Dimensions of Psychological Development

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Questions 1 - 10
1

A baby girl is sitting in a high chair. Her father is playing with her by ducking down below the table and popping back up. His daughter seems very distressed by this game. Which of the following best describes why this game of peekaboo is upsetting for her?

She has not yet developed object permanence

She fears the rapid motion

She is insecurely attached to her father

She has an innate fear of heights

Explanation

Object permanence is the understanding that even though an object has disappeared from view, that disappearance is probably temporary: the object has not disappeared totally from existence. Infants do not achieve this understanding until around eight months of age. Because of this, the baby girl likely believes her father no longer exists when he disappears from view, which is upsetting.

2

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for the levels of moral thinking hypothesis. Which of the following levels focuses on self-interest?

Preconventional

Conventional

Postconventional

Preoperational

Concrete operational

Explanation

Kohlberg's three levels of moral thinking include preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

From birth to about nine years of age, a child is believed to experience what Kohlberg called the preconventional phase. At this time the focus is self-interest; the child will follow rules just to avoid punishment and achieve a concrete reward.

The other two options, “preoperational” and “concrete operational” are incorrect because they are stages from Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

3

Lawrence Kohlberg is known for the levels of moral thinking hypothesis. Which of the following levels focuses on self-interest?

Preconventional

Conventional

Postconventional

Preoperational

Concrete operational

Explanation

Kohlberg's three levels of moral thinking include preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

From birth to about nine years of age, a child is believed to experience what Kohlberg called the preconventional phase. At this time the focus is self-interest; the child will follow rules just to avoid punishment and achieve a concrete reward.

The other two options, “preoperational” and “concrete operational” are incorrect because they are stages from Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

4

Erik Erikson is well known for his theory of psychosocial development: the idea that every stage of life contains a crisis in need of resolution.

According to Erikson, which of the following stages faces issues associated with initiative versus guilt?

Preschool

Elementary school

Infancy

Toddlerhood

Young adult

Explanation

Erik Erikson was a theorist who believed that each stage of life had its own task to overcome. Erickson’s psychosocial stages included the following: infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, elementary school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. He assigned each stage with an approximate age range. In the preschool stage (from about 3 to 6 years of age), Erikson believed people needed to resolve issues associated with initiative versus guilt. He hypothesized that children at this stage will learn to either take the initiative to start and carry out tasks or that they will feel guilty about their attempts to be independent. The other provided options are stages in Erikson's stages of psychosocial development; however, they each have their own tasks (i.e. trust versus mistrust or autonomy versus shame and doubt) and are incorrect.

5

A baby girl is sitting in a high chair. Her father is playing with her by ducking down below the table and popping back up. His daughter seems very distressed by this game. Which of the following best describes why this game of peekaboo is upsetting for her?

She has not yet developed object permanence

She fears the rapid motion

She is insecurely attached to her father

She has an innate fear of heights

Explanation

Object permanence is the understanding that even though an object has disappeared from view, that disappearance is probably temporary: the object has not disappeared totally from existence. Infants do not achieve this understanding until around eight months of age. Because of this, the baby girl likely believes her father no longer exists when he disappears from view, which is upsetting.

6

Erik Erikson is well known for his theory of psychosocial development: the idea that every stage of life contains a crisis in need of resolution.

According to Erikson, which of the following stages faces issues associated with initiative versus guilt?

Preschool

Elementary school

Infancy

Toddlerhood

Young adult

Explanation

Erik Erikson was a theorist who believed that each stage of life had its own task to overcome. Erickson’s psychosocial stages included the following: infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, elementary school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. He assigned each stage with an approximate age range. In the preschool stage (from about 3 to 6 years of age), Erikson believed people needed to resolve issues associated with initiative versus guilt. He hypothesized that children at this stage will learn to either take the initiative to start and carry out tasks or that they will feel guilty about their attempts to be independent. The other provided options are stages in Erikson's stages of psychosocial development; however, they each have their own tasks (i.e. trust versus mistrust or autonomy versus shame and doubt) and are incorrect.

7

Which of the following linguistic capacities do infants acquire first?

Distinguishing speech from other sounds

Understanding prosody

Distinguishing their own native language from others spoken to them

Speaking in words

Babbling

Explanation

Infants can distinguish speech from other sounds at as early an age as four months old. Shortly after that, they will begin to babble and coo. By ten months old, they become able to distinguish their own native language from others spoken to them. At 12-18 months old, they begin to use words themselves, and they start to understand prosody between 18 and 24 months of age.

8

Which of the following linguistic capacities do infants acquire first?

Distinguishing speech from other sounds

Understanding prosody

Distinguishing their own native language from others spoken to them

Speaking in words

Babbling

Explanation

Infants can distinguish speech from other sounds at as early an age as four months old. Shortly after that, they will begin to babble and coo. By ten months old, they become able to distinguish their own native language from others spoken to them. At 12-18 months old, they begin to use words themselves, and they start to understand prosody between 18 and 24 months of age.

9

According to Kubler-Ross, when a person is diagnosed with a terminal illness he is most likely to experience the stages of grief in which of the following orders?

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

Depression, bargaining, anger, denial, acceptance

Denial, anxiety, bargaining, depression, acceptance

Depression, bargaining, anger, denial, acceptance

Denial, anger, bargaining, shame, acceptance

Explanation

Kubler-Ross developed an explanation for the series of stages people go through when faced with their own death. According to this model, most people experience the stages in the following order: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. One way to remember this is by the acronym DABDA. Note that shame and anxiety are not stages in this model.

10

Piaget is known for his theory of child development through stages. He believed children build their understanding of the world through interactions with it. Which of the following concepts best describes the stage of Piaget's theory associated with egocentrism?

Preoperational

Sensorimotor

Concrete operational

Formal operational

Operational

Explanation

Piaget's stages of cognitive development are as follows: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget associated an age ranges for each stag that specific developmental phenomena occur at. Preoperational stage occurs at the preschool age. At around 2 to 4 years of age, children Piaget theorized that children experience egocentrism. During this time, children have difficulty perceiving things from another's point of view. For example, a 3-year-old girl may cover her eyes with the intention of making herself invisible from her parents. As a result of her obstructed vision, she incorrectly assumes that her parents cannot see her.

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