Childhood development Quiz

1. Which of the following theorists proposed that development occurs throughout the lifespan?

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Answer explanation

Baltes because he is the only theorist from this group of theorists that believes development is not completed by the start of adulthood. He believes that development occurs from cradle to grave. (Erikson believes this too!)

. Erik Erikson proposed that each stage of development involves a crisis. What is a crisis?

• A turning point

• a collapse

• an emergency

• A time of danger

Answer explanation

A turning point / conflict where each person faces a struggle to attain a specific psychological quality.

Sometimes referred to as a psychosocial crisis, this can be a time of vulnerability but also strength as people work toward success or failure.

Which of the following is NOT a key debate within developmental psychology?

• Nature vs nurture

• Continuity vs discontinuity

• Universality vs particularity

• Maturation vs learning

Answer explanation

All developmental psychologists agree that maturation and learning are key elements of development across the lifespan.

Which of Piaget’s stages is profoundly different from the others in the character of its schemas?

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Answer explanation

Sensorimotor action patterns change to mental representations (images and concepts) in the preoperational stage.

Which of the following is NOT an attachment style?

• Insecure aggressive

• Insecure avoidant

• Secure

• Insecure disorganised

During Piaget's sensorimotor stages, what is the ability to flexibly alter existing schemas into new schemas called?

• Assimilation

• Adaptation

• Accomodation

• Adjustment

Answer explanation

Adaptation is the trial-and-error process of adjusting movement to new demands and is now thought to be more than a simple error cancellation process. Instead, it may calibrate the brain’s prediction of how the body will move and takes into account costs associated with the new task demand.

The two most important elements in the development of a secure attachment are:

• caregiver sensitivity and caregiver proximity

• caregiver proximity and caregiver continuity

• caregiver continuity and caregiver sensitivity

• caregiver attachment and caregiver sensitivity

The major distinction between Piaget and Vygotsky is that Vygotsky placed greater emphasis on what?

• The impact of biological factors on development

• Social interaction with other children and caregivers

• The role of age-based stages

• The need for reinforcement of behaviours

According to Vygotsky what is the difference between a child's capacity to perform a task independently and the potential to perform it with assistance known as?

 

• Zone of proximal development

• Social learning dissonance

• Heteronomity-autonomity difference

• Scaffolding

According to Piaget's theory, during which stage do children develop the capacity for conservation?

• sensory-motor stage

• preoperational stage

• concrete operational stage

• formal operational stage