look from another person's spatial perspective — they assume others see what they see ✓
  • C) Focuses on one's own emotional needs without understanding that others have emotional needs too
  • D) Is unable to understand that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight
B — Cannot mentally represent another's spatial perspective; assumes others see what they see. Piaget's three-mountains task: child views a model of three mountains, then is shown photographs and asked which photo represents what a doll placed at a different position would see. Preoperational children (~2–7) consistently choose the photo that represents their own view. This cognitive egocentrism (not moral selfishness) is also evident in animism (attributing life to inanimate objects), artificialism (believing people made natural phenomena), and failure of theory of mind tasks (which researchers like Wimmer and Perner showed may develop earlier in simplified conditions). Decentration (considering multiple perspectives simultaneously) develops in the concrete operational stage.
138
Which of the following best illustrates "underextension" in early word learning?
▼
  • A) A toddler uses the word "dog" to refer to all four-legged animals including horses and cows
  • B) A toddler uses the word "cup" to refer only to their specific red sippy cup and not to any other cups ✓
  • C) A toddler uses "mommy" to refer to any adult female they encounter
  • D) A toddler uses "ball" to refer to any round object including oranges and the moon
B — "Cup" refers only to the specific red sippy cup, not to other cups. Underextension: the child applies a word more narrowly than the adult convention — only the specific instance they know, not the full category. Overextension (applying too broadly) is more common and more studied, but underextension is equally informative about how children form word meanings. Both reveal that children are mapping words to concepts, not simply copying sounds — and that their initial conceptual boundaries may not match adult boundaries. Underextension may reflect insufficient abstracting from specific instances, while overextension reflects over-generalization of a prototype. Children typically correct both errors as their vocabulary and conceptual understanding deepen.
139
Rowe and Kahn's model of "successful aging" (1998) identifies which three components as essential?
▼
  • A) Financial security, spiritual fulfillment, and freedom from chronic disease
  • B) Low risk of disease and disability, high cognitive and physical functioning, and active engagement with life ✓
  • C) Social status maintenance, positive subjective well-being, and generativity
  • D) Acceptance of mortality, wisdom development, and resolution of life-review conflicts
B — Low disease/disability risk, high cognitive/physical functioning, and active engagement with life. Rowe and Kahn's MacArthur Foundation model (from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging): three interlocking components: (1) Avoiding disease and disability; (2) Maintaining high cognitive and physical function; (3) Engagement with life — productive activities and social connections. All three are necessary; meeting only some = "usual aging." Criticisms: the model may reflect cultural bias (Western individualism, ableism); many older adults with chronic illness report high well-being; the criteria may be unattainable for many, especially those facing systemic disadvantage. Subjective well-being models of successful aging (Baltes' SOC — Selection, Optimization, Compensation) offer complementary perspectives.
140
The "difficult" temperament category in Thomas and Chess's research describes infants who show:
▼
  • A) Consistent positive mood, regular biological rhythms, and easy adaptation to new situations
  • B) Intense negative emotional reactions, irregular biological rhythms (eating, sleeping), and slow adaptation to new stimuli ✓
  • C) Initially negative reactions to new stimuli that gradually become more positive with repeated exposure
  • D) Low activity level and mild mood with unpredictable biological rhythms
B — Intense negative reactions, irregular rhythms, and slow adaptation. Thomas and Chess's nine temperamental dimensions include: activity level, rhythmicity (regularity), approach/withdrawal, adaptability, intensity, mood quality, distractibility, persistence/attention span, sensitivity threshold. "Difficult" infants (~10%) score high on intensity of negative reaction, low on rhythmicity, and low on adaptability — they cry frequently and intensely, have unpredictable schedules, and react negatively to new foods, people, and routines. Goodness of fit: difficult temperament in a patient, structured environment (predictable routines, consistent caregiving) can lead to positive outcomes. Difficult temperament in a disorganized, stressed environment predicts higher risk for later behavior problems.
141
Crystallized intelligence, unlike fluid intelligence, tends to:
▼
  • A) Peak in early adulthood and then decline steadily through middle and late adulthood
  • B) Remain stable or even increase into late adulthood because it reflects accumulated knowledge and experience ✓
  • C) Be more heritable than fluid intelligence, as it is determined primarily by genetic factors
  • D) Decline more steeply than fluid intelligence in individuals with Alzheimer's disease
B — Remains stable or increases into late adulthood; reflects accumulated knowledge and experience. Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory: Fluid intelligence (Gf) — reasoning, problem-solving with novel material — peaks ~25, then gradually declines. Crystallized intelligence (Gc) — vocabulary, factual knowledge, expert skills — can increase into the 60s and 70s, reflecting accumulated learning. This explains why older adults can outperform younger adults on knowledge-based tests and expert tasks while younger adults excel at novel, speeded reasoning tasks. The Gc compensation mechanism is important for successful aging: older adults can compensate for Gf decline by drawing on vast Gc reserves, though this compensation has limits in very novel or time-pressured situations.
142
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen) proposes that as adults age, they:
▼
  • A) Become increasingly isolated due to the loss of social roles and reduced physical mobility
  • B) Consciously narrow their social networks to focus on emotionally meaningful close relationships, because perceiving time as limited shifts goals toward emotional quality over information seeking ✓
  • C) Seek out new social relationships to replace lost ones and maintain the size of their social networks
  • D) Withdraw from social life as a natural and functional preparation for death
B — Narrow networks to focus on emotionally meaningful relationships; limited time shifts goals. Carstensen's SST: the key variable is not age per se, but the perception of time remaining. When time is perceived as limited (old age, terminal illness, or even imagining moving away from a city), people prioritize emotional meaning and close relationships over information-seeking and peripheral social contacts. When time is perceived as expansive (young adulthood, or when an older adult imagines medical advances allowing long life), information and novelty goals take priority. This explains the "positivity effect" in older adults — they attend to and remember positive information more than negative. SST challenges disengagement theory by showing narrowed networks reflect active, adaptive choice.
143
The "personal fable" aspect of adolescent egocentrism (Elkind) refers to the belief that:
▼
  • A) All eyes are constantly watching and evaluating the adolescent's appearance and behavior
  • B) One is uniquely special and invulnerable — one's experiences are so unique that no one else could understand, and normal risks don't apply to oneself ✓
  • C) One's own moral judgments are universally correct and others are morally deficient
  • D) One has created the world through one's own thinking — a confusion of thought and reality
B — Believing one is uniquely special and invulnerable; normal risks don't apply. Elkind identified two aspects of adolescent egocentrism emerging with formal operations: Imaginary audience — believing one is the constant focus of others' attention ("Everyone noticed my pimple"). Personal fable — believing one is unique and invulnerable: "My parents could never understand what I'm going through" (uniqueness); "Accidents happen to others, not me" (invulnerability). The personal fable may contribute to adolescent risk-taking (smoking, unsafe sex, reckless driving) because of the sense of invulnerability. Both diminish as adolescents gain experience with social reality and develop more accurate perspective-taking. Some personal fable features may persist as adaptive self-enhancement in adulthood.
144
The "slow-to-warm-up" temperament type described by Thomas and Chess is distinguished by:
▼
  • A) High activity levels, intense emotions, and irregular biological rhythms
  • B) Initial negative or withdrawing reactions to new stimuli that gradually become positive with repeated exposure at the child's own pace ✓
  • C) Low activity level, mild positive mood, and very regular biological rhythms
  • D) Moderate mood and activity with high sensitivity to sensory stimulation
B — Initial negative/withdrawing reactions that gradually warm with repeated exposure. Slow-to-warm (~15% of Thomas and Chess sample): these infants initially withdraw from new foods, people, and situations, but with repeated, unpressured exposure, they gradually approach and adapt. Key caregiving implication: don't force or rush exposure — allow repeated opportunities at the child's pace. Pressure produces more withdrawal and distress. "Easy," "difficult," and "slow-to-warm" represent clusters on the nine temperamental dimensions — most children show some blend and don't fit neatly into categories. Temperament is thought to be biologically based and relatively stable, but it is not fixed and can be modulated by experience and caregiving.
145
Sociodramatic play (fantasy/make-believe play) in preschool children is associated with which developmental benefits?
▼
  • A) Primarily motor skill development through physical activity and coordination
  • B) Development of symbolic thinking, perspective-taking (Theory of Mind), narrative skills, emotion regulation, and social cooperation ✓
  • C) Primarily rote learning of academic content through play-based instruction
  • D) Reduced creativity because rules of dramatic play constrain imaginative production
B — Symbolic thinking, perspective-taking, narrative skills, emotion regulation, and social cooperation. Vygotsky considered play the "leading activity" of the preschool period: in play, children operate at their highest developmental level, practicing skills they cannot yet perform in other contexts. Sociodramatic play involves: symbol use (a stick becomes a sword — foundational for later literacy and abstract thought), role-taking (practicing Theory of Mind), narrative construction, negotiation and social cooperation, and safe exploration of emotions ("you be the scary monster"). Research links rich dramatic play to better reading readiness, emotion regulation, and social competence. Parten's cooperative play is the highest level where sociodramatic play occurs.
146
Piaget's sensorimotor stage (birth to ~2 years) culminates with the achievement of:
▼
  • A) Conservation — understanding that quantity is invariant across perceptual changes
  • B) Object permanence — understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight or reach ✓
  • C) Formal logical operations applied to abstract hypothetical problems
  • D) Reversibility — the ability to mentally reverse an operation to its original state
B — Object permanence: objects continue to exist when out of sight. The major achievement of the sensorimotor stage (~birth to 2 years): the infant progresses from purely reflex behavior through 6 substages to the beginning of symbolic representation. Object permanence develops gradually: before ~4 months, infants don't search for hidden objects. After 4–8 months, search begins. A-not-B error (8–12 months): infant looks where the object was found before, not where it was just hidden. Full object permanence with invisible displacements (~18–24 months). Baillargeon showed object permanence (as measured by looking, not reaching) appears much earlier (~3.5 months), suggesting infants have implicit understanding before they can act on it.
147
The exosystem in Bronfenbrenner's ecological model differs from the microsystem in that the exosystem:
▼
  • A) Includes only institutional-level forces like government and cultural ideology
  • B) Consists of settings that affect the child's development indirectly, through their impact on people who directly interact with the child — the child does not participate in the exosystem directly ✓
  • C) Refers to the connections and relationships between the child's immediate microsystems
  • D) Contains only the child's school environment and formal educational institutions
B — Settings affecting the child indirectly, through impacts on people who interact with the child. Exosystem examples: parent's workplace (if a parent's job is stressful or requires travel, this affects parenting quality and the child — but the child doesn't participate in the parent's job); school board decisions (affect curriculum and teachers, indirectly affecting students); local government child welfare services; neighborhood resources. Research application: parental work policies (paid family leave, flexible scheduling) are exosystem factors with large impacts on child development. The child's outcomes depend on the entire ecological system, not just what happens in the immediate microsystem.
148
Levinson's concept of the "Dream" in early adulthood refers to:
▼
  • A) The unconscious wish fulfillment that Freud described as the primary motivation in dreams during REM sleep
  • B) The idealized vision a young adult holds for their life — the image of what they want to become and achieve — that provides direction for building the life structure ✓
  • C) The mentor relationship that guides young adults through the transition to full adult independence
  • D) The period of sleep-like identity diffusion that precedes commitment in Marcia's model
B — The idealized vision of what one wants to become; guides early adult life structure building. Levinson: the Dream is a vague sense in early adulthood of what one wants one's life to be — often involving heroic visions of success in work, relationships, or creative endeavors. The task of early adulthood is to give the Dream definition and build a life structure that supports it. A mentor's role is often to help the young adult realize the Dream. The midlife transition (~40–45) often involves reassessment of the Dream: Has it been achieved? Was it realistic? What must be abandoned? This reassessment can be distressing (if the gap between Dream and reality is large) or liberating (redefining what matters).
149
The "theory of mind" milestone in development refers to a child's ability to:
▼
  • A) Understand that physical laws govern the behavior of objects in the environment
  • B) Understand that other people have mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions) that may differ from one's own and that influence their behavior ✓
  • C) Develop abstract theories about moral principles and apply them consistently
  • D) Form mental representations (schemas) of recurring events and predictable routines
B — Understanding that others have mental states different from one's own that influence behavior. Theory of Mind (TOM) is typically assessed with false-belief tasks (Wimmer and Perner, 1983; Maxi task): a character places an object, leaves; object is moved; child is asked where the character will look. Children who pass (~4–5 years) understand the character has a FALSE belief based on what they saw. Children who fail (~3 years) assume the character knows what they know. TOM is delayed in autism spectrum disorder (Baron-Cohen's "mindblindness"). Precursors: joint attention (~9 months), understanding intention (~18 months). TOM enables deception, empathy, communication, and social cognition.
150
Goodness of fit, a concept from Thomas and Chess's temperament research, predicts that developmental outcomes depend on:
▼
  • A) The absolute temperament category of the child — "easy" children always have better outcomes
  • B) How well the child's temperament matches the demands and expectations of the environment and caregivers — a match produces good outcomes regardless of the specific temperament type ✓
  • C) The genetic similarity between parents and children, which determines how well parents understand the child's needs
  • D) The quality of prenatal nutrition, which determines temperament and therefore developmental outcomes
B — Match between child's temperament and environmental demands/expectations; match → good outcomes regardless of type. Goodness of fit: no temperament is inherently good or bad — outcomes depend on fit. A highly active, intense child in a quiet, structured family may clash; the same child in an energetic, outdoor-oriented family may thrive. A slow-to-warm child pushed too quickly causes distress; given time and patience, the child adapts well. Practical applications: temperament-informed parenting (adjust your approach to your child's style), school placement (match teaching style to student temperament), and therapy (help parents understand that difficult behavior may reflect temperament mismatch, not defiance or bad parenting). Temperament × environment interactions are a key theme in developmental psychopathology.
151
The rooting reflex in newborns is best described as:
▼
  • A) The infant's tendency to grasp any object placed in the palm with surprising strength
  • B) Turning the head and opening the mouth when the cheek or corner of the mouth is stroked — facilitating nipple location for feeding ✓
  • C) Extending the arms and legs outward then pulling them back when startled by a loud noise or sudden movement
  • D) Fanning the toes outward when the sole of the foot is stroked from heel to toe
B — Turning head and opening mouth when cheek is stroked; facilitates feeding. Neonatal reflexes are automatic, stereotyped motor responses present at birth that indicate neurological integrity. Rooting: stroke cheek → head turns toward stimulus, mouth opens. Sucking: object in mouth → rhythmic sucking. Moro (startle): sudden noise/movement → arms fling wide then return to midline (protective embrace). Babinski: stroke sole from heel to toes → toes fan out (normal in infants; indicates upper motor neuron damage if present after ~12–18 months). Palmar grasp: touch palm → fingers close around object. Stepping: hold infant upright, soles touching surface → alternating stepping movements. Most primitive reflexes disappear by 4–6 months as the cortex gains control over subcortical reflex circuits.
152
The habituation paradigm has been valuable in infant research primarily because:
▼
  • A) It allows researchers to condition infants to perform voluntary actions and measure learning rates across development
  • B) It uses infants' decreased looking time (habituation) to a repeated stimulus and renewed looking (dishabituation) to a novel stimulus to infer perceptual discrimination — circumventing infants' inability to verbally report their experiences ✓
  • C) It measures infants' preference for familiar over novel stimuli, directly revealing their memory capacity
  • D) It requires no apparatus, making it the most ecologically valid method for studying infant cognition in home settings
B — Habituation/dishabituation paradigm reveals perceptual discrimination without verbal responses. Habituation: infants look less at a stimulus the more it is repeated (they "get bored" — indicating recognition). Dishabituation: renewed looking at a novel/changed stimulus indicates they perceive it as different. This paradigm has revealed that young infants (even newborns) can discriminate faces, voices, colors, and phonemes. Fantz's preferential looking: infants consistently prefer patterned over plain stimuli, revealing visual competence. Violation-of-expectation paradigm (Baillargeon): infants look longer at impossible events, suggesting understanding of physical laws (object permanence) earlier than Piaget proposed — infants have implicit knowledge not revealed by search tasks.
153
Gibson and Walk's visual cliff experiment tested:
▼
  • A) Whether newborns could discriminate between faces and non-face stimuli
  • B) Whether infants could perceive depth — most crawling infants refused to cross the deep side even when encouraged by their mother, demonstrating depth perception by the time crawling begins ✓
  • C) Whether infants could form cross-modal associations between visual and auditory stimuli
  • D) Whether infants showed size constancy for objects at different distances
B — Infants refuse to cross the "deep" side, demonstrating depth perception by crawling age. The visual cliff apparatus (1960): a glass-covered table with a shallow side (patterned surface just below the glass) and a deep side (patterned surface several feet below the glass). Crawling infants (6+ months) consistently refused to cross onto the deep side even when their mothers called from across — demonstrating that they could perceive the depth difference and found it threatening. Later research with younger, non-crawling infants: showed heart rate deceleration (interest/orienting) to the deep side but not the same avoidance, suggesting depth perception may precede the fear response. Cross-modal transfer: infants can match objects felt in the mouth with visually presented objects.
154
The false belief task (Sally-Anne task) assesses which developmental milestone?
▼
  • A) Object permanence — understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
  • B) Theory of mind — understanding that others hold mental states (beliefs, desires, knowledge) that may differ from one's own and from reality ✓
  • C) Conservation — understanding that quantity remains constant despite changes in appearance
  • D) Formal operational reasoning — the ability to reason hypothetically about abstract propositions
B — Theory of mind: understanding others have beliefs that may differ from reality and from one's own beliefs. Classic false belief task: Sally places a marble in her basket and leaves. Anne moves the marble to a box. Where will Sally look for the marble? Most 3-year-olds fail (say the box — where the marble actually is), showing they cannot represent Sally's false belief. By age 4–5, children pass — they understand Sally believes the marble is in the basket. Passing = theory of mind. Children with autism spectrum disorder often show delays on false belief tasks, even when verbal ability is controlled. Executive function (inhibiting the "reality" response) also contributes to false belief performance. Advanced theory of mind develops throughout middle childhood and adolescence (embedding beliefs: "A thinks that B thinks that C thinks...").
155
Vygotsky differed from Piaget in emphasizing that cognitive development:
▼
  • A) Proceeds through a universal, biologically determined sequence of stages regardless of cultural context
  • B) Is fundamentally a social process — new cognitive abilities first appear in the social/interpersonal plane (between people) before being internalized on the individual/intrapsychological plane ✓
  • C) Is driven primarily by biological maturation, with social experience playing only a minor modifying role
  • D) Is best understood through the child's active, individual construction of knowledge through direct physical manipulation of objects
B — Cognition develops from the social (interpsychological) to the individual (intrapsychological); social interaction drives development. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory: higher mental functions first appear in shared social activity (e.g., an adult helps a child solve a problem) and are then gradually internalized by the child. Zone of proximal development (ZPD): the distance between what the child can do independently and what they can do with guidance — the optimal target for instruction. Scaffolding: temporary, adjustable support that is gradually removed as competence grows. Private speech (children talking to themselves) is the transition from external social speech to internal verbal thought. Contrast with Piaget: Piaget saw the child as a "lone scientist" constructing knowledge individually through assimilation/accommodation; Vygotsky saw development as embedded in cultural tools, language, and social interaction.
156
Information processing theories of cognitive development emphasize which aspects of change with age?
▼
  • A) Qualitative shifts in underlying logical operations, moving through discrete, biologically determined stages
  • B) Quantitative improvements in processing speed, working memory capacity, use of memory strategies, and inhibitory control — continuous changes that gradually produce qualitatively different thinking ✓
  • C) Changes in the types of social interactions children engage in, with more complex social environments producing more sophisticated cognition
  • D) Neurological changes in synaptic pruning and myelination that are entirely genetically programmed and unresponsive to experience
B — Quantitative improvements in speed, working memory, strategies, and inhibition produce qualitatively different thinking. Information processing approach: the mind as a computer — input, storage, processing, output. Age-related changes: processing speed increases dramatically from early childhood through adolescence (measured by simple RT tasks); working memory capacity increases (from ~2 items at age 4 to ~7 items in adulthood); memory strategies emerge and improve (rehearsal by age 7, organization by age 10, elaboration in adolescence); inhibitory control improves with PFC maturation; metacognition develops. This framework sidesteps Piaget's stage-based approach and explains development as continuous improvement in information-processing efficiency. Relevant to executive function development, ADHD, and academic skill acquisition.
157
Dyslexia is best characterized as:
▼
  • A) A visual processing deficit — letters appear reversed or jumbled, making them difficult to perceive correctly
  • B) A phonological processing deficit — difficulty mapping printed letters and words to their corresponding sounds — making learning to read slow and effortful despite adequate intelligence and instruction ✓
  • C) A working memory deficit affecting all verbal tasks equally, with reading difficulty being one manifestation among many
  • D) An attention deficit that makes it hard to focus on reading tasks; effectively treated by medications targeting attention
B — Phonological processing deficit: difficulty mapping letters/words to sounds, making reading slow and effortful. Current consensus: dyslexia is a specific learning disability primarily characterized by deficits in phonological awareness (the ability to detect and manipulate the sound structure of language — rhyming, segmenting, blending phonemes). Individuals with dyslexia struggle with: phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological working memory, and decoding (sounding out words). Crucially, NOT a visual-spatial deficit — letter reversals are common in all young children and are not the cause of dyslexia. Neurologically: reduced activation in left hemisphere language areas (angular gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus) during phonological tasks. Evidence-based interventions: explicit, systematic phonics instruction targeting phonological awareness (Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading System).
158
Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood (ages ~18–25) identifies five features that distinguish this period from adolescence and young adulthood. Which is the central, defining feature?
▼
  • A) Role stability — emerging adults have settled into adult roles and are consolidating an adult identity
  • B) Identity exploration — particularly in love and work, emerging adults are exploring possibilities before making lasting commitments, asking "Who am I?" more intensively than at any other period ✓
  • C) Dependence on parents — emerging adults are more financially dependent on parents than adolescents
  • D) Cognitive decline — identity exploration occurs as formal operational thought begins to wane in the mid-20s
B — Identity exploration in love and work is the central, defining feature of emerging adulthood. Arnett's five features: (1) Identity exploration (central — trying out possibilities in love, work, worldviews); (2) Instability (frequent changes of residence, job, relationship); (3) Self-focus (focused on developing one's own life before taking on adult responsibilities); (4) Feeling in-between (not adolescent, not fully adult); (5) Possibilities (optimism about one's future, sense that life can be shaped as desired). Arnett argues this is a culturally and historically specific phenomenon — most prominent in industrialized societies where education extends and marriage/parenthood is delayed. Cross-cultural validity is debated: the pattern is less pronounced in developing countries where adult roles begin earlier.
159
Adolescent sleep pattern changes (delayed sleep phase) are primarily driven by:
▼
  • A) Social factors only — staying up late due to homework, screens, and social activities; easily corrected by enforcing earlier bedtimes
  • B) A biologically driven shift in circadian rhythm at puberty — the timing of melatonin release shifts later, making teenagers naturally sleepy later at night and alert later in the morning ✓
  • C) Increased slow-wave sleep need during adolescence that compresses nighttime sleep into a shorter but deeper window
  • D) Elevated cortisol from puberty that suppresses sleepiness until later in the evening, independently of social factors
B — Biological circadian phase delay at puberty: melatonin release shifts later, making teens naturally sleepy/alert later. Puberty triggers a biological shift in circadian rhythms: melatonin secretion in adolescents begins ~2 hours later than in children or adults, making it biologically difficult to fall asleep before 11 PM and to wake early. Early school start times force adolescents to wake during their biological nighttime → chronic sleep deprivation. Effects: impaired cognition, mood, academic performance, driving safety, and increased depression and obesity risk. American Academy of Pediatrics (2014): middle and high schools should start no earlier than 8:30 AM. Districts implementing later start times show improved attendance, academic performance, and reduced depression. Sleep need: teenagers require 8–10 hours; most average 6–7.
160
Baltes's Berlin Wisdom Model defines wisdom as expert knowledge in the domain of fundamental life pragmatics. Which combination of criteria does this model identify?
▼
  • A) Fluid intelligence + crystallized intelligence + emotional regulation
  • B) Rich factual knowledge about life + rich procedural knowledge about life + lifespan contextualism + value relativism/tolerance + uncertainty awareness/management ✓
  • C) High moral reasoning (Kohlberg Stage 6) + life review integration + generativity
  • D) Accumulated episodic memories + autobiographical coherence + perspective-taking ability
B — Five wisdom criteria: rich factual life knowledge, rich procedural life knowledge, lifespan contextualism, value relativism, awareness and management of uncertainty. Baltes's wisdom model (Max Planck Institute, Berlin): wisdom is expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life — defining and solving life problems. Five criteria: (1) Factual knowledge: rich, broad knowledge about human nature, development, institutions; (2) Procedural knowledge: strategies for dealing with life problems; (3) Lifespan contextualism: awareness of how life contexts (family, history, culture) shape problems; (4) Value relativism: recognition of individual/cultural differences in values without being relativistic about ethics; (5) Uncertainty management: acknowledging the limits of knowledge and living with ambiguity. Wisdom increases with age only when combined with mentoring and openness to experience — not age alone.
161
The "empty nest" transition in midlife is typically associated with which psychological outcome for most parents?
▼
  • A) A severe and prolonged "empty nest syndrome" — depression and loss of purpose that persists for years after children leave home
  • B) For most parents, increased marital satisfaction, greater personal freedom, and improved well-being — though a minority do experience a period of adjustment difficulty ✓
  • C) No measurable change in either positive or negative affect — parents quickly adapt and return to pre-launch baselines within weeks
  • D) Universally negative outcomes concentrated among mothers, while fathers experience neutral or positive outcomes
B — Most parents experience increased marital satisfaction and well-being; severe "empty nest syndrome" is a minority experience. Research consistently finds that the empty nest transition is less devastating than popular stereotypes suggest. For most parents — especially those who had identities beyond parenting — it is a relief: increased couple time, reduced caregiving demands, freedom to pursue personal goals. Marital satisfaction often increases. Risk factors for difficult adjustment: parents whose primary identity was parenting; parents with poor marital quality; parents with fewer outside social roles. Historically, empty nest concerns were gender-specific (focused on mothers), but contemporary research finds fathers can struggle comparably if parental identity was central. The "sandwich generation" stress involves simultaneously caring for aging parents AND still-dependent young adult children.
162
Processing speed in late adulthood:
▼
  • A) Remains stable throughout adulthood and declines sharply only after age 80
  • B) Begins declining in the mid-20s and shows a continuous, progressive decline throughout adulthood — this is one of the earliest and most reliable cognitive changes with aging, affecting virtually all cognitive domains ✓
  • C) Declines only in tasks requiring novel information processing; well-practiced and routine tasks show no slowing until very late adulthood
  • D) Declines primarily in verbal processing speed; non-verbal (spatial) processing speed is maintained into late adulthood
B — Processing speed begins declining in the mid-20s and continues progressively; it's the earliest and most pervasive cognitive aging change. Salthouse's processing speed theory: age-related slowing is the root cause of most other cognitive declines in aging — because slower processing means less information can be processed within a time window and processed information decays before subsequent operations can use it (the "limited time" and "simultaneity" mechanisms). Processing speed predicts performance on working memory, reasoning, and even real-world tasks. Crystallized intelligence (vocabulary, factual knowledge) is preserved or even increases into the 60s and 70s. Fluid intelligence (novel problem solving, abstract reasoning) declines earlier, from the 30s–40s. The "cognitive reserve" hypothesis: higher education and cognitive engagement may buffer against processing speed decline's functional consequences.
163
The distinction between grief and clinical depression is most practically important because:
▼
  • A) Grief and depression are clinically indistinguishable and should always be treated identically with antidepressant medication
  • B) Normal grief, while painful, is a healthy adaptive process that typically does not require clinical intervention; unnecessarily pathologizing normal grief can stigmatize mourners and medicalize a universal human experience ✓
  • C) Grief involves purely emotional responses while depression involves purely cognitive distortions — they share no overlapping symptoms
  • D) All grief eventually evolves into clinical depression without professional intervention, so early treatment is universally warranted
B — Normal grief is adaptive and doesn't require clinical intervention; pathologizing normal grief medicalizes a universal experience. Differentiating factors: grief typically involves waves of sadness interspersed with normal functioning; preserved capacity for pleasure in some situations; grief tends to improve over time; the bereaved person can usually identify what they're sad about (the loss). Depression: pervasive, persistent low mood; anhedonia (complete loss of pleasure); often accompanied by guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness unrelated to the loss; does not improve without treatment. DSM-5 controversy: removed the "bereavement exclusion" — now technically possible to diagnose depression within 2 weeks of loss. Critics (Horwitz and Wakefield) argue this over-pathologizes normal grief. Complicated grief (prolonged grief disorder): intense, impairing grief lasting 12+ months — differs from normal grief and does benefit from treatment (e.g., complicated grief treatment).
164
Research on outcomes for children raised by same-sex parents consistently finds:
▼
  • A) Significantly worse outcomes in social adjustment and academic achievement compared to children of heterosexual parents
  • B) No significant differences in child development outcomes (emotional well-being, social adjustment, cognitive development, gender development) compared to children raised by heterosexual parents — the key variable is quality of parenting and family stability, not parental sexual orientation ✓
  • C) Better academic outcomes but poorer social adjustment, due to increased parental investment compensating for social stigma
  • D) Mixed results with no consistent pattern, making it impossible to draw any conclusions about this population
B — No significant differences in child outcomes; quality of parenting and family stability, not parental sexual orientation, is the key variable. The American Psychological Association (APA), American Academy of Pediatrics, and major developmental organizations have concluded that children raised by same-sex parents fare as well as those raised by heterosexual parents on measures of cognitive development, social development, psychological well-being, behavioral adjustment, and gender development. Methodological note: early studies used convenience (non-random) samples; later population-based studies confirm the same pattern. The quality of the parent-child relationship, family stability, socioeconomic resources, and absence of discrimination/stigma are the relevant predictors of child outcomes — not parental sexual orientation. Research on multigenerational households: generally positive effects when grandparents are involved, particularly for economic resources and childcare; stress when grandparents are primary caregivers due to parental incapacity.
165
Cross-cultural research on attachment patterns (van IJzendoorn and Sagi's meta-analysis) found that:
▼
  • A) Secure attachment is universal across all cultures, while insecure-avoidant and insecure-ambivalent patterns are found only in Western industrialized nations
  • B) Secure attachment is the most common pattern across cultures (typically ~55–65%), but the proportion of each insecure pattern varies — avoidant is more common in Western European nations (more independent child-rearing) and anxious-ambivalent is more common in cultures with more enmeshed parenting ✓
  • C) Disorganized attachment is absent in non-Western cultures, demonstrating that it is a product of Western parenting practices
  • D) Attachment patterns are entirely culturally determined with no universal distribution — what is "secure" in one culture is "insecure" in another
B — Secure is most common universally (~55–65%), but the distribution of insecure patterns varies culturally: avoidant more common in Western Europe; anxious-ambivalent more common in enmeshed-parenting cultures (e.g., Japan, Israel kibbutzim). Van IJzendoorn and Sagi (1999): meta-analysis across cultures. United States: ~65% secure, ~22% avoidant, ~12% ambivalent. Germany: higher avoidant rates — cultural value of independence and early autonomy. Japan/Israel kibbutz: higher ambivalent rates — more co-sleeping, less separation experience, so brief separation in Strange Situation is more distressing. These findings suggest: the basic attachment behavioral system is universal (Bowlby's evolutionary claim), but cultural child-rearing practices shape which insecure strategy develops when attachment is challenged. Cultural variation in parenting does not necessarily produce worse outcomes — it may reflect adaptive solutions to local ecological and social conditions.
166
The "continuing bonds" theory of grief (Klass, Silverman, and Nickman) challenged earlier stage models by arguing that:
▼
  • A) The goal of grief is the complete severing of emotional ties to the deceased, enabling the mourner to fully reinvest in new relationships
  • B) Healthy grief does not require "letting go" — maintaining ongoing connections with the deceased (through rituals, memories, internal conversations, and sense of continued presence) is normal and adaptive ✓
  • C) Grief proceeds through universal stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) that all mourners must complete to achieve resolution
  • D) The strength of the grief reaction is directly proportional to the length and quality of the relationship with the deceased
B — Healthy grief includes maintaining ongoing connections with the deceased; "letting go" is not the universal goal. Traditional grief theory (Freud's "grief work," Bowlby's stage model) emphasized detachment from the deceased as the healthy endpoint. Continuing bonds theory (1996): across many cultures and individuals, maintaining ongoing inner relationships with deceased loved ones — through memory, ritual, dreams, internal dialogue, and sense of presence — is not pathological but is a common and adaptive way of integrating loss. Cultural variations: Asian and Latin American cultures typically maintain ongoing relationships with ancestors as normal. The dual process model (Stroebe and Schut): healthy grieving oscillates between loss-orientation (confronting grief) and restoration-orientation (attending to life changes and rebuilding) — the continuing bonds are part of ongoing life, not a sign of unresolved grief.
167
Prospective memory (remembering to do something in the future) differs from retrospective memory in late adulthood because:
▼
  • A) Prospective memory is better preserved in older adults than retrospective memory because it relies on semantic memory rather than episodic memory
  • B) Prospective memory tends to decline with age, especially time-based prospective memory (remembering to do something at a specific future time), which relies heavily on executive control and self-initiated retrieval without external reminders ✓
  • C) Retrospective memory is consistently more impaired than prospective memory in normal aging, while prospective memory is largely preserved
  • D) Both prospective and retrospective memory decline equally in aging, reflecting a general memory system deterioration that affects all memory types uniformly
B — Prospective memory, especially time-based, declines in aging due to reliance on executive control and self-initiated retrieval. Prospective memory: remembering to perform an intended action at a future point. Two types: event-based (do X when Y happens — e.g., "give Mary a message when you see her") and time-based (do X at a specific time — e.g., "take medication at 2 PM"). Time-based is more demanding because it requires self-initiated monitoring without external cues. Age-related decline: prefrontal cortex changes reduce executive control and monitoring capacity. Paradox: in naturalistic studies, older adults sometimes outperform younger adults (more motivated, use calendars and reminders). Retrospective memory: decline in episodic memory for past events (when, where, what) is one of the earliest and most robust aging changes, but semantic memory (factual knowledge) is generally preserved.
168
Collectivist vs. individualist cultural differences in child-rearing practices most consistently affect which developmental outcome?
▼
  • A) IQ scores — collectivist cultures consistently produce higher IQ scores due to greater emphasis on group intellectual norms
  • B) The development of the self-concept — collectivist cultures foster an interdependent self-concept (defined by relationships, roles, and group membership) while individualist cultures foster an independent self-concept (defined by personal attributes, goals, and uniqueness) ✓
  • C) Physical development — collectivist practices of co-sleeping and extended breastfeeding consistently produce larger, healthier children
  • D) Attachment security — children in collectivist cultures are universally securely attached while those in individualist cultures show higher rates of insecure attachment
B — Collectivist: interdependent self-concept (relationships, roles, group); individualist: independent self-concept (personal traits, uniqueness). Markus and Kitayama's influential model: the self-concept is culturally constructed. Independent self (Western/individualist): bounded, stable, unique; goals are personal; success = standing out. Interdependent self (East Asian/collectivist, Latin American, African): relational, contextual; defined by roles and relationships; goals are shared; success = fitting in, fulfilling obligations. Child-rearing differences: collectivist cultures emphasize obedience, group harmony, interdependence, respect for elders, and emotional restraint; individualist cultures emphasize self-expression, independence, assertiveness, and individual choice. Academic achievement differences: East Asian cultures' high achievement is associated with effort attributions (vs. ability attributions), group-based standards, and shame cultures that motivate via social consequences.
169
Autism spectrum disorder's effect on pragmatic language skills means that children with ASD typically struggle with:
▼
  • A) Phonological processing — correctly pronouncing words and perceiving speech sounds in noisy environments
  • B) The social use of language — taking turns in conversation, inferring conversational implication, adjusting speech style for audience, understanding indirect speech acts (sarcasm, metaphor), and maintaining topic ✓
  • C) Grammar and syntax acquisition — forming grammatically correct sentences within typical developmental windows
  • D) Vocabulary size — children with ASD show consistently smaller vocabularies than neurotypical peers at all developmental stages
B — Social use of language: turn-taking, conversational implication, audience adjustment, indirect speech acts, topic maintenance. Pragmatics = the social rules for using language in context. Despite often having adequate or even superior vocabulary and grammar, many children with ASD struggle with pragmatic language: initiating conversations appropriately; maintaining back-and-forth exchanges; staying on topic (may monologue); understanding non-literal language (idioms: "break a leg"; sarcasm; implication); adapting speech register to different social contexts; and using/interpreting nonverbal communication (eye contact, gestures, facial expression) alongside speech. These pragmatic difficulties are closely related to theory of mind deficits — understanding what others know and mean requires modeling their mental states. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (DSM-5): pragmatic difficulties without restricted/repetitive behaviors.
170
Menopause is associated with which hormonal changes, and how do perceptions of menopause vary cross-culturally?
▼
  • A) Menopause involves a sudden drop in progesterone only; cross-cultural perceptions are universally negative due to loss of reproductive capacity
  • B) Menopause involves declining estrogen and progesterone as ovarian follicles deplete; hot flashes, mood changes, and vaginal dryness are common, but cross-cultural research shows symptom reporting and attitudes vary significantly — cultures where menopause is positively viewed (e.g., gaining status) show fewer and less severe reported symptoms ✓
  • C) Menopause involves an increase in testosterone, which causes the psychological and physical symptoms; cross-cultural perceptions are uniformly negative across all societies studied
  • D) Menopause is a Western biomedical construct with no biological basis cross-culturally; non-Western women experience no physical symptoms at the end of reproductive capacity
B — Declining estrogen/progesterone; symptoms vary and cross-cultural attitudes significantly affect symptom experience and severity. Perimenopause: irregular menstruation in the years before final menstrual period (menopause = 12 consecutive months without menstruation, average age 51). Symptoms: vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats), vaginal atrophy, sleep disruption, mood changes; not universal — some women report relief (no more pregnancy risk, PMS). Cross-cultural research: Japanese women traditionally reported fewer hot flashes than North American women (some attributed to soy isoflavone diet; also cultural framing of menopause as natural, non-medicalized). Mayan women looked forward to menopause (relief from contraception taboos). Margaret Morganroth Gullette: menopause experience is partly a cultural narrative. Health implications: loss of estrogen's cardioprotective effects; increased osteoporosis risk; hormone therapy: evidence-based but with risk-benefit complexity.
171
The sandwich generation refers to middle-aged adults who:
▼
  • A) Experienced the Great Depression and World War II as children, creating a generation "sandwiched" between prosperity and austerity
  • B) Are simultaneously providing care for aging parents AND financial or practical support for their own adult children or young grandchildren — squeezed between two generations of dependents ✓
  • C) Hold two paid jobs while also managing household responsibilities, creating role overload between professional and domestic domains
  • D) Are caught between traditional and contemporary gender role expectations, experiencing tension between career and family obligations
B — Simultaneously caring for aging parents AND supporting adult children; squeezed between two generations of dependents. The sandwich generation: predominantly (but not exclusively) women in their 40s–60s who provide financial support, emotional support, and often direct caregiving to aging parents (often with chronic illness or dementia) while still supporting their own adult children (who may be returning home due to economic difficulties, continuing education, or delayed independence — "boomerang children"). Stressors: role overload, financial strain, reduced personal time, career interruption (particularly for women who provide most eldercare). Prevalence increasing due to: longer lifespan (more years of aging parent dependency), delayed childbearing (children still at home when parents need care), and economic conditions delaying adult children's independence. Social support, employer flexibility, and community resources are key protective factors.
172
Neonatal size constancy research suggests that even very young infants:
▼
  • A) Cannot perceive size at all until approximately 6 months of age when binocular vision is fully developed
  • B) Show some evidence of size constancy — perceiving the actual size of an object as relatively stable even when its distance (and therefore retinal image size) changes ✓
  • C) Overestimate the size of objects at close distances and underestimate them at far distances until formal operational reasoning develops
  • D) Only exhibit size constancy for objects they have previously touched and manipulated, not for visually novel stimuli
B — Young infants show evidence of size constancy: perceiving stable object size despite changes in distance/retinal image. Size constancy: the perceived size of an object stays approximately constant as its distance changes, even though its retinal image size shrinks with distance. Research: Bower (1966) used operant conditioning — conditioned infants to respond to a cube of specific size; tested with same size at different distance vs. different size at same distance. Infants generalized more to same-size-different-distance than same-retinal-image-different-size, suggesting size constancy by ~6–8 weeks. Later habituation studies show rudimentary size constancy even earlier. Size constancy depends on integration of retinal image size with distance information (texture gradient, binocular cues). It is an important foundation for object recognition and spatial navigation throughout development.
173
The primary distinction between single-parent family outcomes and two-parent family outcomes in child development research is:
▼
  • A) Single parenthood is directly and independently harmful to children regardless of income level or social support
  • B) Outcome differences between single-parent and two-parent families largely disappear when income, social support, and parenting quality are controlled — most of the "single-parent effect" is explained by economic disadvantage rather than family structure per se ✓
  • C) Single-parent families always produce worse outcomes than two-parent families because children require two biologically related caregivers for optimal development
  • D) Single parenthood has no effect on child outcomes — children are entirely resilient to family structure variation if parental love is present
B — Most single-parent outcome differences disappear when income and parenting quality are controlled; economic disadvantage, not family structure per se, is the primary driver. Single-parent families are disproportionately low-income (especially mother-headed households). When researchers control for income, parenting quality, social support, and neighborhood, the family structure "effect" shrinks substantially. Well-resourced single-parent families (high income, strong support networks) produce children with outcomes similar to two-parent families. Key mechanisms: economic stress impairs parenting quality (harsh parenting, less stimulation); residential instability; reduced time for parent-child interaction; greater exposure to conflict in high-conflict two-parent families may be more harmful than stable single-parent households. Protective factors: consistent parenting quality, social support (extended family, community), economic stability, and positive school environments buffer single-parent family risks.
174
In Kohlberg's moral development theory, the transition from conventional to postconventional reasoning involves:
▼
  • A) Moving from self-interest to concern for others' approval and following social rules
  • B) Moving from adherence to social rules and authority (because rules are the rules) to principled reasoning based on universal ethical principles that can override unjust laws or social contracts ✓
  • C) Moving from concrete operational reasoning about simple rules to formal operational reasoning about complex social norms
  • D) Moving from punishment-avoidance motivation to reward-seeking motivation as the basis for moral behavior
B — From rule adherence because they're rules (conventional) to principled reasoning that can override unjust rules (postconventional). Kohlberg's stages: Preconventional (1: punishment avoidance; 2: self-interest/exchange) → Conventional (3: interpersonal conformity/"good boy/girl"; 4: law and order/"rules are rules") → Postconventional (5: social contract/democratic principles; 6: universal ethical principles — justice, rights, dignity). Stage 5: laws are social contracts that can be changed through democratic processes; rights take precedence. Stage 6: universal principles of justice and human dignity override even democratic laws (e.g., civil disobedience). Gilligan's critique: Kohlberg's model privileges justice reasoning (more stereotypically male) over care reasoning (more stereotypically female). Research: most adults remain at conventional reasoning; Stage 6 is rarely reached; Kohlberg used all-male samples initially.
175
Erikson's stage of "generativity vs. stagnation" in midlife is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Reviewing and accepting or regretting one's life choices, leading to either ego integrity or despair
  • B) The concern with establishing and guiding the next generation — through parenting, mentoring, teaching, or creative/productive contributions that will outlast oneself; stagnation = self-absorption and a sense of not contributing ✓
  • C) The formation of a stable identity separate from parents, resolving the crisis of who one truly is before committing to adult roles
  • D) Developing the capacity for intimate, committed relationships with others versus remaining isolated behind psychological defenses
B — Generativity: concern with guiding/contributing to the next generation through parenting, mentoring, creative work; stagnation: self-absorption, sense of purposelessness. Erikson's Stage 7 (middle adulthood, roughly 40s–60s). Generativity includes: parental generativity (raising children), work generativity (mentoring, teaching, creating products that endure), cultural generativity (transmitting values and traditions). McAdams extended Erikson: generativity involves a cultural demand, an inner desire, concern, commitment, action, and narrating a life story with a "generativity script." Highly generative adults show better well-being, health, and purpose. Contrast: Stage 6 (intimacy vs. isolation) in young adulthood — can I form committed relationships? Stage 8 (ego integrity vs. despair) in late adulthood — was my life meaningful? The stages build on each other — successful generativity requires prior identity and intimacy resolution.
176
The information processing approach to cognitive development proposes that the development of memory strategies (e.g., rehearsal, organization) follows which pattern?
▼
  • A) All memory strategies are present from birth and simply become more effortful to use with age as cognitive load increases
  • B) Strategies emerge in a predictable sequence: rehearsal appears around age 7; organizational grouping by semantic category appears around age 9–10; elaboration (creating associations and stories) appears in early adolescence ✓
  • C) Memory strategies develop simultaneously at age 5 when working memory capacity first reaches adult levels
  • D) Memory strategies are learned exclusively through formal schooling; children raised outside formal education systems never develop them
B — Rehearsal ~age 7; organization ~9–10; elaboration in early adolescence — strategies emerge in a predictable developmental sequence. Flavell's strategy research: young children (under 7) show a "production deficiency" — they do not spontaneously produce effective memory strategies even if capable of using them. School-age children show "utilization deficiency" — they use strategies but don't yet benefit from them fully (strategy use costs working memory). Later: full benefit from spontaneously deployed strategies. Rehearsal: mentally repeating items (age 7). Organization: grouping items by category (semantic clustering) during recall (age 9–10). Elaboration: creating vivid images or stories linking items (adolescence). Metacognitive awareness of strategy effectiveness ("knowing about knowing") also improves throughout development and is a key educational target.
177
Bowlby's attachment theory proposed that the attachment behavioral system evolved because:
▼
  • A) Infants who formed strong emotional bonds with caregivers were better fed and therefore had better nutritional status and physical health
  • B) Proximity to an attachment figure provided protection from predators in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness — infants who maintained proximity survived; those who did not, perished ✓
  • C) Strong caregiver bonds facilitated language transmission — language-learning required extended caregiver contact, favoring bonding behaviors
  • D) Attachment evolved to ensure infants could optimally observe and imitate caregiver behaviors, facilitating cultural learning
B — Proximity to attachment figure provided protection from predators in the EEA — survival advantage. Bowlby (ethological/evolutionary attachment theory): the attachment behavioral system (proximity-seeking, distress at separation, safe haven, secure base) evolved because, in our ancestral environment, infants who stayed close to a protective adult were far more likely to survive predation and other environmental threats. Attachment behaviors (crying, clinging, following) are "proximity-promoting" — they bring the infant back to the caregiver when separated. The caregiving behavioral system in adults evolved complementarily. Harlow's rhesus monkey experiments confirmed that comfort contact (soft surrogate) was more important than feeding (wire surrogate providing milk) — contradicting the Freudian "cupboard love" theory that attachment is secondary to feeding. This placed attachment in an evolutionary/biological framework rather than a learning theory framework.
178
In the Strange Situation, the primary behavioral characteristic distinguishing disorganized attachment (Type D) from other insecure patterns is:
▼
  • A) Extreme distress at separation combined with immediate calm upon reunion with the caregiver
  • B) Contradictory, disoriented, or bizarre behaviors during reunion — such as approaching the caregiver while simultaneously looking away, freezing, or appearing dazed — reflecting a collapse of any organized attachment strategy ✓
  • C) Consistent, calm indifference to both the caregiver's departure and return, indicating successful emotional self-regulation
  • D) Alternating hypervigilance and complete shutdown, associated with anxious-ambivalent history and emotional dysregulation
B — Contradictory, disoriented, bizarre behaviors at reunion: approaching while looking away, freezing, dazed appearance — collapse of organized strategy. Main and Solomon (1986): identified disorganized/disoriented attachment as a fourth category from Strange Situation footage that couldn't be classified as A, B, or C. Disorganized infants lack an organized strategy for managing distress in relation to the caregiver — they show simultaneous approach and avoidance, incomplete movements, stereotypies, and apparent fear of the caregiver. Cause: most strongly associated with frightened/frightening caregiver behavior (Main and Hesse), including unresolved trauma or loss in caregivers that leads them to display fear in the presence of the infant — creating an irresolvable paradox (the caregiver is both the source of fear and the haven from fear). Disorganized attachment is the strongest attachment predictor of later psychopathology (dissociation, borderline personality features).
179
Specific language impairment (SLI) — now often called developmental language disorder (DLD) — is characterized by:
▼
  • A) Language delays secondary to intellectual disability — language impairment is proportional to the degree of cognitive impairment
  • B) Significant language delays or disorders in the absence of hearing loss, neurological damage, or intellectual disability — the language difficulties exceed what would be expected from other developmental factors ✓
  • C) Language impairment that specifically and exclusively affects expressive language; receptive (comprehension) abilities are always fully intact
  • D) Language impairment caused by social deprivation or inadequate language input in the early years, which fully resolves with appropriate language intervention by age 7
B — Language delays/disorders in the absence of hearing loss, neurological damage, or intellectual disability; language difficulties exceed expectations from other factors. SLI/DLD is specific: children show language abilities well below age expectations but average or near-average cognitive abilities, hearing, and neurological status — making the language disorder unexplained by other conditions. Affects ~7–8% of children; one of the most common developmental disorders. Features: late talking in toddlerhood; slow vocabulary growth; persistent grammatical difficulties (especially morphosyntax — e.g., omitting tense markers); word retrieval difficulties; narrative weaknesses. Not simply "late blooming" — SLI is persistent. Risk factors: family history (strong genetic component), male sex. Intervention: speech-language therapy targeting vocabulary, morphosyntax, narrative skills. Long-term impact on literacy (strong SLI-dyslexia overlap), academic achievement, and social functioning.
180
Bronfenbrenner's mesosystem in ecological theory refers to:
▼
  • A) The broader cultural values, laws, and economic systems that shape the environments a child lives in, without direct contact
  • B) The connections and interactions between two or more of the child's microsystems (e.g., how the home environment and the school environment influence each other — parent-teacher communication, homework policies affecting family routines) ✓
  • C) The immediate settings the child directly participates in, including home, school, peer groups, and religious institutions
  • D) The indirect settings (parent's workplace, sibling's school) that affect the child's development without directly involving the child
B — Connections/interactions between two or more of the child's microsystems (e.g., home-school link, parent-peer group relations). Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model: Microsystem (direct settings: home, school, peer group, childcare — proximal processes happen here); Mesosystem (linkages between microsystems: parent-teacher communication quality, consistency of values between home and school, parent awareness of peer friendships); Exosystem (indirect settings: parent's workplace flexibility, school board decisions, community resources — affect the child without direct participation); Macrosystem (broad cultural patterns: values, beliefs, laws, economic systems — the cultural "blueprint"); Chronosystem (time: historical events, timing of transitions like divorce). Proximal processes (regular, progressively more complex interactions within microsystems) are the engines of development. Strong mesosystem linkages (parent-school partnerships) are associated with better child outcomes.
181
Piaget's concept of "object permanence" — the understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight — is typically acquired during which stage, and what evidence did Piaget use to assess it?
▼
  • A) Preoperational stage (ages 2–7); assessed by having children describe what would happen to hidden objects in hypothetical scenarios
  • B) Sensorimotor stage (0–2 years); assessed by hiding an object under a blanket — infants before ~8–9 months do not search for the hidden object (as if it ceased to exist); by 18–24 months, full object permanence is achieved ✓
  • C) Concrete operational stage (7–11); assessed by conservation tasks involving the transformation of object appearance while maintaining substance
  • D) Formal operational stage (11+); assessed by tracking objects through multiple invisible displacements in complex hiding tasks
B — Sensorimotor stage; assessed by object-hiding tasks; absent before ~8–9 months, fully developed by 18–24 months. Piaget: infants below ~8–9 months act as if "out of sight = out of mind" — they do not search for hidden objects. A-not-B error: at 8–12 months, infants search for an object in location A (where it was previously found) even after seeing it hidden in location B — inability to mentally represent the object independent of their own action toward it. Baillargeon's research challenges Piaget using habituation/violation-of-expectation: even young infants (2–4 months) look longer at "impossible" events (objects passing through solid surfaces) — suggesting implicit understanding of object permanence far earlier than Piaget proposed. The distinction: Piaget's tasks require manual search (action-based); Baillargeon's require only looking (perceptual-based) — suggesting infants have implicit knowledge before they can act on it.
182
Selective optimization with compensation (SOC) theory (Baltes and Baltes) describes adaptive aging strategies as involving which three processes?
▼
  • A) Reminiscence, life review, and ego integrity — the three components of successful psychological aging in late adulthood
  • B) Selection (focusing on the most important goals as resources decline), optimization (maximizing performance in selected domains), and compensation (using alternative means to maintain function when primary strategies fail) ✓
  • C) Disengagement (withdrawing from roles), activity (substituting new roles), and continuity (maintaining established patterns)
  • D) Assimilation (adjusting goals downward to match declining abilities), accommodation (reinterpreting problems as successes), and immunization (ignoring discrepant feedback)
B — Selection (focus on priority goals), optimization (maximize performance in those domains), compensation (use alternative means when primary strategies fail). SOC theory explains how successful agers adapt to declining resources. Baltes's famous example: pianist Arthur Rubinstein at age 80 maintained concert performance through SOC — Selection (reduced his repertoire to fewer pieces), Optimization (practiced those pieces more intensively), Compensation (slowed down before fast sections to make contrast more dramatic — compensating for reduced fine motor speed). SOC applies across domains: a manager who can't remember names (compensation: write them down); a runner who can't run long distances (selection: focus on 5K; optimization: targeted training; compensation: swimming cross-training). High SOC use predicts better subjective well-being, emotional regulation, and successful aging outcomes.
183
According to Marcia's identity status model, which status is characterized by commitment without exploration?
▼
  • A) Identity diffusion — no commitment and no active exploration of identity alternatives
  • B) Identity foreclosure — commitment to an identity (usually one assigned by parents or authority figures) without having explored alternatives oneself ✓
  • C) Identity moratorium — active exploration with no commitment yet made
  • D) Identity achievement — the result of exploring and then committing to a self-chosen identity
B — Foreclosure: commitment without exploration; identity adopted from parents/authority without personal questioning. Marcia's four statuses (extending Erikson): Identity diffusion: no crisis, no commitment — "who cares?"; associated with low self-esteem and aimlessness. Identity foreclosure: commitment without exploration — accepts parents' or culture's identity prescription without questioning; may appear stable but is fragile under challenge. Identity moratorium: in the midst of exploration, no commitment yet — actively questioning and experimenting; often anxious but healthy process. Identity achievement: explored alternatives and made personal commitments — healthiest status, associated with high self-esteem, coping ability, and principled reasoning. Development is not strictly linear — individuals can move between statuses. MAMA cycle: moratorium-achievement-moratorium-achievement — revisiting identity in adulthood.
184
The concept of "scaffolding" in Vygotsky-inspired education refers to:
▼
  • A) Organizing classroom furniture to create structured learning spaces that support independent discovery
  • B) Temporary, adjustable support from a more skilled partner that is progressively withdrawn as the learner gains competence — enabling the learner to accomplish tasks within their ZPD that they could not do alone ✓
  • C) Breaking complex tasks into a fixed sequence of subtasks that are taught independently and then combined
  • D) Providing complete worked examples of every problem type before students attempt any independent practice
B — Temporary, adjustable support that is progressively withdrawn as competence grows, enabling work within the ZPD. Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, Ross, 1976 — the term was coined by Wood et al., not Vygotsky himself): the more skilled partner (teacher, parent, peer) provides support calibrated to the learner's current needs. Key features: contingent (responsive to the learner's performance), calibrated (adjusted as competence changes), faded (gradually withdrawn — "fading" or "release of responsibility"), and ultimately internalized. Examples: a parent helping a child puzzle — initially pointing, later only commenting, eventually watching silently. Reading scaffolds: picture walks, think-alouds, graphic organizers. Instructional scaffolds should keep the learner in the ZPD — challenged but supported. Gradual release of responsibility model (I Do → We Do → You Do) is a classroom scaffolding framework.
185
Baumrind's authoritative parenting style is associated with the best outcomes for children in Western individualist cultures primarily because:
▼
  • A) It maximizes parental control, ensuring children obey rules and develop the discipline needed for success
  • B) It combines high warmth/responsiveness with high expectations/structure — providing both emotional security and clear standards, while using reasoning and explanation rather than arbitrary authority ✓
  • C) It allows children complete freedom to develop their own values without parental interference, building intrinsic motivation
  • D) It focuses exclusively on academic preparation, ensuring cognitive stimulation exceeds that of other parenting styles
B — High warmth + high expectations + reasoning/explanation = best outcomes in Western cultures. Baumrind's parenting styles: Authoritative (high warmth, high control, high communication): high self-esteem, academic achievement, social competence, low problem behavior. Authoritarian (low warmth, high control, low communication): obedient but lower self-esteem, more aggression, lower academic intrinsic motivation. Permissive (high warmth, low control, high indulgence): impulsive, low self-control, poor academic performance. Uninvolved/neglectful (low warmth, low control): worst outcomes across domains. Cultural qualification (Chao's research): authoritative advantage is less consistent in Chinese American families where "chiao shun" (authoritarian-like training) reflects Confucian values and does not produce the negative outcomes seen in Western samples — suggesting the cultural meaning of parenting practices matters.
186
Piaget's preoperational stage (ages 2–7) is characterized by which cognitive limitations?
▼
  • A) Inability to use symbols, language, or mental representation of the environment
  • B) Egocentrism (difficulty taking others' perspectives), centration (focusing on one dimension of a problem), irreversibility (inability to mentally reverse transformations), and lack of conservation ✓
  • C) Inability to classify objects into categories or understand hierarchical class inclusion relationships
  • D) Inability to form schemas — preoperational children learn only through direct sensorimotor activity, not symbolic representation
B — Egocentrism, centration, irreversibility, and lack of conservation are the key preoperational limitations. Egocentrism: difficulty understanding that others have perspectives different from one's own (three mountains task: child can't describe what another person sees from a different vantage point). Centration: focusing on only one salient dimension (height of water in a glass) while ignoring others (width). Irreversibility: can't mentally "undo" a transformation. Lack of conservation: failure to understand that quantity (number, volume, mass) remains constant despite perceptual changes (pouring water into a taller glass "makes it more"). Animism: attributing life to inanimate objects. Preoperational strengths: symbolic/representational thinking (language, pretend play, drawing), deferred imitation. Criticisms of Piaget: egocentrism is less profound with simplified tasks; children show earlier competence in more natural contexts.
187
The concept of "resilience" in developmental psychology refers to:
▼
  • A) The genetic invulnerability that some children are born with, enabling them to thrive regardless of environmental conditions
  • B) Positive adaptation despite significant adversity — the dynamic process by which children achieve healthy development outcomes in the face of risk factors such as poverty, trauma, or parental mental illness ✓
  • C) The complete absence of negative emotional reactions to stress — truly resilient children feel no distress during adversity
  • D) A fixed trait present at birth that either exists or doesn't — either you have resilience or you don't
B — Positive adaptation despite significant adversity; a dynamic process, not a fixed trait. Resilience research (Garmezy, Rutter, Werner — Kauai longitudinal study): many children exposed to serious risk factors (poverty, parental mental illness, abuse) show good developmental outcomes. Protective factors at multiple levels: individual (high IQ, easy temperament, self-regulation, positive self-concept); family (warm, structured caregiving; presence of at least one stable, supportive adult); community (good schools, social support, religious institutions). Werner's Kauai study: one-third of high-risk children became competent, caring adults — key protective factor was at least one caring adult who provided consistent support. Resilience is not a fixed trait — it can be built through interventions at individual, family, and community levels. The "ordinary magic" framework (Masten): resilience comes from basic human adaptational systems operating normally.
188
Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence proposes three types of intelligence. Which correctly describes the "practical" intelligence component?
▼
  • A) The ability to generate novel ideas, make creative connections between disparate concepts, and produce original solutions
  • B) The ability to apply knowledge effectively to real-world, everyday problems — "street smarts" — including knowing how to adapt to, shape, or select environments ✓
  • C) The ability to reason analytically, evaluate arguments logically, and perform well on standardized tests
  • D) The ability to process information rapidly and maintain efficient neural transmission underlying all cognitive abilities
B — Practical intelligence: applying knowledge to real-world problems; "street smarts"; adapting to, shaping, or selecting environments. Sternberg's triarchic theory: Analytical (componential): analysis, evaluation, logic — what IQ tests measure; Creative (experiential): novel thinking, insight, creative problem-solving, connecting disparate ideas; Practical (contextual): tacit knowledge, social savvy, knowing how to navigate real situations. Practical intelligence includes: adapting to the environment (fit in), shaping the environment (change it to fit you), and selecting a different environment (find a better fit). Tacit knowledge (knowledge that isn't explicitly taught but is essential for success — "reading the room") is a key component. Practical intelligence predicts real-world success beyond what analytical intelligence (IQ) explains, especially in business and social situations.
189
Research on the effects of poverty on child development consistently shows which mechanisms linking economic disadvantage to developmental outcomes?
▼
  • A) Poverty directly causes lower IQ through nutritional deficits that impair brain development, with no psychological or social mediating pathways
  • B) Poverty undermines development through multiple pathways: chronic stress (elevated cortisol), family instability, reduced cognitive stimulation (books, enriched experiences), impaired parenting quality under economic pressure, and residential factors (neighborhood violence, poor schools) ✓
  • C) Poverty effects are entirely mediated by parenting quality — equally warm and stimulating parents produce identical outcomes regardless of income level
  • D) Poverty effects are limited to academic achievement; emotional and social development are unaffected by economic disadvantage
B — Multiple pathways: chronic stress, family instability, reduced stimulation, impaired parenting under stress, neighborhood disadvantage. Multiple risk pathway model: poverty doesn't cause developmental problems through one mechanism but through a cluster of co-occurring risks. Chronic stress: poverty activates the HPA axis chronically → elevated cortisol → impaired hippocampal development, executive function, immune function. Language exposure (Hart and Risley): 30 million word gap — low-income children hear far fewer words by age 3, with less complex language and less conversational interaction, predicting language and literacy outcomes. Harsh, inconsistent parenting under financial stress (family stress model: Conger). Neighborhood disadvantage: violence exposure, poor schools, fewer recreational resources. Interventions: Perry Preschool, Head Start show persistent effects; income supplements (Earned Income Tax Credit) improve child outcomes; home visiting programs (Nurse-Family Partnership) improve parenting.
190
The "executive function" skills that develop most dramatically during the preschool years (ages 3–5) are best described as:
▼
  • A) Language comprehension and vocabulary acquisition, which drive all subsequent cognitive development in early childhood
  • B) Inhibitory control (suppressing dominant responses), working memory (holding and manipulating information), and cognitive flexibility (shifting between rules or perspectives) ✓
  • C) Logical reasoning and causal understanding, enabling children to solve complex problems in concrete operational terms
  • D) Fine motor control and spatial visualization, which reflect the rapid cerebellar development of the preschool period
B — Inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility are the three core executive functions developing rapidly in preschool. Executive functions (EF): umbrella term for top-down, prefrontal cortex-mediated control processes. Inhibitory control: suppressing automatic/dominant responses (e.g., Stroop task, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders). Working memory: holding and manipulating information online (digit span, backward word span). Cognitive flexibility: shifting between rules, perspectives, or task sets (DCCS task — sorting cards first by color, then by shape). Dramatic development: ages 3–5 show the steepest EF improvement; further refinement through adolescence with PFC maturation. EF predicts: school readiness, academic achievement, social competence, and long-term outcomes (better than IQ in some studies). EF supports self-regulation, which underlies attention, behavior, and emotion management. EF can be trained (mindfulness, Montessori, physical activity, Tools of the Mind curriculum).
191
Preferential looking studies with newborns (Fantz) revealed that infants:
▼
  • A) Show no visual preferences at birth, confirming the "blooming, buzzing confusion" of William James's description of newborn perception
  • B) Prefer patterned stimuli over plain ones and show a preference for face-like configurations, demonstrating that the newborn visual system is more organized than previously believed ✓
  • C) Prefer simple geometric shapes (circles, squares) over complex patterns, indicating that visual processing begins with basic features before integrating them into complex forms
  • D) Show identical looking times for all stimuli, making preferential looking paradigms unsuitable for newborn research
B — Newborns prefer patterned over plain stimuli and show preference for face-like configurations; visual system is more organized than previously thought. Fantz (1961): presented infants with different stimuli and measured looking time. Infants (including newborns) looked longer at: patterned vs. plain stimuli; schematic face vs. scrambled face arrangement. This dismantled the view of newborns as perceptually incompetent. Visual acuity at birth: approximately 20/400 (blurry beyond ~30 cm — the distance of a feeding face). Rapidly improving: 20/20 by 6–12 months. Newborn preferences: curved lines over straight, moderately complex over simple or overly complex, moving over stationary, contrast-rich patterns. Face preference: newborns show preference for face-like stimuli even at birth, but this may be based on top-heavy contrast patterns rather than specific face knowledge — suggesting an innate attentional bias toward faces rather than a specific face template.
192
Piaget's concrete operational stage (ages 7–11) is marked by which newly acquired abilities?
▼
  • A) Abstract hypothetical reasoning, propositional logic, and the ability to think systematically about possibilities rather than just actualities
  • B) Conservation (understanding quantity is stable despite perceptual changes), decentration (considering multiple dimensions simultaneously), reversibility, and logical operations applied to concrete objects and events ✓
  • C) Symbolic representation, language acquisition, and deferred imitation — the ability to reproduce actions seen previously
  • D) Full theory of mind, understanding that beliefs can be false and that mental states cause behavior
B — Conservation, decentration, reversibility, and logical operations applied to concrete (not abstract) content. Concrete operations: children master conservation tasks (understanding that pouring water doesn't change its quantity); decentration (attending to multiple dimensions simultaneously — height AND width); reversibility (mentally undoing operations); seriation (ordering objects by a dimension); transitivity (if A > B and B > C, then A > C); class inclusion (understanding hierarchical categories — are there more flowers or more roses?). "Concrete": these operations work only with tangible, real objects and events — not with abstract or hypothetical propositions. Example: a concrete operator can reason about specific objects seen and touched but struggles with "if all A's are B's, and all B's are C's, then..." as an abstract statement. Formal operations (Piaget's final stage): abstract, hypothetical-deductive reasoning; systematic thinking about possibilities.
193
Research on adolescent risk-taking indicates that such behavior is most strongly amplified by:
▼
  • A) High levels of cortisol from academic stress, which impairs prefrontal inhibition and increases impulsivity
  • B) The presence of peers — peer presence dramatically increases adolescents' willingness to take risks (e.g., running yellow lights) by activating the ventral striatum (reward center), an effect not seen in adults ✓
  • C) Testosterone levels — risk-taking in adolescents is primarily a hormonal phenomenon, explaining why males take more risks than females across all contexts
  • D) Lack of cognitive knowledge about risks — adolescents take risks because they are genuinely unaware of the dangers involved
B — Peer presence activates the reward center (ventral striatum) specifically in adolescents, dramatically increasing risk-taking — this effect is absent in adults. Chein et al.'s fMRI study: adolescents (but not adults) showed greater ventral striatum (reward) activation and less prefrontal activation during a driving game in the presence of peers vs. alone — and took significantly more risks with peers present. Adults showed no peer presence effect on risk-taking or brain activation. Adolescents are not cognitively ignorant of risks — they often estimate risks accurately. The key is that social rewards (peer approval, status) are acutely salient to adolescents in a way that overrides cognitive risk assessment. Dual systems: limbic reward-sensitivity + incomplete PFC control = heightened peer-facilitated risk-taking. Implications: risky behavior (drinking, unprotected sex, reckless driving) is predominantly a peer context phenomenon in adolescence.
194
Temperament research by Thomas and Chess identified which three broad temperament types in infancy?
▼
  • A) Secure, anxious-avoidant, and anxious-ambivalent — corresponding to Ainsworth's Strange Situation attachment categories
  • B) Easy (~40%), Difficult (~10%), and Slow-to-Warm-Up (~15%) — with the remaining ~35% not fitting any single category ✓
  • C) Introverted, extroverted, and ambivert — the three basic temperament dimensions that later map onto adult personality
  • D) Reactive, self-regulating, and inhibited — the three categories from Kagan's research on behavioral inhibition
B — Easy (~40%), Difficult (~10%), Slow-to-Warm-Up (~15%), and unclassified (~35%). Thomas and Chess New York Longitudinal Study (1956–1988): assessed nine temperament dimensions (activity level, rhythmicity, approach/withdrawal, adaptability, threshold, intensity, mood, distractibility, attention span). Easy infants: regular, positive mood, adaptable, approachable. Difficult infants: irregular, intense, negative mood, slow to adapt, withdraws from new. Slow-to-warm-up: initially withdrawing with low-intensity negative reactions but gradually adapts; low activity level. Temperament dimensions: relatively stable from infancy through childhood and correlated with adult personality (longitudinal stability is moderate, not perfect). Biological basis: supported by twin studies showing genetic contributions to temperament dimensions. Kagan's work: "behaviorally inhibited" children show consistent wariness to novelty, with physiological markers (high heart rate, cortisol).
195
Wechsler's distinction between "verbal" and "performance" (non-verbal/perceptual) IQ subtests is developmentally important because:
▼
  • A) Verbal IQ declines more rapidly in aging than performance IQ, which remains stable throughout the lifespan
  • B) The classic "aging pattern" shows verbal IQ (crystallized intelligence) remains relatively stable into late adulthood, while performance IQ (fluid intelligence, processing speed) shows earlier and larger age-related declines ✓
  • C) Verbal IQ is more heritable than performance IQ, making performance IQ more susceptible to educational interventions
  • D) Performance IQ is entirely genetically determined while verbal IQ is entirely environmentally determined, making IQ testing useful for separating nature from nurture
B — Classic aging pattern: verbal/crystallized is stable; performance/fluid shows earlier, larger declines. "Classic aging pattern" (Botwinick): verbal subtests (vocabulary, information, comprehension — crystallized intelligence) are maintained or increase through the 60s–70s because they draw on accumulated knowledge. Performance subtests (block design, picture completion, coding — fluid intelligence and processing speed) show earlier and steeper decline because they require rapid, flexible, novel problem-solving. The "age-associated memory impairment" primarily affects fluid/processing speed domains. The verbal-performance discrepancy can also be clinically significant — a large drop in performance IQ relative to verbal IQ (VIQ > PIQ) may indicate right hemisphere dysfunction; the reverse (PIQ > VIQ) may suggest left hemisphere/language-area issues. Modern Wechsler versions (WAIS-IV/V) use four/five index scores rather than a simple verbal-performance dichotomy.
196
The Moro reflex (startle reflex) in newborns involves:
▼
  • A) Turning the head and opening the mouth when the cheek is stroked, in preparation for feeding
  • B) Extending the arms outward and then bringing them together (as if embracing) in response to a sudden loss of support or loud noise — reflecting an evolutionarily ancient protective/clinging response ✓
  • C) Grasping any object placed in the palm with surprising gripping strength
  • D) Alternating stepping movements when held upright with soles touching a flat surface
B — Arms extend outward then pull inward in response to sudden loss of support or loud noise; evolutionary protective/clinging response. Moro (startle) reflex: triggered by sudden change in head position, loud noise, or sensation of falling. Sequence: sudden extension and abduction of arms, spreading of fingers, followed by flexion and adduction (bringing arms back in, sometimes with a cry). Interpreted evolutionarily as a remnant of a primate infant's need to cling to the mother's fur when startled — extending arms to grab, then pulling in. Normal: present at birth, disappears 3–6 months. Abnormal: absent at birth indicates CNS problem; asymmetric (one arm responds differently) may indicate brachial plexus injury or clavicle fracture from birth. Other reflexes: palmar grasp (disappears ~6 months), Babinski (disappears ~12–18 months), stepping reflex (disappears ~2 months, precursor to voluntary walking at ~12 months).
197
Giftedness, as typically defined in educational settings, refers to:
▼
  • A) IQ scores at or above 115 (one standard deviation above the mean) and exceptional performance in academic subjects
  • B) Advanced intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic abilities that are well above age-level expectations and require differentiated educational services — most U.S. definitions set the IQ threshold around 130 (top ~2%) but multidimensional models go beyond IQ ✓
  • C) Any child performing above grade level in any subject, making approximately 30–40% of the school population "gifted"
  • D) Children who have been identified by teachers as highly motivated, curious, and engaged — behavioral traits that substitute for formal testing
B — Well above age-level abilities (IQ ~130+, top ~2%); multidimensional models include creativity, leadership, artistic domains. Renzulli's three-ring model: giftedness = above average ability + creativity + task commitment — not just high IQ. Federal Marland definition (1972, updated): gifted children who show high performance capability in intellectual, creative, artistic, leadership, or specific academic areas. IQ-based identification: 130+ (2 standard deviations above mean) is common. Twice-exceptional (2e): gifted + learning disability (e.g., gifted with dyslexia, ADHD, ASD) — may be identified late because strengths mask weaknesses and vice versa. Underrepresentation: gifted programs consistently underidentify Black, Hispanic, low-income, and English language learner students — a major equity concern. Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives and depth of knowledge levels are used to design appropriate curriculum for gifted learners.
198
Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) are best interpreted as:
▼
  • A) A universal, fixed sequence that all bereaved individuals move through in the specified order to achieve healthy grief resolution
  • B) Descriptive categories of common reactions observed in dying patients — not a prescriptive sequence; individual grief is non-linear and highly variable, and most bereaved people do not go through all five stages in order ✓
  • C) Stages specific to the dying patient; bereaved survivors follow a different stage model of grief
  • D) Psychoanalytic defense mechanisms that must be overcome in order, with therapy needed to move from one stage to the next
B — Descriptive, not prescriptive; individual grief is non-linear and variable; most do not go through all five stages in order. Kübler-Ross (On Death and Dying, 1969): based on interviews with terminally ill patients (not bereaved survivors). The stages were descriptive observations, not a scientific model with validated sequence requirements. Misapplication: the model was widely misapplied to suggest bereaved people must go through all five stages in order, and that failure to do so indicates pathological grief. Modern bereavement research (Bonanno): most bereaved people show resilience — they never experience the intense, prolonged distress the stage model implies. Common trajectory: resilience (stable functioning); recovery (initial distress with gradual improvement); chronic grief (high, persistent distress). The continuing bonds model, dual process model, and meaning-making models have largely replaced stage models in contemporary bereavement research and therapy.
199
The main argument of Chomsky's nativist language acquisition theory is that:
▼
  • A) Children learn language entirely through operant conditioning — reinforcement of correct utterances and punishment of errors shape grammatical speech
  • B) Humans are born with an innate language acquisition device (LAD) containing universal grammar — a set of structural principles common to all human languages — that enables children to rapidly extract the rules of any language from impoverished linguistic input ✓
  • C) Language acquisition depends entirely on the richness of the linguistic environment — the more language input children receive, the faster and more complete their language development
  • D) Language acquisition is a special case of general cognitive development — as children's logical reasoning improves, language complexity follows proportionally
B — Innate LAD with universal grammar enables rapid rule extraction from impoverished input; the "poverty of the stimulus" argument. Chomsky's poverty of the stimulus argument: the language input children receive is too impoverished (full of errors, fragments, ambiguities) and too underspecified to explain how children acquire the rich, complex grammatical rules of their language through learning alone. Conclusion: children must come equipped with innate knowledge of universal grammar. Critical period hypothesis: language acquisition is most successful during a biologically sensitive period (birth to ~puberty) when the LAD is maximally available. Evidence: Genie (a wild child deprived of language input until puberty) never achieved full grammatical competence. Criticisms of nativism: usage-based theories (Tomasello) argue that children learn language through social-pragmatic learning and pattern detection from usage — no special LAD required. Sign languages provide evidence that any language modality activates language-specific neural circuits.
200
The concept of "epigenetics" in developmental psychology refers to:
▼
  • A) The study of how genes are inherited across generations, independently of environmental influences
  • B) Changes in gene expression that do not involve alterations to the DNA sequence itself — experiences (stress, nutrition, care) can turn genes "on" or "off" through mechanisms like DNA methylation, demonstrating how nature and nurture are intertwined at the molecular level ✓
  • C) The process by which genetic mutations accumulate over multiple generations in response to environmental pressures
  • D) The study of how prenatal genetic screening can predict developmental outcomes before birth
B — Changes in gene expression without DNA sequence change; experiences affect which genes are expressed through molecular mechanisms like methylation. Epigenetics: "above the genome." Mechanisms: DNA methylation (methyl groups attached to cytosine bases "silence" genes — often in gene promoter regions); histone modification (histones are proteins around which DNA wraps — modifications affect how tightly DNA is wrapped, influencing gene accessibility). Key finding: early experiences affect epigenetic marks. Meaney and Szyf's rat pup research: high-licking/grooming mothers produced offspring with fewer methylated glucocorticoid receptor genes → less cortisol reactivity → calmer stress response. Low-licking mothers → more methylation → higher cortisol reactivity — and these marks were stable into adulthood but potentially reversible. Human applications: early trauma leaves epigenetic marks on stress-regulation genes; adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may partly work through epigenetic mechanisms. Epigenetics fundamentally challenges gene-environment dichotomy.