Final Practice Exam

In the course's illustrative parenting-styles set, a parent tells a sobbing child, "Stop crying, or you'll get a real reason to cry." Sorted on demandingness and responsiveness, which style is this response keyed to?

Select one.

• Permissive
• Authoritative
• Neglectful (uninvolved)
• Authoritarian

An illustrative coding exercise sorts 20 parent responses: 6 authoritative, 4 authoritarian, 7 permissive, and 3 neglectful. What share of the 20 responses is high in responsiveness?

Select one.

• 30 percent
• 65 percent
• 35 percent
• 50 percent

Two illustrative parents answer a child who has homework. One says, "Homework comes before games. Show me your plan, and tell me where you're stuck." The other says, "Skip the homework if it's boring; I'll write the teacher a note." Both replies attend warmly to the child. On which dimension do they differ?

Select one.

• Demandingness, because only one of them holds the child to an expectation
• Responsiveness, because only one of them pays attention to the child's needs
• Neither dimension, because the two replies belong to one style
• Both dimensions, because one of the replies is neglectful

A family reads an IQ score in a child's school file and asks what the number describes. Which answer matches this course's definition?

Select one.

• How the child's performance on an intelligence test compares with others of the same age
• A permanent amount of intelligence that will stay the same for the child's whole life
• The child's value as a student and as a person in the eyes of the school
• How many of Gardner's separate intelligences the child is able to show

This course presents Gilligan's critique of Kohlberg as a settled verdict and keys Gilligan's lens as the one correct reading of a child's moral argument.

True or false.

• True
• False

While a preschooler watches, an adult pours juice from a short, wide cup into a tall, narrow cup and asks whether there is now more juice, less juice, or the same. Which answer is typical of a child in Piaget's preoperational stage?

Select one.

• The same, because the juice could be poured back into the wide cup
• The same, although the child cannot give any reason for it
• More now, because the juice stands higher in the tall cup
• No answer, because cups of different shapes cannot be compared

A child is shown 9 red beads and 4 blue beads, all of them wooden, and asked, "Are there more red beads or more wooden beads?" Comparing the red beads with all the wooden beads, how much larger is the group of wooden beads?

Select one.

• It is larger by 5, because the red and blue beads differ by that much
• It is the same size, because the red beads are the wooden beads
• It is larger by four beads, because 13 − 9 = 4
• It is smaller, because there are more red beads than blue beads

A tutoring website says it will test each child, label the child an auditory, visual, or hands-on learner, and teach only in that mode so the child learns more. Which statement matches the review by Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, and Bjork?

Select one.

• It found adequate evidence that style-matched teaching improves learning
• It found that style matching helps only children labelled auditory
• It found no adequate evidence that style-matched teaching improves learning
• It found that children hold no learning preferences of any kind

An illustrative high school is choosing among four first-bell times. Which one is consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics' policy statement on school start times for middle and high schools?

Select one.

• 7:40 a.m.
• 8:00 a.m.
• 8:15 a.m.
• 8:45 a.m.

An illustrative study finds that children of parents who use the authoritative style tend to earn higher marks at school. Because this kind of research is mostly correlational, the finding proves that the style alone produced the higher marks.

True or false.

• True
• False

At an illustrative family dinner, a toddler, 26 months, pulls the spoon away from a parent and insists, "I feed me!" Which of Erikson's crises does this insistence on doing it alone fit?

Select one.

• Trust vs. mistrust
• Initiative vs. guilt
• Industry vs. inferiority
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

An illustrative middle school's first bell rings at 7:50 a.m. How many minutes earlier is that than the earliest start time the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2014 policy statement says middle and high schools should aim for?

Select one.

• 10 minutes
• 50 minutes
• 40 minutes
• 70 minutes

An illustrative coding exercise sorts 20 teen statements: 4 identity diffusion, 6 identity foreclosure, 5 identity moratorium, and 5 identity achievement. What share of the 20 statements carry a commitment?

Select one.

• 25 percent
• 55 percent
• 30 percent
• 45 percent

An illustrative 16-year-old says, "I've been shadowing a nurse and helping out at a bike shop, but I haven't picked a path yet." How does this statement stand on Marcia's two dimensions?

Select one.

• Committed to a path, without having explored
• Neither exploring options nor committed
• Both exploring options and committed
• Exploring options, with no commitment made yet

True or false: in the typical early language sequence, babbling comes before first words, and first words come before two-word combinations.

True or false.

• True
• False

Which theorist is matched with an idea that this course actually credits to that theorist?

Select one.

• Vygotsky: eight psychosocial stages across life, each built around a crisis
• Erikson: psychology should study only behavior that can be observed
• Lorenz: imprinting in goslings, studied as behavior in its evolutionary setting
• Watson: thinking moves through four stages, from sensorimotor to formal operational

At an illustrative family home, a child, 5 years, watches an older sibling hide a toy car in a shoebox and leave the room. A parent then moves the car into a drawer. Asked where the sibling will look first, the child points to the shoebox. What does this answer show?

Select one.

• False belief understood, a sign of theory of mind
• Not yet conserving, because the car changed places
• Egocentrism, because the child answers from the child's own view
• A delay, because a child this age should still fail the task

Piaget described a sequence of cognitive stages. Which stage comes immediately before the one in which adolescents begin reasoning about abstract possibilities?

Select one.

• The sensorimotor stage
• The concrete operational stage
• Kohlberg's conventional moral level
• The preoperational stage

Which event marks the closing stage of labor as the course describes it?

Select one.

• The cervix dilates
• The baby is born
• The newborn's first Apgar check
• The placenta is delivered

Marcia built the four identity statuses on an earlier stage theory of psychosocial development, set out in Childhood and Society. Which researcher and year does this course credit with that theory?

Select one.

• Marcia (1966)
• Elkind (1967)
• Bronfenbrenner (1979)
• Erikson (1950)

On the morning of an illustrative class presentation, a 13-year-old refuses to show a new haircut at school, saying, "Every single person is going to stare at it." Which concept does this sentence show?

Select one.

• The personal fable
• The imaginary audience
• Centration
• The egocentrism of early childhood

Over one year, an illustrative 10-year-old goes through several events. Which of them counts as a non-normative influence?

Select one.

• Moving up a school year together with same-age classmates
• Joining the summer swim lessons that most local children take
• A serious accident that keeps the child home from school for most of a term
• Getting a first library card at about the same age as most other children in town

An illustrative after-school leader sees one child repeatedly cornering a smaller child by the lockers. Which of these steps does stopbullying.gov's guidance tell adults to avoid?

Select one.

• Separating the children who are involved
• Making sure that everyone involved is safe
• Requiring the two children to apologize and make up right there
• Staying calm and showing respectful behavior

Illustrative scenario: a team visits many playgrounds and finds that children who spend more hours in outdoor play tend to score higher on a balance test. Which conclusion is supported by this study?

Select one.

• Spending more time in outdoor play causes children's balance to improve.
• The two are linked, and some third factor might account for both.
• Better balance causes children to spend more hours outdoors.
• The study shows that play and balance are unrelated.

Which sentence describes a family practice about children's chores the way this course describes culture?

Select one.

• Children who care for younger siblings early are being denied a proper childhood
• Waiting until the teen years for chores is the normal way, so any earlier chores fall short
• Families that give young children real chores are behind more modern families
• In that community, children care for younger siblings early, which fits its own expectations

When Piaget called a preschooler egocentric, he meant that the child puts their own wants ahead of everyone else's on purpose and is unkind by nature.

True or false.

• True
• False

Two 14-year-old teammates at an illustrative swim club look very different: one has had a growth spurt, and the other has not yet begun puberty. Which statement matches how this course describes the timing of puberty?

Select one.

• Puberty begins at one set age for every healthy teen, so one swimmer is late
• Healthy teens begin puberty at widely different times
• The swimmer who has not started puberty must have a health problem
• Teens who train on the same team begin puberty at the same time

Harlow's paper "The Nature of Love" gave baby monkeys two stand-in figures: one made of bare wire that held a milk bottle, and one covered in soft cloth that offered no food. Which finding did Harlow report?

Select one.

• The monkeys spent more time clinging to the soft cloth figure, the source of comfort.
• The monkeys stayed mostly with the wire figure, showing that feeding builds the bond.
• The monkeys divided their time evenly, so neither comfort nor food mattered.
• The monkeys avoided both figures, showing that the bond depends on genes alone.

An illustrative 3-year-old insists that a girl who just got a very short haircut "turned into a boy." Which understanding has the child not yet reached?

Select one.

• Gender identity
• Gender constancy
• Self-concept
• Emotion regulation

Erikson's stage for early childhood, at about 3 to 6, is built around which crisis?

Select one.

• Trust vs. mistrust
• Identity vs. role confusion
• Initiative vs. guilt
• Industry vs. inferiority

A family whose young teen now argues more often about curfews and chores has, by that fact alone, lost the closeness between parent and teen.

True or false.

• True
• False

An illustrative newborn scores heart rate 2, breathing effort 1, muscle tone 1, reflex response 2, and skin color 1 at the 1-minute check, then heart rate 2, breathing effort 2, muscle tone 1, reflex response 2, and skin color 2 at the 5-minute check. Which signs rose between the checks? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Breathing effort
• Heart rate
• Skin color
• Muscle tone
• Reflex response (grimace)

In Inhelder and Piaget's pendulum problem, which approach is typical of a teen still reasoning at the concrete operational level?

Select one.

• Shortens the string and adds weight in the same trial
• Changes only the string's length while keeping the weight and push fixed
• Forms a hypothesis and predicts what should follow if it is true
• Waits for an adult to show the answer before trying anything

At a grandparent's home, an illustrative infant finds a toy 3 times under a blue cloth, watches it being hidden under a striped cloth, and then reaches under the blue cloth again. Which reading fits Piaget's account in Dataset D?

Select one.

• A preoperational response, because the infant is too young to search at all
• The typical later response of searching where the toy was last seen hidden
• No object permanence at all, because the last search came up empty
• The A-not-B error, searching the first hiding place after 3 finds there

An illustrative family is moving through a divorce and later into a blended family. Which statement matches this course's account of how children usually fare after such transitions?

Select one.

• Nearly every child of divorce faces poor outcomes that last into adulthood
• Many children have short-term difficulties, and most adjust well over time
• Only children raised by two married parents are able to develop well
• How much conflict a family has makes little difference to how children adjust

A pamphlet for expectant parents cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on drinking in pregnancy. Which sentence gives the CDC's words exactly?

Select one.

• "Light drinking carries little risk once the first trimester has passed."
• "There is no known safe amount of alcohol use during pregnancy."
• "Alcohol can harm a pregnancy only during its first few weeks."
• "An occasional glass of wine is considered safe during pregnancy."

A study partner claims that every toddler moves into Piaget's fifth sensorimotor substage on the day of turning 12 months. Which statement about the stage model fits the course?

Select one.

• The names and their order are fixed, while the ages are approximate
• Both the stage names and their ages are fixed deadlines for every child
• The ages are fixed, though the stages can arrive in any order
• Only the ages matter; the stage names and order can vary

An older sibling's high school changes its bell schedule, so the sibling can no longer walk an illustrative 9-year-old home, and the 9-year-old now stays at an after-school program. The 9-year-old has never attended that high school. In Bronfenbrenner's (1979) model, which system is the sibling's high school for the 9-year-old?

Select one.

• The macrosystem
• The exosystem
• The microsystem
• The mesosystem

stopbullying.gov defines bullying as unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance and is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Which illustrative scene meets every part of that definition?

Select one.

• Two classmates of equal size trade insults once during a kickball game and then make up
• An older, stronger student takes a younger student's snack at the bus stop most mornings
• Two friends disagree about whose turn it is to choose a movie and ask a parent to decide
• Two cousins of the same age tickle each other at a picnic until both are laughing

An illustrative 10-year-old's parent is moved to a night shift by the parent's employer, so the child now eats dinner without that parent. In Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems model, which system is the employer's scheduling decision?

Select one.

• The microsystem
• The exosystem
• The macrosystem
• The mesosystem