Developmental Psychology: UvA Practice Questions

Questions

Question 1

Which of the following statements about development in puberty is true?

1. in girls, the first menstruation always occurs before the peak in height growth.
2. in girls, puberty development is entirely controlled by estrogens ('estrogens') and in boys by androgens (androgens)
3. the secondary sex characteristics develop after the primary sex characteristics.
4. Girls reach their adult height rather than boys.

Question 2

A developmental psychologist carries out research into the development of aggression in children. She registers the same group of children at several moments and has chosen a research design in which she can both identify possible cohort effects and correct them in her analyzes. What is the design of this researcher?

1. cross-sectional design
2. cross-cultural design
3. longitudinal-sequential design
4. microgenetic design

Question 3

Berk typifies developmental psychological theories as theories that view development as discontinuous or continuous. In which following combination of two developmental psychological theories is first called a discontinuous development theory and then a continuous development theory?

1. Piaget's cognitive development theory - taking Selman's theory of perspective
2. Kohlberg's moral development theory - Bandura's social learning theory
3. Take Selman's theory of perspective - Erikon's theory of identity development
4. Siegler's model of strategy choice - Kohlberg's theory of moral development

Question 4

Jorrin is 3 years old and is asked to arrange a group of 7 blocks from small to large. Completing this task requires __________ and Jorrin will probably _________ be able to complete the task.

1. seriation; not
2. transitive inference; well
3. classification; not
4. compensation; well

Question 5

In developmental psychology, a "sensitive period" refers to:

1. a temporary situation in which the child is biologically mature to acquire certain adaptive behavior with the support of a stimulating environment
2. the period in which children begin to apply the strategies of emotional self-regulation
3. the period in which children become susceptible to the development of attachment because they begin to distinguish between the primary caregiver (s) and relative strangers
4. a period that is optimal for the creation of certain capacities because in that period the individual is extra sensitive to environmental influences in that area

Question 6

The neo-Piagetan approach combines:

1. principles of Piaget's theory with those of the core knowledge perspective
2. principles of Piaget's theory with those of the information processing approach
3. principles of Piaget's theory with those of Galperin's system theoretical instruction
4. principles of Piaget's theory with those of evolutionary developmental psychology

Question 7

Camille says to her father on the other side of the room: "Look, Daddy, an elephant!" Camille keeps the book up without turning it over so that her father can also see the picture. The behavior of Camille is characteristic of _________ thinking.

1. sensorimotor
2. presymbolic
3. transductive
4. self-centered

Question 8

Siegler's strategy choice model is similar to thinking in urban models because:

1. both strategies and stages follow each other in development
2. children use both strategies and stages of thinking fairly consistently
3. every strategy or stage is a qualitatively different way of thinking
4. both a), b) and c)

Question 9

Transitions in behavior and cognition are often linked to changes in the nervous system. Most of these developments after the second year of life are related to:

1. growth in the number of neurons
2. growth in the number of axons
3. growth in the number of synapses
4. myelination of axons

Question 10

Which of the following developments are an example of a so-called proximodistal trend?

1. The phenomenon that babies have a relatively larger head than adults.
2. The phenomenon that the motor control of the trunk develops earlier than that of the arms and hands.
3. The phenomenon that the growth of the limbs and hands and feet in puberty precedes the development of the body.
4. The phenomenon that children today become larger than 100 years ago.

Question 11

At which flow the following assumptions are best:

• A continuous development process
• Various possible development paths
• Especially experiential (ie, environmental) -controlled

1. psychoanalytic approach
2. social learning theory
3. information processing approach
4. ethological approach

Question 12

The approach whereby development is typically seen as a web of possible branches in different directions is the

1. behaviorist approach
2. evolutionary approach
3. socio-cultural approach
4. dynamic system approach

Question 13

The 'false-belief' task is a test for

1. Theory of Mind
2. Moral development
3. Empathy
4. Social problem solving

Question 14

In the development of aggressive behavior, two trajectories can be distinguished: early starters and late starters ("early onset" and "late onset"). Important differences between these two groups are that:

1. children in the first group when adults have more problems.
2. children in the last group if adults have more problems.
3. aggression in the first group is fully biologically determined and in the second group it is not.
4. aggression in the second group is fully biologically determined and not in the first group.

Question 15

In the neo-Piagetian theory of Robbie Case, cognitive development is mainly due to

1. increasing capacity of working memory
2. connectionist networks
3. social interaction and social knowledge
4. maturation of the brain

Question 16

At the clinic, a mother tells her that she is worried about the loneliness of her 16-month-old daughter. Her daughter wants to be comforted only by her. When a mother is there, the child plays nicely and she is free to others. But as soon as mother leaves, there is no longer any land with the child to sail. How would you explain the behavior of this child?

1. As behavior that results from an unsafe attachment to the father.
2. As behavior that results from safe attachment to the mother.
3. As behavior that results from a delayed attachment development to the mother.
4. As behavior that comes from a difficult temperament of the child.

Question 17

From a developmental psychological perspective, conflicts between children should be considered as:

1. an early indication of antisocial behavior;
2. an indication of development problems of one of the children involved;
3. a sign that the children need the help of an adult in resolving their conflict;
4. as a condition for the development of skills to coordinate actions and intentions.

Question 18

A 4-year-old falls with her knees on the gravel path. She looks at her mother, pulls her mouth for a moment, stands up and continues to run. This behavior indicates:

1. anxious attachment to the mother
2. social referencing
3. internalization of mother's standards
4. emotional inhibition

Question 19

In different cultures children learn how and in which situations they should / should not express their emotions. According to the functional emotion theory, they learn:

1. emotional display rules
2. social referencing
3. role behavior
4. all the above alternatives are true

Question 20

Which of the following factors is not a source of healthy self-esteem?

1. social comparison
2. actual performance
3. unconditional support
4. unconditional approval

Question 21

What is not a good method for teachers to ensure that children take on a challenge?

1. to convey the message that everyone can learn
2. prizes for the best performance
3. emphasize individual progress
4. let children work together and let each other help

Question 22

Cognitive self-regulation

1. is already present from birth
2. is reached during the toddler years
3. is still difficult for children in primary school
4. is not present for adolescence

Question 23

Sarah (10 years old) gives up her schoolwork quickly because she can not do it anyway. It is likely that Sarah is task-orientated

1. performance oriented (performance orientation)
2. investment oriented ("investment orientation")
3. learning orientation (learning orientation)
4. self-protection oriented ("self-protective orientation")

Question 24

James (18 years old) has broken with his parents and has become a member of an extremist group. He is one of the most dogmatic, inflexible, and intolerant members of his group. In case of a classification by identity status, James would probably be assigned to the youngsters with / in one

1. " Diffused identity"
2. " Foreclosed identity"
3. " Moratorium"
4. " Achieved identity"

Question 25

In the ecological system theory of Bronfenbrenner, the environmental influence he situates in the outer ring, and which influences all other environmental levels, consists of:

1. values, laws and customs of culture
2. the direct social environment, such as parents, school and playgrounds
3. social environments to which the child does not directly belong, but which indirectly influence the child, such as the work of the parents, friends and neighbors
4. the social environments in which the child does not participate frequently, such as the health center

Question 26

Amina (6 years old) has 'Infantile amnesia.' This means that she

1. suffers from a rare memory disorder that mainly occurs in Asian countries
2. suffers from a memory condition that usually disappears with the onset of puberty
3. remembers little or nothing from before her third year of life
4. can store little implicit memories in her long-term memory

Question 27

Which set of theoretical concepts fits entirely in the culture-historical approach of Vygotsky?

1. mediation, constructivism, intersubjectivity, zone of the immediate development,
2. scaffolding, zone of the immediate development, schemata, cognitive conflict
3. mediation, cognitive tools, scaffolding, internalization
4. zone of the immediate development, internalization, reflective abstraction, cooperative learning

Question 28

The language acquisition device (LAD) from Chomsky relates to

1. A biological program for language acquisition that develops independently of the language supply of the environment
2. The innate information about the universal grammar of languages
3. The universal mechanisms for communication between adult and child
4. The cognitive skills to discover patterns and systematics of the language

Question 29

Tanisha sees that her 5-year-old son and his boyfriend talk to themselves while they are playing. According to Vygotsky, this is language

1. functional because it gives direction to action
2. functional for practicing and strengthening representative schemes
3. a manifestation of the inability of young children to think about the perspective of the other
4. an inevitable step towards social language use

Question 30

Kate says she thinks croquettes are 'romantic' and thereby attracts a salacious look. This use of 'romantic' is an example of

1. overextension
2. underextension
3. over-regularization
4. fast mapping

Answers

1 D

2 C

3 B

4 A

5 D

6 B

7 D

8 D

9 D

10 B

11 B

12 D

13 A

14 A

15 A

16 B

17 D

18 B

19 A

20 D

21 B

22 C

23 A

24 B

25 A

26 C

27 C

28 B

29 A

30 A