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Santrock Life-Span Development: A Topical Approach
Life-Span Development: A Topical Approach
John W. Santrock

The Life-Span Perspective
Introduction

Multiple Choice Quiz

Please answer all questions



1

Which of the following is NOT a reason the text gave to study life-span development?
A)The more you learn about children, the better you can deal with them.
B)You may gain insight into your own history.
C)It is a requirement for such fields as nursing, psychology, and child development.
D)As a parent or teacher, you may have responsibility for children.
2

In thinking about the importance of studying life-span development, research has found that:
A)massage therapy decreases the immune system functioning of preterm infants.
B)secure attachment to parents in adolescence is linked with a host of negative outcomes.
C)researchers have been able to extend the life span of human cells in human subjects.
D)extending the life span of human cells in a test tube has implications for expanding human life.
3

Parents who believe their children are basically good and need little discipline have adopted which philosophical view?
A)original sin
B) tabula rasa
C)innate goodness
D)experiential
4

Parents adhering to the fundamental premise of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "innate goodness" argument would:
A)reject the need to "teach" language since speech is inherited.
B)provide their children with little monitoring or constraints.
C)view their child as intellectually indistinguishable from themselves.
D)argue that their newborn's brain is like a "blank slate."
5

Today, childhood is conceived of as:
A)a unique period of life that lays an important foundation for the adult years and is highly differentiated from them.
B)a period when children are like balls of clay ready to be molded.
C)an inconvenient waiting period during which adults must suffer the incompetencies of their young.
D)a unique period of life when adults must use caution to be sure they elicit the good from their children and suppress the evil.
6

The traditional approach to development emphasizes:
A)little change from birth through old age.
B)extensive change from birth to adolescence, adulthood, and old age.
C)extensive change from birth to adulthood, then little change for the rest of the life span.
D)extensive change from birth to adolescence, little or no change in adulthood, then decline in late old age.
7

In the twentieth century:
A)life expectancy has increased by 30 years.
B)life expectancy has increased by 25 years.
C)life span has increased by 30 years.
D)life span has increased by 25 years.
8

As the older population continues to increase in the 21st century, concerns are raised about the number of older adults who will be:
A)living in poverty.
B)a financial drain on society.
C)able to care for themselves.
D)without either a spouse or children.
9

According to Baltes (1987), the life-span perspective has the following characteristics, EXCEPT being:
A)lifelong.
B)unidirectional.
C)multidimensional.
D)plastic.
10

Many older persons become wiser with age, yet perform more poorly on cognitive speed tests. This supports the life-span perspective notion that development is:
A)multidirectional.
B)multidimensional.
C)lifelong.
D)plastic.
11

The onset of puberty is an example of:
A)normative age-graded influences.
B)normative history-graded influences.
C)nonnormative life events.
D)storm-and-stress events.
12

The AIDS epidemic in the United States would be an example of a:
A)normative age-graded influence.
B)normative history-graded influence.
C)nonnormative life event.
D)storm-and-stress event.
13

Development is defined as the pattern of movement or across the life span.
A)growth
B)change
C)decline
D)stability
14

Which of the following would involve a cognitive process?
A)hormonal changes at puberty
B)an infant responding to her mother's touch with a smile
C)an elderly couple's affection for each other
D)putting together a two-word sentence
15

What is true concerning the biological, cognitive, and socioemotional processes?
A)Each is distinct from the others.
B)The cognitive and socioemotional are more closely related than are the cognitive and biological.
C)They are intricately interwoven.
D)They are more obvious in the early years of life.
16

Penny is just beginning to use language and other symbols. If she is developing normally, we would expect her to be in which developmental period?
A)perinatal
B)prenatal
C)infancy
D)early childhood
17

typically marks the end of the early childhood period of development.
A)Walking without assistance
B)The emergence of the first word
C)First grade
D)The onset of puberty
18

Which period of development is characterized by establishing independence, developing an identity, and thinking more abstractly?
A)middle childhood
B)late childhood
C)adolescence
D)early adulthood
19

Bernice Neugarten has emphasized reemerging life themes in development. Her observations have led her to conclude that:
A)life stages are important for understanding development.
B)each person relives his or her childhood during later development.
C)we must focus on the later developmental periods.
D)age is becoming less important for understanding development.
20

Rozee is 86 years young. She continues to learn phrases in new languages, she writes poetry, and she enjoys going to museums to see the latest up-and-coming artists. These examples of her adaptive capacities demonstrate:
A)chronological age.
B)biological age.
C)psychological age.
D)social age.
21

Researchers who are proponents of the nurture perspective would argue that:
A)genetics determines all behavior.
B)the environment a person is raised in determines that individual's longevity.
C)how long an individual's parents lived is the best predictor of that individual's longevity.
D)genetics and the environment in which an individual is raised will jointly determine that person's longevity.
22

In studying changes in the way we think as we age, Dr. Long notes a child moves from not being able to think abstractly about the world to being able to, which is a qualitative change in processing information. Dr. Long emphasizes:
A)continuity.
B)discontinuity.
C)stability.
D)maturation.
23

Most life-span developmentalists recognize that:
A)nature, continuity, and stability are the primary determinants of behavior.
B)nurture, discontinuity, and change are the primary determinants of behavior.
C)while nurture (the environment) is important, nature (heredity) plays the stronger role.
D)extreme positions on these issues are unwise.
24

The answers to questions about the issues of nature-nurture, continuity-discontinuity, and stability-change:
A)influence public policy decisions and how people live their lives.
B)have little influence on public policy decisions, but do influence how people live their lives.
C)influence public policy decisions, but have little influence on how people live their lives.
D)are primarily concerns for psychologists, but end up having little impact in policy or people's lifestyle choices.
25

As he was studying life-span development, Tyrell had to learn several interrelated, coherent sets of ideas that would help him explain and make predictions about development. Tyrell had to learn:
A)theories.
B)hypotheses.
C)models.
D)scientific methods.
26

Freud believed defense mechanisms reduce:
A)anxiety.
B)dependence on others.
C)pleasure.
D)schizophrenia.
27

During the stage, Freud believed that pleasure centers on the genital area and resolution of the Oedipus complex occurs.
A)oral
B)anal
C)phallic
D)genital
28

Erik Erikson's theory emphasized:
A)repeated resolutions of unconscious conflicts about sexual energy.
B)developmental change throughout the human life span.
C)changes in children's thinking as they mature.
D)the influence of sensitive periods in the various stages of biological maturation.
29

Which of the following is NOT one of the criticisms of psychoanalytic theory?
A)The main concepts of psychoanalytic theories have been difficult to test scientifically.
B)Too much importance is given to the sexual underpinnings of development.
C)Psychoanalytic theories present an image of humans that is too optimistic.
D)Psychoanalytic theories are culture- and gender-biased.
30

The key to formal operational thinking is the ability to think about concepts.
A)concrete
B)sensory
C)symbolic
D)abstract
31

All of the following statements represent Vygotsky's views of development, EXCEPT:
A)the child's way of knowing is best advanced through internal mechanisms, which are separate from the social environment.
B)the child's cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed and interpreted.
C)cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse, which serve as psychological tools for facilitating and transforming mental activity.
D)cognitive skills have their origins in social relations and are embedded in a sociocultural backdrop.
32

The information-processing approach to development emphasizes:
A)the quality of thinking among children of different ages.
B)overcoming certain age-related problems or crises.
C)age-appropriate expressions of sexual energy.
D)perception, memory, reasoning ability, and problem solving.
33

From B.F. Skinner's point of view, behavior is explained through:
A)external consequences of that behavior.
B)the self-produced consequences of that behavior.
C)individuals' cognitive interpretations of their environmental experiences.
D)the biological processes that determine maturation.
34

According to Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory, the three factors that reciprocally influence development involve:
A)behavior, the person, and the environment.
B)punishment, reward, and reinforcement.
C)memory, problem solving, and reasoning.
D)cognition, reward, and observation.
35

Konrad Lorenz discovered that baby geese imprint to:
A)their mother only.
B)any adult female bird.
C)any adult bird.
D)any large moving object.
36

A major strength of ecological theory is its framework for explaining:
A)environmental influences on development.
B)biological influences on development.
C)cognitive development.
D)affective processes in development.
37

An approach consisting of several different theoretical perspectives is referred to as:
A)nondescript.
B)eclectic.
C)quasi-experimental.
D)pseudoscientific.
38

One difficulty of conducting research in the laboratory setting is that:
A)it is artificial.
B)random assignment is impossible.
C)extraneous factors are difficult to control.
D)participants tend to be unaware that they are in an experiment.
39

The main advantage of the naturalistic observation technique involves:
A)real-world validity.
B)great control over extraneous variables.
C)the ability to utilize inferential statistics.
D)a lack of ethical controls.
40

Dr. Somberg is using a method of gathering information that gives an in-depth look at one individual. She is using the:
A)interview.
B)emic approach.
C)participant observation.
D)case study.
41

Animal studies permit researchers to do all of the following, EXCEPT to:
A)control their subjects' genetic background.
B)make accurate assumptions about human behavioral responses.
C)investigate the effects of treatments that would be unethical with humans.
D)track the entire life span over a relatively short period.
42

A common caution for correlational research is:
A)it is difficult to administer.
B)correlation does not equal causation.
C)correlations do not tell direction of relationship.
D)correlations do not indicate the strength of a relationship.
43

Experimental designs are superior to correlational approaches when dealing with:
A)concepts that have not been studied in any great detail.
B)variables that need to be manipulated.
C)variables that are unethical to manipulate.
D)variables that can be controlled easily.
44

An experiment involves the effects of aerobic exercise by pregnant women on their newborns' breathing and sleeping patterns. In this experiment, the newborns' breathing and sleeping patterns are the variable.
A)random
B)dependent
C)independent
D)confounding
45

A design compares individuals of different ages (e.g., 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds, and 50-year-olds) at one testing time.
A)cross-sectional
B)longitudinal
C)Latin squares
D)correlational
46

Most journal articles in the field of life-span development:
A)refer to archival studies.
B)address issues of either the very young or the very old.
C)are reports of original research.
D)use more rigorous methods than articles in other fields.
47

In research with children, once the parents have provided consent:
A)the psychologist may continue to the end of the study unless the child becomes ill.
B)if the child does not want to participate, the psychologist must not continue testing the child.
C)if the child does not want to participate, the psychologist must stop long enough to calm the child down before proceeding.
D)if the child does not want to participate, the psychologist will ask the parents to calm the child down so the testing may continue.