5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition (50 page)

•
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
. According to Freud’s
psychoanalytic
perspective, young girls learn to act feminine from their mothers and young boys learn to act masculine from their fathers when they identify with their same-sex parent as a result of resolving either the Electra or Oedipal complex at about 5 years of age.

•
The Behavioral Perspective
. According to (the
behavioral
perspective) social learning theory, children respond to rewards and punishments for their behavior, and they observe and imitate significant role models, such as their parents, to acquire their gender identity.

•
The Cognitive Perspective
. According to the
cognitive
perspective, children actively engage in making meaning out of information they learn about gender. Sandra Bem’s
gender schema
theory says that children form a schema of gender that filters their perceptions of the world according to what is appropriate for males and what is appropriate for females. Bem acknowledges that social learning contributes to her cognitive developmental theory.
Gender role stereotypes
, which are broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about males and females, have typically classified instrumental traits, such as self-reliance and leadership ability, as masculine and expressive traits, such as warmth and understanding, as feminine. Rather than seeing masculinity and femininity as alternatives, many psychologists now recognize
androgyny
, the presence of desirable masculine and feminine characteristics in the same individual.

Meta-analysis
of research on gender comparisons indicates that, for cognitive skills, the differences within either gender are larger than the differences between the two genders.
Males tend to have better ability to perform mental rotation tasks. The only evidence that males show higher achievement in mathematics than females is on the math section of the SAT; females receive higher grades in mathematics courses than males. Recent findings suggest that females who get better grades in high school and college may test more poorly because of a phenomenon known as
stereotype threat
, anxiety that influences members of a group concerned that their performance will confirm a negative stereotype. According to Claude Steele, when they know that their performance is being compared to that of males, girls tend to do less well than if they are not being compared.

Directions:
For each question, choose the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1
. What is the response pattern of securely attached children in the Strange Situation when their mothers return?

(A) They tend to ignore their mothers because they are secure about her care.

(B) Sometimes they run over to their mothers and sometimes they do not; there’s no consistent pattern in their responses.

(C) They tend to run over to their mothers and beg them not to leave again.

(D) They tend to go to their mothers for comfort.

(E) They hit their mothers.

2
. In the nature versus nurture controversy, “nature” refers to

(A) heredity

(B) plants and animals

(C) all living things we interact with

(D) constituents of the problem

(E) the environment

3
. Researchers were interested in studying the effects of divorce on children. Their study included 250 4-year-olds. Interviews and family observations were conducted 6 months, 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years after the initial interviews and observations. Which method did the researcher use?

(A) cohort sequential

(B) cross sectional

(C) longitudinal

(D) experimental

(E) quasi-experimental

4
. Object permanence is

(A) the belief that all objects have life just like humans do

(B) the idea that gender does not change by putting on the clothes of the opposite sex

(C) the understanding that a tall beaker and a short beaker can hold the same amount of water

(D) a belief that all objects in the world, including mountains and streams, are made by people

(E) the understanding that things continue to exist even when they are out of sight

5
. The rooting reflex is a neonate’s tendency to

(A) open its mouth and turn its head when touched on the cheek

(B) throw out its arms and legs and quickly retract them when startled

(C) explore the world through sucking objects

(D) look longer at round shapes that look like faces than square shapes that do not

(E) grasp nearby objects

6
. Dorothy just celebrated her 90th birthday with her close friends, and is excited about a visit from her grandchildren. According to Erikson, she has probably most recently achieved

(A) isolation

(B) integrity

(C) despair

(D) autonomy

(E) industry

7
. Mr. Hernandez explains to his son that the speed limit is 55 mph. He tells him to stay under the speed limit when driving because it’s the law and will probably prevent accidents. Kohlberg’s level of morality illustrated by this example is

(A) preconventional

(B) concrete operational

(C) conventional

(D) egocentric

(E) postconventional

8
. A critical period is a stage in development when

(A) specific stimuli have a major effect on development that they do not produce at other times

(B) children are resistant to any kind of discipline by their parents

(C) new learning is prevented by older learning

(D) bonding between the child and parent first takes place

(E) the child first enters elementary school and needs positive reinforcement

9
. Which of the following is a similarity between the cognitive developmental theory of Piaget and the moral developmental theory of Kohlberg?

(A) Both theories stress the importance of changes in thinking in their stages.

(B) Both believe personality is formed in the first 5 years.

(C) Both theories stress the importance of the third stage in the developmental process.

(D) Both developed a life span theory and had eight stages.

(E) Both believe that libido fixated in childhood cannot be changed.

10
. Harlow’s experiment with rhesus monkeys and surrogate mothers emphasized the importance of

(A) contact comfort

(B) feeding

(C) aesthetic needs

(D) incentive theory

(E) gender schema

11
. According to Diana Baumrind, which of the following parental styles results in the most socially competent and responsible adults?

(A) authoritarian

(B) authoritative

(C) uninvolved

(D) permissive

(E) indulgent

12
. The child was born with widely spaced eyes, a thin upper lip, and a short flat nose. Chances are that he will later suffer from mental retardation. To which teratogen was this child most likely exposed during the prenatal period?

(A) tobacco

(B) German measles

(C) heroin

(D) alcohol

(E) cocaine

13
. According to social learning theory, gender identity is

    I. a process which occurs when young children unconsciously identify with the same-sex parent.

  II. a result of being positively reinforced for acting in ways that conform to male and female roles.

III. learned through observing and imitating role models like their parents.

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) III only

(D) II and III only

(E) I, II, and III

14
. Which of the following theories best exemplifies continuity?

(A) Erikson’s psychosocial theory

(B) Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

(C) Piaget’s cognitive development theory

(D) Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

(E) Gilligan’s theory of moral development

15
. According to Kohlberg’s theory, postconventional morality requires thinking at Piaget’s

(A) sensorimotor level

(B) preoperational level

(C) concrete operational level

(D) formal operational level

(E) universal principle level

1. D—
Securely attached kids tend to come to their mother for comfort when their mothers return. They are not necessarily clingy as letter c suggests.

2. A—
Nature refers to our heredity, and nurture refers to environmental factors.

3. C—
Longitudinal research. If an experimenter is interested in looking at the long-term effects of divorce on children like Mavis Hetherington did, follow-up visits and observations would be made periodically. The disadvantage of this research method is how costly it is to conduct these follow-up visits and how long it takes to analyze the results to reach conclusions.

4. E—
Object permanence occurs as a milestone in the sensorimotor stage when children can picture objects in their heads. When an experimenter hides a cookie behind a newspaper and the child uncovers it and says “cookie,” the child has achieved object permanence and is capable of representational thought.

5. A—
The rooting reflex can be seen when someone puts a finger on the baby’s cheek and the baby turns its head.

6. B—
Dorothy is experiencing the positive side of Erikson’s eighth stage of integrity. People like Dorothy tend to enjoy their golden years and continue to develop their interests.

7. C—
Conventional. Mr. Hernandez’s moral reasoning conforms with Kohlberg’s stage 4 “Law and Order” morality, which is a stage of the conventional level.

8. A—
Specific stimuli have a major effect on development that they do not produce at other times. Konrad Lorenz demonstrated the “critical period” for imprinting in goslings. Newly hatched babies first exposed to Lorenz followed him rather than their natural mothers if they had not been exposed to her soon after birth. Some theorists argue that mother–infant bonding and language development may have critical periods.

9. A—
Both Piaget and Kohlberg stressed the importance of changes in thinking in their developmental stages. For example, both recognized that egocentric young children see the consequences of their actions from their own perspectives.

10. A—
Contact comfort. Harlow’s work with rhesus monkeys and surrogate mothers showed that even when food-deprived and anxious, monkeys preferred the terrycloth monkey to the wire monkey with food.

11. B—
The authoritative style of parenting is seen as the “best” style for nurturing independent, responsible, and socially competent teens and adults.

12. D—
Alcohol. The child’s mother likely drank alcohol throughout the pregnancy, producing the baby born with fetal alcohol syndrome. The effects of alcohol on prenatal brain development can be devastating.

13. D—
Both reinforcement and observing and imitating role models like parents contribute to the development of gender identity, according to some (behavioral) social learning theorists.

14. B—
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Vygotsky advocated continuous cognitive growth. Vygotsky believed that with a mentor’s help, children can progress more rapidly through the same milestones they would achieve without a mentor’s help.

15. D—
Formal operational level. Kohlberg modeled his stages of moral development after Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Those in Piaget’s formal operational stage have developed the ability to think abstractly and, thus, have the ability to move to the post-conventional moral thinking of Kohlberg’s stages 5 and 6.

Developmental psychology
—study of physical, intellectual, social, and moral changes across the lifespan from conception to death.

Three controversies:

Nature–nurture controversy
—deals with the extent to which heredity and the environment each influence behavior.

Continuity–discontinuity controversy
—deals with the issue of whether development is a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages.

Stability–change controversy
—deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits present during infancy endure throughout the lifespan.

Research methods of developmental psychologists include experiments, naturalistic observations, correlational studies, and case studies. These designs are conducted to assess change over time:

cross-sectional
—different age groups are tested at the same time.

longitudinal
—same participants are tested multiple times with same or similar tests.

cohort sequential
—combines cross-sectional and longitudinal to correct for cohort effect.

cohort effect
—observed group differences based on the era when people were born and grew up, exposing them to particular experiences that may affect results of cross-sectional studies.

Physical development (quickest during prenatal development; second quickest during infancy; third quickest during adolescence):

Critical period
—a time interval during which specific stimuli have a major effect on development that the stimuli do not produce at other times.

Prenatal development
—period of development that begins with fertilization, or conception, and ends with birth.