PSYC 2400: Developmental Psychology Chapter 1 Quiz

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that children should begin formal education at around what age?

12 years

When 3- to 4-year-olds were asked by a misinformed social worker about a "Simon Says" game one month after they played, how frequently did they corroborate her incorrect sequence of events?

About one-third of the time; children sometimes "remembered" events that had not actually taken place.

What do current psychologists believe about whether development is fundamentally continuous or discontinuous?

Both mental and physical growth can be characterized as continuous or discontinuous depending on how and when they are measured.

According to the Society for Research in Child Development, which statement is NOT a stated ethical principle for conducting research with children?

Children do not need to be informed about any of the relevant aspects of the research.

Which finding might be the MOST likely to suffer from a direction-of-causation problem?

Children's social skills influence the number of friends they have.

Michael believes that children should learn through exploration, and not receive explicit instruction until about age 12, when they can make their own judgments about what they are told. His views are MOST similar to those of:

Jean-Jacques Rosseau

Which philosopher viewed the child as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, for his development theory?

Locke

Which type of design is BEST for revealing differences over time and patterns of change?

Longitudinal

The first basic step in using the scientific method involves

Make observations

According to the text, which is NOT stated for studying child development?

Proving or disproving certain child psychologists' theories

Rachel, a 4-year-old, is being asked to testify in a court case. Which statement is NOT likely to be true pf her testimony?

Realistic props, like anatomically correct dolls, will her accuracy.

The physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstances that make up a child's environment are known as

Socioeconomic status

The modern debate to which Darwin's evolutionary theory is NOT important is:

The mental illnesses of young people.

Which statement does NOT describe a quality of the work of historical thinkers regarding studying and writing about children?

They based their conclusions on observations of large groups of children.

Which statement best describes the effect of playing violent video games on children's behavior?

Violent video games have a minimal effect on children's behavior.

Which statement is NOT true of psychologists' view of the active child?

Young children who talk to themselves are at risk of being social outcasts.

In a structured interview, _____, whereas in a clinical interview, _____.

all participants answer the same questions; questions are adjusted for each interviewee

The "turtle technique" in which children retreat into their "turtle shell" to think, is a method taught to children to help them

cope with anger

The Earl of Shaftesbury's efforts at social reform resulted in a law forbidding

employing children under the age of 10.

A main advantage of the structured observation is that it

ensures all children's behaviors are observed in the same context.

Nurture, as part of the nature versus nurture debate, refers to:

environmental influences on development.

The Earl of Shaftesbury's effort at social reform during the Industrial Revolution was important because it

established a legacy of research conducted to benefit children.

A researcher asks herself the following question: "Can effects within my experiment be attributed to variables that I intentionally manipulated?" What property of behavioral measurement is the researcher addressing?

internal validity

Which type of design is BEST used when a pattern of change has been established and the goal of the study is to determine how the change occurs?

microgenetic

In one example of how research can promote children's well-being, children who were presented information about how learning changes the brain

subsequently improved their grades.

Darwin's published article presented one of the first methods for studying children, which included...

systematic descriptions of his son's day-to-day development

Cognitive development refers to

the development of thinking and reasoning.

In the context of mechanisms of developmental change, the study of the development of "effortful attention" provides insights into

the role of the researcher in judging the validity of a study.

According to the text, which reason is NOT stated for studying child development?

to help judge how children are treated under different political systems.