PSYC140 / PSYC 140 Module 9 Exam Questions and Answers | Latest 2026–2027 Update | Developmental (Lifespan) Psychology | Portage Learning | Verified Solutions | Grade A

PSYC140 / PSYC 140 Module 9 Exam Questions and Answers | Latest 2026–2027 Update | Developmental (Lifespan) Psychology | Portage Learning | Verified Solutions | Grade A Q: _____ is a periodic, natural loss of consciousness. Answer Sleep Q: One's brain keeps track of sleep debt for a period of about: Answer 2 weeks Q: If one experiences disrupted or inadequate sleep, it will affect one's memory in what way? Answer It will impair memory. Q: Which sleep disorder has the opposite effect from insomnia? Answer narcolepsy Q: Gabe goes to bed at his regular time, and as he begins to drift slowly off to sleep, he jumps up suddenly as he feels he is falling down the stairs. This is BEST explained by a(n) _____ sensation. Answer hypnagogic Q: Jacob dreamt that he was driving a shiny red sports car and that he was pulled over by the police, but the officer was his best friend. His psychoanalyst interpreted this dream as meaning that Jacob feels his friend is holding him back. Jacob's actual dream represents the _____ content and the interpretation represents the _____ content. Answer manifest; latent Q: Marne has been prescribed medication to keep her awake and less likely to fall asleep behind the wheel of her car. She MOST likely suffers from a sleep disorder called _____. Answer narcolepsy Q: Shonda is a night person, an "owl." Based on research reviewed in the text, Shonda is MOST likely to be: Answer creative Q: Becky remembers a dream in which a car was parked in front of her house and a man with a baseball bat kept getting in and out of the car. According to Sigmund Freud's theory, the specific dream details that Becky remembers are called the _____ content. Answer manifest Q: A researcher develops a self-report questionnaire assessing "morningness." High scores indicate the tendency toward being a lark, or morning person, whereas low scores indicate the tendency toward being a night owl. Based on the textbook's discussion, the researcher should find a _____ correlation between scores on this measure and scores on a measure of the Big Five trait of openness, and a _____ correlation between scores on this measure and scores on a measure of the Big Five trait of conscientiousness. Answer negative; positive Q: Matthew tries to finish the day's most important business by 1 in the afternoon. before his brain runs down. His graduate student Meghna claims that her brain comes alive at 10 at night. Matthew may be described as a(n) _____, whereas Meghna is better called a(n) _____. Answer lark; owl Q: Among adults, the MOST common sleep disorder involves: Answer ongoing trouble falling or staying asleep Q: Infant Reflexes Answer infants born with innate abilities that help them survive, including rooting reflex, sucking reflex, and grasping reflex Q: Teratogens Answer agents that harm the embryo or fetus. Drugs, alcohol, bacteria, viruses Q: Infantile Amnesia Answer inability to remember events from early childhood Q: attachment Answer strong emotional connection that persists over time and across circumstances Q: Secure Attachment Answer majority of infants have this. comfortable to play in an unfamiliar area as long as the caregiver is present and as long as they are readily comforted by caregiver during times of distress. Q: assimilation Answer process by which new information is placed into an existing scheme Q: accommodation Answer process by which a new scheme is created or an existing scheme is drastically altered to include new information that otherwise would not fit into the scheme. Q: Sensorimotor (birth-two years) Answer Differentiates self from objects Recognizes self as agent, begins to act intentionally Achieves object permanence- things exist even when not in present senses Q: Preoperational (2-7 years) Answer Learns to use language and represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentic Classifies objects by a single feature Q: Concrete Operational (7-12 years) Answer Can think logically about objects and events achieves conservation of number, mass, and weight Classifies objects by several features Q: Formal Operational (12 years and up) Answer Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypothesis Becomes concerned with future, ideological problems Q: Theory of Mind Answer The ability to understand that other people have mental states that influence their behavior Q: GQ: Name five stages of human development and provide approximate age ranges for each stage. Answer Prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood Q: Prenatal Answer (conception through birth) Q: Infancy Answer (birth through 18-24 months) Q: Childhood Answer (≈ 2 - 11 years old ) Q: Adolescence Answer (≈ 12 - 18 years old) Q: Adulthood Answer (≈ 18 years old - death) Q: What are the three stages of prenatal development? How long does each stage last? Answer zygote, embryo, and fetus. Q: Parental developement- zygote Answer The zygote stage begins at conception and lasts about two weeks. Q: Conception Answer occurs when a sperm and an egg unite to form a fertilized egg, or zygote. This first cell is the start of development. Q: Zygote process Answer The zygote travels down the fallopian tube and, after about two weeks, attaches to the uterine wall. Q: What structures that are needed to grow/develope form in the zygote stage? Answer the amnion sac, placenta, and umbilical cord. Q: The zygote's attachment to the uterine wall marks the end of the zygote stage and the beginning of the next stage — the __________. Answer embryo Q: Parental developement- embryo Answer internal organs and systems begin to form. This is a period of extreme vulnerability, as the effects of teratogens(dugs, alcohol, viruses, chemicals), maternal stress, and poor nutrition can impair or interfere with development. Q: Embryo timeline Answer After about two (2) months, internal organs have developed and the heart begins to beat. This marks the end of the embryo stage and the beginning of the fetal stage. Q: Parental developement- fetus Answer lasting from approximately two (2) months until birth at 38-40 weeks. Q: the fetus grows longer, fatter, and stronger to prepare for survival outside of the womb Answer fetus stage Q: Significant brain development occurs during this time Answer fetus stage During prenatal brain development, _________develop in the brain and spinal cord Answer neurons Define teratogens and explain how they affect the prenatal growth process. What does it mean that synapses begin to form during the prenatal brain development period? Answer brain starts building a network of connections through which different brain areas can interact with each other Teratogens Answer "agents" such as drugs, alcohol, bacteria, viruses, and harmful chemicals that can negatively impact prenatal development. As synapses/connections are forming the brain is vulnerable to Answer teratogens Most common teratogen Answer alcohol, which can cause Fetal Alchohol Syndrome GQ-How did the Harlows' study influence our understanding of human attachment? Answer revealed was that early social attachment provides a foundation for cognitive development. Goal of Harlows study Answer examined the attachment process in primates. Study concerned the purpose of early infant attachment. Was it purely utilitarian - that infants seek the affections of their caregivers to acquire food and protection? Or is there something more that comes from attachment? Harlows study Answer they raised infant rhesus macaque monkeys with surrogate mothers. The wire mother, had a very cold expression and provided food, but no comfort. The other, referred to the cloth mother, did not provide food, but had a happy expression and was wrapped in a soft cloth. Harlows study helped psychologist understand contact comfort- Answer the physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being in physical contact with a caregiver. Contact comfort continued Answer Caregivers do not only provide a source of food. They also provide a sense of security. And that sense of security provides much more than just safety. When an infant feels secure and calm, it emboldens them to explore the world around them. They reach out, touch, grab, and interact with objects in the world. And this is how infants learn, through sensing. GQ-Explain how the Strange Situation Test helps us study attachment styles. Answer ohn Bowlby expanded on Harlow's work by observing the effects of separation between human infants and their caregivers which led him to hypothesize that there were differences in a children with regard to their attachment styleBowlby's ideas were later investigated empirically by Mary Ainsworth using what would be come known as the Strange Situation test. Attachment style Answer refers to the nature of the relationship between infant and caregiver. Stranfe Situation study by Ainsoworth Answer The baby cried when the mom left, even when consoled by a random adult stranger. On the basis of these observations, they classify the children into the different attachment styles. GQ-Describe characteristics of the three attachment styles (ex. behavior when caregiver is present, behavior when caregiver leaves, behavior when caregiver returns). Answer Secure, Insecure Avoidant Insecure Anxious/Ambivalent Secure attachment style Children who have secure attachments with their caregivers demonstrate the following behavior: -In the presence of the caregiver, they play and explore freely. They may return to the caregiver periodically to "check in," but they quickly play again -When the caregiver leaves, these children experience moderate distress. -When the caregiver returns, secure children seek contact and are easily calmed. This demonstrates that the caregiver is a source of comfort during times of distress. Approximately what percent of children display secure attachment. 60-65% Children with _________________ play freely and independently when their parents are nearby. secure attatchments Insecure Avoidant attachment style -In the presence of the caregiver, they stay close and do not explore as freely as do secure children. --When the caregiver leaves, these children experience almost no distress. They may even prefer playing with the stranger. ---When the caregiver returns, insecure: avoidant children avoid the attachment figure (caregiver). This demonstrates that the caregiver is not a source of comfort during times of distress. Approximately _________% of children display insecure: avoidant attachment. 20 Children with ______________ attachments often avoid their parents when they return after an absence. insecure: avoidant Approximately __% of children display insecure: avoidant/ambivalent attachment. 10 Children with _______________ attachments tend to experience extreme distress when their parents leave the room. insecure: anxious/ambivalent If a child consistently screams and cries uncontrollably when a parent leaves them with a babysitter, but is inconsolable when that parent returns, which of the following attachment styles does this child likely have? insecure: anxious/ambivalent If a child plays and explores independently when mom or dad are nearby, but cries for a bit when they leave, which of the following attachment styles does this child likely have? secure If a child experiences little or no distress when mom or dad leave the room and also avoids them upon return, which of the following attachment styles does this child likely have? insecure:avoidant Insecure Anxious/Ambivalent attatchment style -In the presence of the caregiver, they stay close and do not explore as freely as do secure children. ---When the caregiver leaves, these children experience extreme distress. ----When the caregiver returns, insecure: anxious/ambivalent children seek out the caregiver but are inconsolable, rejecting their comfort. This demonstrates that the caregiver is not a source of comfort during times of distress. GQ-How can infancy attachment styles affect our social interactions and other outcomes later in life? Research studies have shown that infants who demonstrate secure attachment typically become adults with better socioemotional functioning, better peer relationships, and more successful school adjustment. infants who demonstrate insecure attachment — of either type— have an increased likelihood of depression and behavioral problems later in life and show similar relationship patterns in adulthood. Avoidant children tend to grow into adults who have difficulty getting close to others and/or committing. Anxious/Ambivalent children tend to grow into adults who are possessive and jealous and have difficulty trusting relationship partners The effect early attachment styles can have on cognitive development Children following both insecure patterns tend to stay close to caregivers and do little exploring. This can result in them not getting the same experiences that they need to grow in their cognitive development as securely attached children. In many ways, social development is the foundation upon which cognitive development grows. GQ: Name and describe two ways children modify their schemas of the world. assimilation and accommodation According to Piaget, children (and adults alike) make sense of new information using schemes schema refers to the organizational frameworks that exists in memory which are used to understand new and incoming information. -ex: through experince we have developed a schema for chairs-we can quickly identify a chair Assimilation new information is incorporated into an already existing schema. This is how most adults handle new information with their well-developed, and somewhat rigid and inflexible, schemas. They are able to do so because they have used their past expeirnces to develope a categorization system that allows they to identify things quickly Although assimilation is the simpler and default process, when children assimililate They make a lot of categorization and naming errors bc they have less developed schemas ex: a child assuming a cheeta is a dog Assimilation in kids example The child learns the name of one example of a category and uses that name for every member of that category.(similar to stimulus generalization) every bird is a crow every farm animal is a cow apple being a "nana" Accommodation an existing schema is adjusted or a new schema is developed to account for the new information. Used when info does not fit existing schema accommodation Accommodation in kids Most often going to occur when the child receives a correction. Accommodation in cheetah example When told the cheetah is not a dog, the kid will likely develop a new schema for cheetahs that is separate from dogs Or the child could restrict their schemas. Perhaps its existing animal schema, which had only contained info about dogs and cats, now becomes divided into pets and wild animals, both grouped under the superordinate category of animals Key differences b/w assimilation and accommodation Assimilation, existing schemas are used to interpret new info. No real change in complexity of the schema, other than to add the new example to the existing category Accommodation new info doesn't fit and requires a change in existing schemas. As such, accommodation will result in increased complexity, but greater utility of schemas. Name Piaget's four stages of development. Provide approximate age ranges for each stage and milestones of learning that are expected to occur in each stage. Given a description of a child's cognitive functioning, be able to identify what stage they are in. Sensorimotor stage(birth - 2 years) infants assimilate information by exploring and sensing the world around them. develop their first schemas through interaction — such as what actions can be performed on different objects. Random: Vision in babies The visual experience of newborns is very fuzzy and in grayscale. Color vision starts to develop at around 2-3 months of age, but full capabilities with regard to color vision, as well as seeing in high detail, do not develop until about 6-12 months. A common technique used to investigate infant cognition is the preferential looking technique - in which researchers simply look to see how much attention infants give to different stimuli. ex: checkerboard patterns Stage in which you often see kids putting things in their mouth sensorimotor stage-(they are using their senses to assimilate information about everything they encounter.) In terms of motor movement, the sensorimotor stage is when Infants move from reflexive to reflective action. Reflexes newborns rely on palmar grasp rooting and sucking moro reflex babinski reflex gross motor control movement of large muscle groups, like moving your arms at the shoulder or bending at the waist. fine motor control the coordination of muscle groups to produce small and exact movements. Developement of motor movement shows Dynamic systems theory Dynamic systems theory suggests that development advances through an individual's active exploration and the resulting feedback of the changing environment around them. As infants progress through the sensorimotor stage, they hit a few important milestones. The first of which is Object permanence- refers to the fact that an object continues to exist even when hidden from view. -according to Piaget, begins to emerge around 6 months of age. 2nd milestone- at 18 months capability of self-regognition Stage 2: Preoperational(age 2-7) children gain the ability to engage in symbolic representation - primarily represented by the acquisition of language and numbers, but also including the use of found objects to represent other objects in imaginary play (e.g., a stick becomes a sword). Receptive language or the capability to understand language, develops first. As early as 6-8 months, some infants can identify words. Expressive language lags a bit behind, with most infants uttering their first word between 12-18 months. By the end of the sensorimotor stage, most children have a vocabulary of 20-50 words. But it's not until the ______________ that they start to really use those words to communicate. Stringing words together into 2,3, or 4-word sentences. Between the ages of 2 and 3 toddlers begin to understand numbers and learn to count. preoperational stage Why is it called "preoperational" because children cannot yet use logic or reasoning to imagine how they could manipulate the concepts that they are now coming to understand. ex: children at this age are largely incapable of performing mathematical operations even tho they can count objects Centration or the tendency to only be able to think about one dimension or quality of objects. Centration produces some curious judgments by children early in the preoperational phase Stage 2 is also characterized by egocentrism for a child in the preoperational stage, the term egocentrism means that they are incapable of imagining another person's point of view. This quality reveals itself in the early part of the stage when very young children "hide" behind hands, thinking you cannot see them. Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage(7-12) children are able to perform mental operations using concrete objects. They begin to be able to perform mathematical and logical operations. But this ability to perform operations is restricted in what they can perform operations on. Specifically, it is restricted to things that they know and have experienced. In other words, concrete concepts - objects that they can see and interact with in the real world currently or in the past. Children will not be able to perform these operations on abstract concepts until the next stage of development. Abilities in the concrete operational stage children will begin to learn add, sub, multip, and division But again, their ability to perform these operations is enhanced when working with concrete concepts.( why so many math books rely on word probelms) CO Stage: Transitive interference you compare two concepts to one another by using a third comparison concept. object A is smaller than B, and that object B is smaller than C, then A must be smaller than C Stage 4: Formal Operational Stage(entering adolesence) At this stage, children become capable of reasoning in sophisticated, abstracted ways. Which means that they can take the operations that they learned in the concrete operational stage and apply them to abstract information as well as information that violates their understanding of the world. adolescents becoming able to think "outside the box" Not only are they able to solve problems, they also become able to develop and then test their own hypotheses about the world and engage in critical thinking and analysis. A child who has just learned the concept of conservation is probably in which stage of cognitive development? concrete operational A child who can understand and and reason with hypothetical situations is probably in which stage of cognitive development? Formal Operational Which developmental stage is characterized by egocentrism? Preoperational At which stage of development does a child begin to be able to make transitive inferences? Concrete operational Which of the following milestones is achieved during the sensorimotor stage? Object permanence GQ: What are some criticisms of Piaget's stages of development? Some children may move back and forth between levels, depending on the task, and some adults may reason in concrete operational ways. Other criticisms of piaget Many argue that there should be more flexibility with regard to some of the capabilities in each stage and that the structure is too rigid — not all children use the same logic to solve problems. other ciriticism of piagat evidence suggests that many of his age estimates were wrong. ex:object permanence occurs much younger than Piaget estimated. A child's ability to learn from others is dependent on their ability to not only observe another person's behavior, but to understand that those behaviors resulted from intentions, beliefs, and mental states like emotions. This understanding is referred to as the Theory of minds GQ:What is theory of mind? How does it relate to empathy and deception? As children reach the age of four, their egocentrism reduces and their ___________________ improves, allowing them to develop the understanding that others can hold false beliefs — that someone else might make an incorrect assumption about the state of the world based on a lack of information that you have. theory of mind Theory of mind, deception before they develop theory of minds, kids will tell the truth. But this is not because they believe it's the right thing to do. But rather, because they don't understand that lying works. They think that mom or dad already knows they stole the muffins. theory of mind-empathy When the theory of mind develops it gives the child the ability to not only understand that others see the world differently, but also to take on their perspective. Eventually, in early adolescence, this perspective-taking will turn into the ability to experience empathy. Big idea moral development is going to be influenced by a child's cognitive capabilities. their decisions about right and wrong are based on what they can understand about the world. Just as social development provided the opportunity for cognitive development, cognitive development sets the stage for moral development. Kohlberg observed and proposed 3 main levels of moral reasoning Preconventional Conventional Postconventional Kohlberg used the Heinz scenario to measure moral reasoning. Please note that whether the child says that Heinz should or should not steal the drug is irrelevant. Rather, what is more important is the __________that they use to argue for or against doing so. Reasoning GQ: How is morality determined by individuals in the preconventional stage of moral development? morality is determined by self-interest, pleasure, and the outcome of their behavior. What moral stage is based off of self-interest and about avoiding punishment and getting rewards? Preconventional Example of preconventional moral stage a teenager who does not stay out past curfew, only because he does not want to be grounded, not because he cares about what his parents think or the rules they set for him. Preconventional stage in Heinz scenario He should steal the drug because then he would have it and that would make him feel good. GQ: What guides the moral decision making of people in the conventional stage of moral development? Authority. This stage is characterized by a focus on following rules and avoiding the disapproval of others. An example of someone in this stage of moral development is a person who suffers from glaucoma but would not smoke marijuana — even though it relieves their symptoms — because it is illegal in their state. conventional Conventional moral stage in Heinz example He shouldn't take the drug. Stealing is wrong; people will think he's a bad person and won't like him if he steals. or It's unfair for the druggist to be charging so much. People will disapprove of him for doing so. GQ: How do individuals in the postconventional moral development stage approach moral reasoning questions? morality is determined by complex reasoning about abstract principles, and about the value of all life. "Gray area" Common in postconventional moral stage. Belief that certain basic rights supercede social contracts. People in postconventional stage understand the rules of society (conventional), they understand the potential punishments that might come with their actions (preconventional), but they feel conflicted as they feel the rules that exist are unfair and lead to inequality. Postconventional stage in Heinz scenario It's wrong to steal, but it's more wrong to charge too much for a drug that will save a person's life. Is postconventional moral reasoning very common? No, even among adults