[To the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction (2017) by Russ Dewey]
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Revised 11/23/2016. Welcome to the self-quiz on Developmental Psychology. These questions accompany Chapter 10 (Developmental Psychology) of the online textbook Psychology: An Introduction). They are general enough to be useful for students using other textbooks as well.
Read the question and click on an answer. You will jump to a correction or (if the answer is correct) a confirmation.
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[The remainder of the page is not meant to be read sequentially; it consists of answers and explanations separated by stretches of nothing. You will jump back and forth to these as you click on possible answers of the questions.]
You picked...
they are the same thing
No, genes are much smaller than chromosomes...)
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there are many chromosomes on each gene
No, just the opposite...
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there are about 46 genes per chromosome
No, perhaps you are thinking of the number of chromosomes shown in a karyotype (a light microscope picture of chromosomes).
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there are about 20,000 genes per chromosome
Yes. No doubt experts would disagree about the exact number, but it is many thousands.
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here are billions of chromosomes per gene
No. Genes do not contain chromosomes; chromosomes contain genes.
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a behavior is learned or genetic
No. Behaviors which are clearly learned, like religiosity and TV watching, can have high heritability indexes.
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test scores of monozygotic twins correlate more than those of dyzygotic twins
Yes. The most common way of computing the "heritability index" involves comparing test scores of identical (monozygotic) twins with those of fraternal (dyzygodic) twins. If a trait is influenced by genes, then identical twins should be more similar than fraternal twins with respect to that trait, other things being equal.
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a child "takes after" a mother or father
No, that might involve inheritance, but the heritability index is a statistical concept (expressing how much variance in test scores or other forms of measurement might be "accounted for" by genes).
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a genetic trait is typical of a family
No...a heritability index does not tell you whether lots of members of a family have the same trait.
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there is variability in the genes
No. Although the heritability index does relate to variability of test scores or other measurements, this does not tell us about "variability in the genes."
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doesn't mind being put down but acts worried as soon as the mother leaves
No...even securely attached children may grow worried if their mothers leave the scene.
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is happy when around the mother but refuses to leave the mother's side
No, an "anxiously attached, ambivalent" child does not act very "attached" at all in the usual sense of the term...
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clings or cries as the mother puts her down, then later pouts or fights with her
Yes, that is one pattern of behavior among children Ainsworth described as anxiously attached and ambivalent. The "ambivalence" (combination of two different emotions) comes in the display of both (a) clinging and dependency, such as crying when separated, and also (b) hostility or "acting out" when re-united with the mother.
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does not cry when the mother leaves and may avoid her when she returns
No, that is the anxiously attached, avoidant type.
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laughs one minute and cries the next
No, that is a form of ambivalence all right, but in this case the term refers to ambivalent feelings about the mother.
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perception
No, the young child's judgements are dominated by perception. In a sense, learning to "conserve" means learning to overcome perceptions when appropriate, rather than relying upon them.
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internal representation or "knowledge"
Yes. When a child learns to "conserve" something like liquid quantity (the most common example used, with the fat and thin beakers...) the child is learning that something abstract stays the same (the quantity of liquid) even though appearances change. This is a form of knowledge. The child has an "internal representation" of something that might be called liquid quantity.
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object constancy
No, object constancy (the knowledge that a hidden object continues to exist) develops very early in life, well before a child can pass conservation experiments.
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sensory-motor activity
No, sensory-motor activity is possible even in the newborn infant, long before a child learns to "conserve."
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reflexes
No, reflexes are already present when the child is born.
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conservation
No, conservation involves acquisition of abstract knowledge about the physical world, not about the child's own memory.
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language
No, they seemed to understand what he meant...
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memory
Well...maybe it shows a deficiency in their memory for failures of memory, but that is stretching things. There is a better answer.
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metacognition
Yes. Metacognition is "thinking about thinking" or awareness of cognition. The 30% who said they never forgot anything had not become aware of this aspect of their own cognitive processes.
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honesty
No, presumably they thought they were telling the truth.
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"thought constantly about sex"
No, while adolescents might indeed think about sex now and then, this research found that other thoughts and emotions were more common.
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"had lots of negative thoughts while with their families"
Yes. Sometimes the thoughts were very negative (like, "My mother is crazy") but more often they were mildly negative (like "I'm bored").
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had happy thoughts ten times more often than sad thoughts
No, just the opposite.
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suffered more severe mood swings than adults
No, this is supposedly a "myth" about adolescence.
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"were often intoxicated when paged"
No, this was not one of the findings.
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"change is the only constant"
No, almost the opposite. Constancy is the only constant.
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slow but steady improvement in intellect
Not unless by "intellect" you mean "vocabulary." This is not the best answer.
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remarkable stability on almost every personality rating scale
Yes. This is from Jack Block's research, but the same thing has been found by other researchers.
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dramatic change in 30-40% of adults
No, most do not seem to change, although many find themselves in forms of work they did not predict as college students.
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seven stages of adult personality development
No. There are stage theories of adult development (like Gail Sheehy's Passages but they are based on observation and anecdote, not longitudinal research (which is difficult and expensive because the same individuals must be followed for many years).
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young people show a "terminal drop" at night
One would hope not..."terminal drop" concept refers to a supposed drop in IQ shortly before death.
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old people do better in the afternoon
No, very few older people perform better in the afternoon.
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young people are more likely to say they are "morning people"
No. I know a few young people who describe themselves this way, but one research study found that not a single young college student out of 280 interviewed described himself or herself as "definitely a morning person."
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old people have better "crystallized intelligence"
Yes. "Crystallized intelligence" refers to knowledge which does not change, such as vocabulary and memory for psychology research studies (!). Older people excel at this.
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young people have better vocabulary
No, older people tend to have better vocabulary.
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complacency
No; complacency means taking something for granted or not caring about it. It is hard to be complacent about terminal illness.
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bargaining
Yes. Kubler-Ross found that dying people sometimes appeared to be proposing a "bargain" with God, such as, "Just let me stay alive until Christmas, then you can take me..." or "If I survive this, I will be the best Christian I can for the rest of my life..."
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irritation
No, dying people sometimes get depressed, or anger, but "irritation" was not something Kubler-Ross described.
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dependence
No, dying people do become dependent upon their caretakers, but that was not described as a "stage."
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desperation
No, Kubler-Ross did not use this term to label any of the stages in her description of dying people.
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only when there is a chance of recovery from illness
No, almost the opposite.
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in a special clinic
No. Sometimes patients under hospice care are housed in a clinic called a hospice, but this is not the most common form of hospice care.
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at home
Yes. Most hospice care occurs in a patient's home. Hospice nurses and helpers visit as needed.
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in hospitals
No, usually people leave hospitals when they enter hospice care.
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during the last several years of a person's life
No, usually hospice care is started when a person has left than six months left to live, according to a doctor.
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