Chapter 14: Development
over the Lifespan
1. Our concepts of the human life-span have changed
over time; the contemporary view includes
the notion that:
a. childhood consists of formative years that
determine what kind of adult the child will become.
b. many people are experiencing life events out of
order, if they are engaging in these events at all.
c. life events occur in a predictable pattern due to
improvements in health care.
d. society is turning to the elderly as wise
individuals who can model living through extensive change.
e. most people share a common life trajectory;
childhood, adolescence and adulthood from marriage, parenthood to
retirement.
2. Once implantation of the zygote is completed, the
___________ stage of prenatal development begins.
a. embryonic
b. structural
c. germinal
d. fetal
e. impregnation
3. Which of the following outcomes occurs when the
mother has German Measles early in pregnancy?
a. Defects in the eye, ear and heart.
b. Attention problems and lower IQ.
c. Increased likelihood of prematurity and low
birthweight.
d. Mental retardation, blindness and other physical
disorders.
e. Fetal abnormalities and deformities.
4. In response to a touch on the bottom of the foot,
the infant’s toes will splay outward and then curl in. This is
called:
a. the Moro reflex
b. the Babinski reflex
c. the startle reflex
d. the grasp reflex
e. the rooting reflex
5. __________________, the pleasure of being touched
and held, is important throughout life.
a. Socialization
b. Contact comfort
c. Synchrony
d. Maturation
e. Closeness
6. After greeting her relatives at the airport,
Joey’s mother leaves him with his grandma and gets the luggage.
Eight-month-old Joey becomes fearful of the stranger holding him and he
begins to wail. This distress would be an example of:
a. insecure attachment.
b. separation anxiety.
c. avoidant attachment.
d. sensorimotor thinking.
e. social awareness.
7. Mary Ainsworth observed that securely attached
infants
a. do not seem to care when the mother leaves the
room and do not seek her out on her return.
b. protest loudly when the mother leaves but resist
contact with her when she returns.
c. cry or protest if the mother leaves the room and
welcome her back when she returns.
d. are not concerned upon separation, but cry to be
picked up and held on her return.
e. react to the stranger virtually the same way he
reacts to the mother.
8. The patterns of attachment found by Ainsworth in the
Strange Situation Test have been interpreted by
other researchers as reflecting _______ and less so the quality of the
relationship between infant and caregiver.
a. the presence of the father
b. separation anxiety
c. temperament
d. maternal sensitivity
9. Baumrind identified four types of parenting styles and
suggests that the most beneficial style of parenting is one
that she called
a. authoritarian
b. authoritative
c. neglectful
d. indulgent
10. Psychologists studying the acquisition of
language have found that:
a. at 12 months of age, babies begin to recognize
their own names.
b. the process begins when babies recognize the sound
structure of their native language.
c. the process begins in the first months, with
crying and cooing.
d. at 6 months of age, babies begin to respond to the
pitch and sound of language.
e. the process begins when regular words such as
mommy and daddy are spoken with emotion.
11. Janis sees a bat flying over the lake and says,
“Birdie”! Her mother says, “That flies like a bird, Janis, but
that is a bat”. Janis begins pointing saying, “Bat! Bat!
Bat!”. Piaget would say that this is an example of:
a. accommodation.
b. preoperational thought.
c. assimilation.
d. egocentric thinking.
e. conservation.
12. In Piaget’s theory, the process of modifying
existing cognitive structures in response to experience and new
information is called:
a. operations.
b. accommodation.
c. conservation.
d. assimilation.
e. preoperational thought.
13. According to Piaget, cognitive adaptation
to the environment is achieved through the dual processes of
a. reflexes and sensorimotor action
b. symbolic thought and imitation
c. accommodation and assimilation
d. conservation and seriation
14. A child is able to pretend that a large box is a
school bus. Later that day, she has difficulty reversing her
actions and completing a puzzle after she has taken it apart.
Piaget would suggest that she is in the:
a. preoperational stage.
b. formal operations stage.
c. sensorimotor stage.
d. concrete operations stage.
e. semiformal operations stage.
15. All of the following are characteristic of
preoperational thinking except:
a. centration
b. egocentrism
c. animistic thinking
d. abstract reasoning
16. Which of the following is the correct order of
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
a. preoperational; concrete operations; sensorimotor;
formal operations
b. concrete operations; sensorimotor; preoperational;
formal operations
c. sensorimotor; preoperational; concrete operations;
formal operations
d. preoperational; sensorimotor; concrete operations;
formal operations
e. sensorimotor; preoperational; formal operations;
concrete operations
17. Which of the following aspects of cognitive
development is NOT a challenge to Piaget’s theory?
a. Cognitive development depends on the child’s
education and culture.
b. Babies seem to understand basic principles of
physics during the first year of life.
c. New reasoning abilities depend on the emergence of
previous abilities.
d. Cognitive abilities develop in overlapping waves
rather than in discrete steps.
e. Cognitive development depends on the child’s
particular environment in which they live.
18. Lev Vygotsky emphasized the:
a. anxiety babies and toddlers feel when separated from a
primary caregiver.
b. children's need for contact comfort on early attachment
relationships.
c. sociocultural influences on children's cognitive
development.
d. natural unfolding of a child's cognition, much like a flower
grows and blooms.
19. Which method of disciplining an aggressive child
is most likely to teach empathy?
a. physical punishment
b. power assertion
c. induction
d. authoritarian firmness
e. permissive
20. The fundamental sense of being male or female,
independent of whether you conform to the social rules of gender, is called:
a. gender typing.
b. gender identity.
c. gender schema.
d. gender development.
e. gender gap.
21. Starting in ______________, boys and girls
congregate primarily with other children of the same sex.
a. preschool
b. kindergarten
c. the early school years
d. the later school years
e. daycare
22. Puberty is defined as:
a. the age at which the pituitary stimulates hormone
production in the reproductive glands.
b. the age at which a person becomes capable of
sexual reproduction.
c. the age at which a person reaches the peak of the
adolescent growth spurt.
d. the age at which secondary sex characteristics,
such as pubic hair, begin to emerge.
e. the age at which children push their parents away.
23. Which of the following is NOT one of the three
kinds of problems that is more common during adolescence than during
childhood or adulthood?
a. conflicts with parents over autonomy.
b. physical inactivity and passivity.
c. mood swings and depression.
d. reckless behaviour and rule-breaking.
e. taking unnecessary risks.
24. A baby learns that when he is hungry, food is
provided, and when he is in pain, he is cuddled and comforted.
Erikson suggested that this baby would be developing a sense of
___________.
a. intimacy
b. trust
c. integrity
d. identity
e. initiative
25. The fastest-growing segment of the population in
North America consists of people:
a. born in the past 10 years (beginning in 1993).
b. born during the “baby boom” (beginning in 1946).
c. born during the “Great Depression” (beginning in
1929).
d. born in the midst of World War I (born before
1918).
e. born during the Second World War (born before
1945).