Human growth and development, stage by stage

Each time a 7-year-old hits his sister, his father assigns him an extra chore, and the hitting decreases. Which operant procedure is this?

1. negative reinforcement
   Negative reinforcement removes something aversive and makes a behavior more frequent; the hitting is decreasing, so it cannot be reinforcement.
2. negative punishment
   Negative punishment removes something the child likes, such as screen time, to reduce a behavior; here something is added.
3. positive punishment
   Adding an unpleasant consequence (an extra chore) after a behavior so that it decreases is positive punishment; positive means something is added, not that it is pleasant.

After learning she will be laid off, a client asks herself, "What resources do I have, and what can I do about this?" In Lazarus's model, this is

1. primary appraisal
   Primary appraisal judges whether the event matters and is a threat or a loss; she has moved on to weighing what she can do about it.
2. secondary appraisal
   In Lazarus and Folkman's model, secondary appraisal asks what can be done and what coping resources are available, exactly her questions.
3. problem-focused coping
   Problem-focused coping is the action that may follow, such as updating a resume; asking what resources she has is still appraisal, not coping.
4. reappraisal
   Reappraisal is revising an earlier appraisal as new information comes in; she is making a first judgment of her options.

A 3-year-old boy says that if he wore a dress and grew long hair, he would become a girl. According to Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental view, which understanding has he not yet reached?

1. Gender identity
   He already labels himself a boy, so the first step, gender identity, is in place; what he lacks is the idea that it cannot change.
2. Object permanence
   Object permanence is a sensorimotor milestone about objects continuing to exist out of sight, long achieved by age 3 and unrelated to gender.
3. Gender schema
   Gender schema theory (Bem) explains how children organize information by gender categories; it is not the step in Kohlberg's sequence that he is missing.
4. Gender constancy
   In Kohlberg's sequence, gender constancy, reached around ages 5 to 7, is knowing that gender does not change with clothing or hairstyle.

In the Strange Situation, an infant is very distressed when the mother leaves, but on her return the infant seeks contact while angrily pushing her away. How would Ainsworth classify this infant?

1. Disorganized
   Disorganized infants show contradictory, confused, or frozen behavior with no coherent strategy; this infant's contact-seeking mixed with anger is the organized resistant pattern.
2. Anxious-avoidant
   Avoidant infants show little distress at separation and ignore or turn away from the caregiver on reunion, rather than seeking her angrily.
3. Ambivalent-resistant
   Ambivalent-resistant infants are very distressed by separation and on reunion mix contact-seeking with anger and resistance, and they are hard to comfort.

A 9-month-old repeatedly finds a toy hidden under cloth A. When the toy is moved under cloth B while she watches, she still searches under A. According to Piaget, what does this show?

1. Conservation of number is emerging but not yet complete
   Conservation is a concrete-operational achievement of middle childhood and involves quantities, not hidden objects.
2. Object permanence is emerging but not yet complete
   Searching under A at all shows object permanence emerging (sensorimotor substage 4), but returning to A after watching the move is the A-not-B error of an incomplete concept.
3. Object permanence has not yet begun to develop
   An infant without any object permanence would not search for the hidden toy at all; she does search, just in the wrong place.

According to Thomas and Chess, what does 'goodness of fit' refer to?

1. The match between a child's temperament and environmental demands
   Thomas and Chess held that outcomes depend on the fit between a child's temperament and the demands and expectations of the caregiving environment.
2. The degree to which a child conforms to the expectations of peers
   Conformity to peers is a social outcome, not the temperament-environment match their New York Longitudinal Study described.
3. The accuracy of developmental screening tests for predicting outcomes
   Predictive accuracy of screening tests is a psychometric question about validity, not a concept from temperament research.

A nurse says she would break an unjust law because self-chosen ideals of justice and human dignity outweigh any law. Which Kohlberg stage is this?

1. universal ethical principles
   Stage 6 bases moral judgment on self-chosen, universal principles of justice and dignity that override unjust laws.
2. interpersonal accord orientation
   The interpersonal accord orientation (stage 3) is about meeting others' expectations and being seen as good, not defying law on principle.
3. social contract orientation
   Stage 5 sees laws as social contracts that can be changed through agreed procedures; it does not hold that personal principles outweigh any law.

Which theory of aging proposes that older adults who remain socially and physically involved, replacing lost roles with new ones, experience the greatest life satisfaction?

1. Socioemotional selectivity theory
   Carstensen's theory says older adults narrow their social networks to emotionally meaningful ties, rather than replacing roles to stay busy.
2. Activity theory
   Activity theory holds that staying active and replacing lost roles, such as a job, with new ones brings the greatest life satisfaction in later life.
3. Disengagement theory
   Disengagement theory proposes that mutual withdrawal of older adults and society is natural and beneficial, the opposite claim.

A terminally ill client tells the counselor, 'If I can just live to see my daughter's wedding, I'll accept whatever comes after.' Which Kübler-Ross stage does this reflect?

1. Acceptance
   Acceptance is a calm coming to terms without conditions; the 'if I can just' condition marks bargaining.
2. Denial
   Denial refuses to believe the diagnosis; this client acknowledges that death is coming and is negotiating its timing.
3. Bargaining
   Bargaining tries to postpone the inevitable with a deal, such as living until a wedding before accepting death.

According to Erikson, which virtue results from successfully resolving the crisis of industry vs. inferiority?

1. Competence
   Erikson linked industry versus inferiority, the school-age crisis, to the virtue of competence, the sense of being able to master skills.
2. Fidelity
   Fidelity comes from identity versus role confusion in adolescence, one stage later.
3. Purpose
   Purpose is the virtue of initiative versus guilt in the preschool years, one stage earlier.

A twin study reports a heritability of .60 for extraversion. What does this estimate mean?

1. genes determine 60% of each individual's level of the trait
   Heritability says nothing about how much of one person's trait comes from genes; it describes variation across a group.
2. genetic differences explain 60% of the variation among people
   Heritability is a population statistic: the share of differences among people, in a given population and environment, that is linked to genetic differences.
3. the trait is 60% fixed and resistant to environment
   A heritable trait can still change with environment, and heritability itself shifts when environments change.

A parent tells an 8-year-old that he can play video games after he finishes his homework. Which learning concept is the parent applying?

1. Satiation
   Satiation reduces a behavior by giving so much of a reinforcer that it loses value, not by linking a chore to a reward.
2. Negative reinforcement
   Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior by removing something aversive; here the parent adds access to a liked activity.
3. Premack principle
   The Premack principle makes a preferred activity (video games) contingent on a less preferred one (homework), so the first reinforces the second.

A 5-year-old says Heinz should not steal the drug because he would be put in jail. According to Kohlberg, which stage does this reflect?

1. instrumental-relativist orientation
   The instrumental-relativist orientation (stage 2) judges acts by what serves one's own interests, often through fair exchange, not simply by punishment.
2. good boy/good girl orientation
   Stage 3 focuses on others' approval and being seen as good, a conventional reason this 5-year-old does not give.
3. punishment-obedience orientation
   Stage 1 judges an act wrong because it is punished; avoiding jail is the child's whole reason.

According to Freud, during which psychosexual stage, lasting from about age 6 to puberty, are sexual impulses repressed while children focus on school and same-sex friendships?

1. Latency stage
   Freud's latency stage, from about age 6 to puberty, is a period when sexual impulses are dormant and energy goes into school and same-sex friendships.
2. Genital stage
   The genital stage begins at puberty with mature sexual interest, after latency ends.
3. Phallic stage
   The phallic stage (about ages 3 to 6) centers on the Oedipal conflict and comes just before latency.

A toddler who calls every four-legged animal 'doggie' learns that a cat is different and forms a new category for it. Which Piagetian process is this?

1. Assimilation
   Calling every four-legged animal 'doggie' was assimilation, fitting new things into an old schema; forming a new category is the reverse.
2. Equilibration
   Equilibration is the overall drive to balance assimilation and accommodation, not the specific act of building a new category.
3. Accommodation
   Accommodation changes an existing schema or creates a new one when information does not fit, as when 'cat' becomes its own category.
4. Conservation
   Conservation is understanding that quantity stays the same despite changes in appearance, a later concrete-operational skill.

A 3-year-old watches a puppet hide a ball in a basket and leave, then sees the ball moved to a box. Asked where the puppet will look for the ball, she points to the box. Which ability has she not yet developed?

1. Conservation
   Conservation is understanding that quantity stays the same when appearance changes, a concrete-operational skill unrelated to predicting someone else's belief.
2. Joint attention
   Joint attention, sharing focus on an object with another person, emerges around the first birthday and is already shown when she follows the puppet scene.
3. Object permanence
   She plainly knows the ball still exists after it is hidden; object permanence is in place by the end of infancy.
4. Theory of mind
   Theory of mind, shown by passing a false-belief task, means understanding that the puppet still believes the ball is in the basket; most children manage this around age 4.