PSYC 301 Exam Review

Behavioral genetics involves research is designed to

describe the genetic basis for behaviors.

If a fertilized egg begins to divide and multiply, and early in the process, the ball of cells splits into two, the woman will have

monozygotic twins.

Inter-rater reliability is established when

more than one observer looks at the same behavior and gets the same results.

Children who are victims of abuse can have many different long-term outcomes is an example of

multifinality.

When we have a negative correlation the value of one variable

increases as the value of the other variable decreases.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that

infants sleep close to their parents, but that they do not sleep in the same bed.

The unique advantage of experimental research is that

it can identify the causes of behavior.

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for

judgement, impulse control.

The Human Genome Project has the goal of

mapping all the human genes.

According to the text, what do educators and youth services workers need to have to support children and adolescents?

A strong foundation in the study of child development

Why do researchers want to discover which traits and behaviors are highly likely to develop from genetic input?

Because this will aid in the search for the specific genes responsible.

Which of the following statements about maternal smoking is true?

Maternal smoking has been associated with attention deficit disorder, conduct disorders, and learning disabilities.

What does developmental theory in non-Western cultures focus on?

The role of the individual in the context of the social group.

Which of the senses is least developed at birth?

Touch

One of the ways in which Vygotsky differs from Piaget in his view of how children learn is that

Vygotsky places more emphasis on the role of culture and the social world in cognitive development.

A conception that has one X and one Y chromosome in the 23rd position will become an individual who is

a male.

Fraternal twins are formed when

a mother's ovary releases two eggs during a menstrual cycle, and each is fertilized by a different sperm.

Children of mothers who are incarcerated are compared to children of mothers who reside with the children in their own homes on a number of cognitive outcomes. This is an example of

a natural or quasi-experiment.

A premature stereotype is

a stereotypically negative view of a premature infant that results in parents or others lowering their expectations for the child.

In the process of classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is

a stimulus that naturally evokes an unconditioned response.

The embryonic stage of prenatal development is considered a critical period for development because

all major organs and structures are undergoing rapid development, and damage done at this point can be both severe and irreversible.

Reflexes

are involuntary patterned motor responses in infants.

You can have confidence in information that you find in scientific journals because

articles typically go through a peer review process.

The Apgar Scale is used to

assess the overall condition of a newborn at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth.

The force that drives development can be

biological processes, environmental events, or a combination of both.

Professor Alsmith looks at changes in self-esteem across adolescence by measuring the self-esteem of 11 year olds, 13 year olds, 15 year olds, and 17 year olds, and comparing the results between the groups. This is an example of a

cross-sectional study.

Eleanor Gibson's research on infants and the visual cliff found that infants

can perceive depth, but do not show fear of the "drop off" until they can crawl.

Increased impulsivity and hyperactivity, as well as difficulty with organizing and integrating information, has been reported in children born to women who heavily used marijuana during their pregnancy. This is likely because

cannabis crosses through the placenta and alters the neurology in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that handles higher cognitive functioning.

If a child younger than the age of about 4 or 5 were to have a large portion of their brain removed in a necessary surgery, their brains are plastic enough that

cells intended to serve one function could be turned into cells that serve another function.

When Piaget was conducting his research, he might present a story and then ask children questions about it. There were some questions he asked every child, but there also were questions that were specifically tied to the child's initial response. Piaget was using a

clinical interview.

One of the types of studies that has been used by behavioral genetics to determine the relative influence of genes and the environment is

comparisons of identical and fraternal twins.

The frontal lobe of the brain is primarily responsible for

complex thoughts, movement, language, and self-control.

The physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional domains of development

continually interact with each other.

The idea that biological maturation operates in interaction with the environment and the experiences it provides to children comes from

dynamic systems theory.

Maternal stress during pregnancy seems to have its greatest impact if it occurs

early in the prenatal period.

Canalization is the

extent that expression of a gene is influenced by the environment.

Abnormal facial features, small stature, a small head, cognitive deficits, and trouble controlling behavior and emotions are all characteristics associated with

fetal alcohol syndrome.

Freud would say that an adult who smokes heavily or one who constantly bites her nails is

fixated at the oral stage.

The most common cause of miscarriage is

genetic abnormalities.

The best research evidence today supports the idea that autism

has a genetic component and/or structural differences in the brain.

We know that infants can hear the voice of their mother before they are born because

newborns will suck on a pacifier to hear a recording of a story their mother read out loud during her pregnancy.

A severely restricted diet during pregnancy can lower a woman's basal metabolic rate, later putting her child at risk of

obesity.

If you read that a correlational study has found that children who participate in more extracurricular activities have higher self-esteem, you could conclude that

participation in extracurricular activities is associated with higher self-esteem.

A parent who suffers from a mental disorder may also provide a dysfunctional family environment for his or her children. In this case, we would describe the genes for the disorder as

passive.

Bandura's social cognitive theory added a third learning principle to classical and operant conditioning, which was that

people also can learn through imitation of behaviors they observe.

Because most human characteristics are complex, many genes act together to determine a trait. This is called

polygenic inheritance.

The scientific process cannot

prove a theory beyond a shadow of a doubt, but can provide evidence that supports or opposes the ideas in it.

Stage theories describe

qualitative changes.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is an important context for development because it is

related to the amount of resources that a family has.

If you wanted to encourage a child to eat a healthier diet, at first you might smile or not when the child was willing to take a small bite of a healthy food item on her plate. Then you might only smile and nod when the child took a full bite of the food. Then you might only respond when the child ate several bites, and finally only when the child finished the serving on her plate. You are changing this child's behavior through the process of

shaping.

A concordance rate allows us to look at the

similarity between relatives on a trait.

The best research on autism suggests

that it is caused by structural differences in the brain.

A child who has only heard English since birth loses the ability to distinguish sounds of another language because

the synapses associated with the sounds other language were pruned away.

Epigenetics is the term used to describe

the system by which genes can be turned on or off by environmental expression.

When we are interpreting the results of a study, it is important to remember that

the conclusions are generalizations that apply to groups of people, not to every single individual.

The two hemispheres of the brain are connected through

the corpus callosum.

Conditions such as depression, alcoholism, or schizophrenia have some genetic basis, but each results from

the interaction of many genes with environmental influences.

Independent variable is

the one that the researcher controls or manipulates in the experiment.

Dependent variable is

the outcome that is measured at the end of the experiment.

When the results of a study are statistically significant, it means that

the results are not likely to have occurred by chance.

The reason that a child who has only heard English since birth loses the ability to distinguish sounds in the Arabic language, is because

the synapses associated with the sounds in the Arabic language were not used and therefore pruned away.

Research that has measured the event-related potentials (ERPs) of infants found that infants paid more attention to a stimulus when

their caregivers reacted to the stimulus in a negative way than in a positive way.

A difference between a sexually transmitted bacterial infection such as Chlamydia or gonorrhea and a viral infection is

these bacterial infections can be treated and cured, but the viral infections are not curable.

Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory would suggest that the best way to help toddlers develop a sense of autonomy would be

to be patient and allow the child to do things on her own, even if she struggles a bit.

Behavioral genetics involves research designed

to describe the genetic basis for behaviors.

Freud believed that the key to healthy psychological functioning involved

uncovering thoughts in the unconscious mind that were associated with the psychological symptoms of the person's problem.

Brofenbrenner would say that it is important that we

understand the individual within all of the contexts that affect development.

One of the advantages of doing research by using observations is that

we can observe behavior as it naturally occurs.

The normal pruning that occurs in the prefrontal cortex is not complete until

well into adolescence and early adulthood.

The normal pruning that occurs in the prefrontal cortex (the portion of the brain that has to do with judgement and impulse control) is not complete until

well into adolescence or early adulthood.

Nature includes the influence of

what we bring to development as a result of our genetic inheritance.