CPSY 2301 - Review Questions (Exam
1) correctly answered to pass
What is the study of child psychology? - correct answer ✔✔Child psychology is a field of study
dedicated to understanding ALL aspects of human growth from conception to adolescence.
What do developmental scientists study? - correct answer ✔✔Developmental psychologists
study all forms of development, including physical, socioemotional, and cognitive development.
Describe ways that views of childhood have shifted throughout history. What sources of
information inform us about earlier beliefs? - correct answer ✔✔Throughout time, childhood
and the importance of a child's health has become more important. In the medieval times,
studying development relied on art and the reports of coroners.
Describe the factors that led to an interest in the scientific study of children's development in
the 19th and 20th centuries. How did industrialization change the lives of children? How have
views of childhood shifted throughout history? - correct answer ✔✔Charles Darwin's view of
evolution led to an increased interest in the study of development. As industrialization
occurred, the birth and death rates both dropped, which changed views on development.
Describe the basic issues in the field of developmental psychology (described in text and
lecture), as well as issues of plasticity and individual differences (described in text). What is the
current view within each issue? What evidence is relevant in the study of each of these issues? -
correct answer ✔✔Basic issues in the field of development include:
1. Is development influenced by NATURE or NURTURE? - This question asks which has a greater
impact on development. (Currently, it's viewed as both)
2. Is development ACTIVE or PASSIVE? - This question asks whether the child plays a role in their
own development or whether they are shaped by external forces. (Currently, it's viewed as
bidirectional)
,3. Is development CONTINUOUS OR DISCONTINUOUS? - Is development gradual or is it more
abrupt? (Currently, it's viewed as more gradual)
4. Is there ONE course of development or MANY? - Is development universal or does it rely on
cultural contexts? (Currently, it's viewed as relying on sociocultural contexts)
----
Plasticity - To what extent is development subject to change as a result of either deliberate
intervention or chance experience?
Individual Differences - How does a person come to have characteristics that make them
different from all other people? How stable are these?
Describe the basic tenets of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Vygostky's sociocultural
theory, Freud's and Erikson's psychoanalytic theories of development, Watson's learning theory,
Bandura's social learning theory, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. Describe the basic
premise of dynamic systems theory. - correct answer ✔✔Piaget - Focuses on children adapting
to their environment and is a stage theory
Vygotsky - Focuses on the importance of sociocultural context and the zone of proximal
development (what can be accomplished alone or with a partner)
Freud - Importance of sexual instincts and the shift from one body part to another
Erikson - 8 stage theory that believes development continues through lifespan and each stage
has its own issue or question to resolve
Watson - Observable behavior and how it is shaped by environment around the child
Bandura - Observational learning through modeling and imitation
Bronfenbrenner - Ecological model of external systems that are a joint function of the
characteristics of the person and of the environment over the course of the person's life up to
that time
Describe the key criteria that guide scientific research (ie. objectivity, reliability, validity,
replicability). - correct answer ✔✔~ Objectivity - Unbiased analysis of data
~ Reliability - Consistency of research findings; get same results every time and be in agreement
~ Replicability - If other researchers recreate the experiment, they will get the same results
, ~ Validity - Data being collected matches the thing the researcher is trying to study
Differentiate between naturalistic observations and experiments (be sure to discuss the relation
between the experimental condition and the control condition). What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each research method? - correct answer ✔✔Naturalistic observations simply
observe without interfering, while experiments attempt to take a variable and control it.
Experiments can identify causal factors, but people might behave differently in an experiment
than they would naturally. On the other hand, natural observations can lead to unbiased results,
but cannot necessarily identify any causal behavior.
What does it mean to say events are correlated? Give an example of a positive correlation, a
negative correlation, and a zero correlation. - correct answer ✔✔- Events being correlated
means that a change in one factor is associated with changes in another factor.
- If one were to say that getting more hours of sleep leads to better grades in school, this would
be a positive correlation. Saying that better grades in school leads to less hours of sleep would
be negative, and 0 correlation would mean that grades and sleep do not have any effects on
each other.
What does it mean when a researcher says "correlation does not imply causation"? - correct
answer ✔✔Correlation does not equal causation means that just because two things are
related, does not mean one is the cause of the other.
Explain how longitudinal and cross-sectional designs differ. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? - correct answer ✔✔- Longitudinal - Information about a group of
people as they grow older, usually expensive and a long-term commitment
- Cross-Sectional - Collects data about people of various ages at one point in time, less time-
consuming but slices up development and can lack consistency
Differentiate between material and symbolic cultural tools, and provide examples of each. -
correct answer ✔✔Material tools focus on physical objects or on observable patterns of
behavior, while symbolic tools focus on ways to explore abstract knowledge, beliefs, and values.
1) correctly answered to pass
What is the study of child psychology? - correct answer ✔✔Child psychology is a field of study
dedicated to understanding ALL aspects of human growth from conception to adolescence.
What do developmental scientists study? - correct answer ✔✔Developmental psychologists
study all forms of development, including physical, socioemotional, and cognitive development.
Describe ways that views of childhood have shifted throughout history. What sources of
information inform us about earlier beliefs? - correct answer ✔✔Throughout time, childhood
and the importance of a child's health has become more important. In the medieval times,
studying development relied on art and the reports of coroners.
Describe the factors that led to an interest in the scientific study of children's development in
the 19th and 20th centuries. How did industrialization change the lives of children? How have
views of childhood shifted throughout history? - correct answer ✔✔Charles Darwin's view of
evolution led to an increased interest in the study of development. As industrialization
occurred, the birth and death rates both dropped, which changed views on development.
Describe the basic issues in the field of developmental psychology (described in text and
lecture), as well as issues of plasticity and individual differences (described in text). What is the
current view within each issue? What evidence is relevant in the study of each of these issues? -
correct answer ✔✔Basic issues in the field of development include:
1. Is development influenced by NATURE or NURTURE? - This question asks which has a greater
impact on development. (Currently, it's viewed as both)
2. Is development ACTIVE or PASSIVE? - This question asks whether the child plays a role in their
own development or whether they are shaped by external forces. (Currently, it's viewed as
bidirectional)
,3. Is development CONTINUOUS OR DISCONTINUOUS? - Is development gradual or is it more
abrupt? (Currently, it's viewed as more gradual)
4. Is there ONE course of development or MANY? - Is development universal or does it rely on
cultural contexts? (Currently, it's viewed as relying on sociocultural contexts)
----
Plasticity - To what extent is development subject to change as a result of either deliberate
intervention or chance experience?
Individual Differences - How does a person come to have characteristics that make them
different from all other people? How stable are these?
Describe the basic tenets of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Vygostky's sociocultural
theory, Freud's and Erikson's psychoanalytic theories of development, Watson's learning theory,
Bandura's social learning theory, and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. Describe the basic
premise of dynamic systems theory. - correct answer ✔✔Piaget - Focuses on children adapting
to their environment and is a stage theory
Vygotsky - Focuses on the importance of sociocultural context and the zone of proximal
development (what can be accomplished alone or with a partner)
Freud - Importance of sexual instincts and the shift from one body part to another
Erikson - 8 stage theory that believes development continues through lifespan and each stage
has its own issue or question to resolve
Watson - Observable behavior and how it is shaped by environment around the child
Bandura - Observational learning through modeling and imitation
Bronfenbrenner - Ecological model of external systems that are a joint function of the
characteristics of the person and of the environment over the course of the person's life up to
that time
Describe the key criteria that guide scientific research (ie. objectivity, reliability, validity,
replicability). - correct answer ✔✔~ Objectivity - Unbiased analysis of data
~ Reliability - Consistency of research findings; get same results every time and be in agreement
~ Replicability - If other researchers recreate the experiment, they will get the same results
, ~ Validity - Data being collected matches the thing the researcher is trying to study
Differentiate between naturalistic observations and experiments (be sure to discuss the relation
between the experimental condition and the control condition). What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each research method? - correct answer ✔✔Naturalistic observations simply
observe without interfering, while experiments attempt to take a variable and control it.
Experiments can identify causal factors, but people might behave differently in an experiment
than they would naturally. On the other hand, natural observations can lead to unbiased results,
but cannot necessarily identify any causal behavior.
What does it mean to say events are correlated? Give an example of a positive correlation, a
negative correlation, and a zero correlation. - correct answer ✔✔- Events being correlated
means that a change in one factor is associated with changes in another factor.
- If one were to say that getting more hours of sleep leads to better grades in school, this would
be a positive correlation. Saying that better grades in school leads to less hours of sleep would
be negative, and 0 correlation would mean that grades and sleep do not have any effects on
each other.
What does it mean when a researcher says "correlation does not imply causation"? - correct
answer ✔✔Correlation does not equal causation means that just because two things are
related, does not mean one is the cause of the other.
Explain how longitudinal and cross-sectional designs differ. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? - correct answer ✔✔- Longitudinal - Information about a group of
people as they grow older, usually expensive and a long-term commitment
- Cross-Sectional - Collects data about people of various ages at one point in time, less time-
consuming but slices up development and can lack consistency
Differentiate between material and symbolic cultural tools, and provide examples of each. -
correct answer ✔✔Material tools focus on physical objects or on observable patterns of
behavior, while symbolic tools focus on ways to explore abstract knowledge, beliefs, and values.
