Chapter 8

How are critical and sensitive periods related?

A critical period is a type of sensitive period.

Dr. Adelson studies how infants form attachments to caregivers; Dr. Bryan investigates eyewitness memory accuracy among schoolchildren; and Dr. Chan researches perceptions of social support among elderly adults. Which of these scientists is a developmental psychologist?

All three are developmental psychologists.

In one elementary school curriculum, mathematical variables first appear in the sixth grade. Why are they not introduced in the fifth grade?

Children in the concrete operational stage cannot reason with hypothetical entities such as variable.

Dawn is a newborn. Ellis is 5. Fritzi is 9. Girard is 15. Which individual is correctly matched with his or her Piagetian stage?

Dawn - sensorimotor

At 12 months of age, James is classified as securely attached. Which behaviors in the strange situation would be consistent with his classification?

James is moderately distressed when mother leaves him alone and pleased when she returns.

Twelve-year-old Nathaniel was having trouble solving the word problems in his math homework. His dad began reading the problems aloud and emphasizing the important information. As Nathaniel started catching on, his dad gradually provided less help for each new problem. This interaction illustrates:

Vygotsky's concept of scaffolding.

Bonnie is 3 months old and her parents attend only inconsistently to her needs. Sometimes they are very attentive, feeding her promptly when she cries and comforting her when she seems upset. Other times, Bonnie cries for a long time before her parents attend to her. Based on Erikson's theory, it is likely that Bonnie will develop:

a general sense of mistrust.

Derwood is 8 years old and likes to do art projects at school. However, the projects he has completed so far haven't received good grades, and in several instances his friends have laughed at the things he has done. Based on Erikson's theory, Derwood may develop:

a sense of inferiority.

Four-year-old Hope thought her next-door neighbor's new pet rabbit was a kitty-cat until she noticed it hopped instead of walked, and it didn't purr at all. The change in Hope's understanding of her neighbor's new pet illustrates Piaget's process of:

accommodation.

In Piaget's theory, the process of fitting new experiences into existing schemas is called _____. The process of restructuring ideas to make room for new information is called _____.

assimilation; accommodation

The brain becomes fully mature by:

by 22 to 25 years of age

Mrs. Weston asks Colin if he wants his sandwich in one piece, or cut into two pieces. Colin asks her to keep it in one piece, because he isn't hungry enough to eat two pieces. Colin's answer suggests that he:

does not yet understand conservation.

Mrs. Allen is pregnant. Her baby's legs and arms have started to grow, and its intestinal system is beginning to develop. The baby is in the _____ stage of prenatal development.

embryonic

Grace is a 19-year-old college sophomore. She is living away from home for the first time and is trying to decide on a major. Grace is in a phase of life many developmental psychologists call _____ adulthood.

emerging

An individual's complete collection of genes is called his or her:

genotype.

Nature is to nurture as _____ is to _____.

heredity; environment

According to Erikson, adolescents must resolve the psychosocial task of:

identity versus role confusion.

Compared to Piaget, Vygotsky placed _____ emphasis on the _____ foundations of cognitive development.

more; social

When an infant recognizes that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer in sight, the infant has attained what Piaget termed:

object permanence.

The number of words young children hear at home is _____ correlated with family income.

positively

Harry Harlow and his colleagues completed a number of studies in which baby macaque monkeys were raised with two artificial surrogate mothers. One of the mothers was made of wire, and the other was made of soft cloth. Either mother could provide food. Harlow was interested in which of the mothers the infant monkeys would seek out when they were startled or frightened. In these studies the dependent variable was the:

surrogate that the infant monkey preferred when it was startled.

In a process called ______, the number of neural connections in a child's brain decreases by _____% by puberty.

synaptic pruning; 40-50

Characteristic differences in behavioral patterns and emotional reactions make up a person's:

temperament

A teratogen is:

an environmental agent that can produce a birth defect.

Samantha is creating a language development timeline for a class presentation. Along the top of a display board, she writes the following ages in sequence: 2 months > 4 months > 12 months > 18 months How should she label these ages, from youngest to oldest?

cooing > babbling > first words > telegraphic speech

Psychologists use the term _____ to refer to the patterns of physical, cognitive, and socioemotional change occurring throughout life.

development

When Tara states that she is fascinated by the way the environment affects the expression of genetic characteristics, Devin suggests she explore the field of:

epigenetics

The longest part of a pregnancy, from the 8th week to birth, is called the _____ period.

fetal

Walter's parents strongly believe that Walter should make his own decisions, so they set very few rules about homework, bedtime, and household chores. Since they believe that freedom and responsibility are important, they patiently tolerate all of Walter's behavior, whether childish or mature. The parenting style adopted by Walter's parents is called:

permissive

A 4-year-old looks at a picture of a dragon while on the telephone with her grandfather. If Piaget's claims of egocentrism are correct, the child is likely to:

tell her grandfather to look at the dragon.