FCS PRAXIS 5122 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2025/2026
Individuation is the process through which a person comes to think of himself or herself as a distinct
person despite being a member of a family. - Answers Children at first identify entirely with the mores,
norms, and values of their family; it is only after prolonged exposure to other people outside the home
that a child will begin to question his or her upbringing and perhaps modify his or her belief system. A
fully individualized person is able to maintain a coherent personality without renouncing membership in
a family with which he or she may have some disagreement.
Agrarian societies are more likely to live with their extended families. - Answers An extended family is
comprised of more than one adult couple. For instance, it might include a man and a woman, their
children, and their grandchildren. Agrarian societies in which people tend the same land for their entire
lives are more conducive to the maintenance of the extended family. This is in part because it is more
difficult for a large group to move around together. In modern, industrial, urban, and nomadic societies,
it is more common for people to be grouped together in nuclear families (one adult couple and their
children)
Financial Stability is NOT necessary for a person to commit emotionally to a marriage. - Answers Despite
money being a main issue for divorce, it is more important for partners to have good self-esteem,
empathy, a feeling of permanence in the relationship, and strong personal identities. Solid marriages
weather the inevitable hard times with a mixture of humor, empathy, and habit. The idea of empathy is
particularly important in marriage because it implies that each partner may not fully understand the
other. Nevertheless, a loving spouse with try to help whenever possible.
Having a child between the ages of 2 and 4 has little to no effect on job satisfaction. - Answers Research
suggests that parents often feel some strain as they occupy multiple roles, but this is offset by the
enjoyment they derive from their work. Having a newborn, on the other hand, has a noticeably
damaging effect on job satisfaction. The demands of caring for a newborn, as well as the desire to spend
as much time as possible with this new child, make it unpleasant to be away from home for any reason.
Flexible scheduling, high wages, and intellectual challenge are all directly correlated with job
satisfaction.
Accepting that the marriage is over is the first step a person should take after divorce. - Answers
Psychologists estimate that it takes most people at least two years to accept divorce entirely. Until this is
reached, the divorcee should not initiate a new relationship. The best way to complete the process of
acceptance is to establish an individual identity. This may include developing a balance between being
single and being a parent. It is appropriate to plan for the future, but people should be aware that it is
impossible to predict what they will want once they have fully processed the finality of the divorce.
Sibling rivalry is most pronounced in same-sex siblings within three years of age. - Answers In the first
eight to ten years of life, siblings tend to alternate between cooperation and competition. As they grow
older, they will often spend little time together for a few years, but during adolescence will gradually
develop empathy for one another. Most research suggests that adult relationships between siblings
,simply exaggerate the tone of the relationship of the youth; that is, good relationships get better and
bad relationships get worse.
Married women typically earn a lower wage than single women. - Answers This is an exception to the
general trend, which is that married people are healthier, wealthier, and more content than their single
counterparts. Married men are less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, and less likely to become
depressed. Married women are healthier and more likely to report satisfaction with their home lives.
One reason why married women may earn less money is that they are more likely to be raising children,
and therefore less focused on professional development. Despite reports about the decline of marriage,
an overwhelming majority of Americans will marry at least once during their lives.
Accepting a stepparent is hardest for adolescent girls. - Answers The bond between a stepparent,
particularly a stepfather, and an adolescent girl takes the longest to form. One possible reason for this
phenomenon is that stepfathers tend to be less engaged with stepdaughters than with stepsons. The
effect of remarriage on children is much the same as divorce because it involves a fundamental
restructuring of the family concept. Nevertheless, stepparents who work to engage with their
stepchildren can develop positive relationships over time.
Both the content and the style of family communication are important. - Answers The members of a
family should work on communicating positively. The decisions made by families tend to reinforce the
status quo in the interest of conformity and conflict avoidance. For reasons both genetic and
environmental, the members of families are likely to struggle with the same sorts of problems in life.
Despite a general tendency toward stability and consistency, families inevitably change in response to
the aging of each member and to pressures from the environment. Finally, it is a central tenet of family
science that it is impossible to understand a family member without understanding the family as a
whole.
According to John Gottman, humor is the best response to criticism by a spouse. - Answers When the
criticized partner responds to criticism by deflecting or soothing the other person, tempers are quelled
and the partnership remains strong. Gottman's research suggests that there is a classic pattern of
degenerating communication in an unsuccessful relationship. The pattern begins with criticism that is
not directed at a certain behavior, but at the other person as a whole. In other words, the criticism of
unsuccessful couples tends to lean toward character assassination. Eventually, these negative
interactions lead to contempt, in which one partner openly disparages and disrespects the other. The
inevitable response to contempt is defensiveness, followed by stonewalling or a total lack of
communication. When couples stop communicating, the relationship is not likely to endure.
The greatest amount of variation between people of the same age is found during early adolescence. -
Answers The onset of puberty may occur at any time over the span of five years, though it typically
occurs earlier in females than in males. The changes brought on by puberty are monumental and can
cause rapid changes in personality, physical development, and emotional maturity. Teachers need to be
aware of these changes, particularly when working with middle-school children. Family and consumer
,science teachers may need to act as liaisons between parents and their children, as family relationships
can become strained during early adolescence.
When two children have a dispute and agree to settle it according to their mother's opinion, they are
engaging in arbitration. - Answers In arbitration, two conflicting parties agree to rely on the advice of a
supposedly impartial third party. Sometimes, the parties will also establish guidelines for the way a
decision is to be reached. In parenting, it can be difficult to settle a dispute with arbitration, since
children are unlikely to honor a decision that goes against their interest. Conciliation is a method of
settling disputes in which the conflicting parties are simply asked to meet and converse, with the idea
that a resolution will naturally occur as a result of this meeting. In mediation, the conflicting parties
decide to enlist the aid of an impartial third party as they attempt to settle their differences. The parties
in mediation do not agree to follow the advice of the third party. In negotiation, two parties try to agree
on terms that are acceptable to both. Negotiation in family life is a bit like compromise. A restorative
justice system is where the person who has been wronged gets some kind of compensation from the
wrongdoer. When the parents force one sibling to apologize to the other, they are essentially using
restorative justice.
In general, when a mother works, her children have more self-esteem. - Answers There is no one reason
for this phenomenon, although one can speculate that girls might be inspired by the positive example of
a successful working mother. The daughters of working mothers tend to be more independent, and they
are likely to have a more egalitarian view of gender relations. When the sons of working mothers are
unsupervised, their performance in school tends to decline. It is important for both parents to have a
positive attitude about maternal employment, and it is especially important for husbands to support
their wives in ways that can be perceived positively by children.
During times of conflict, family members will take sides to consolidate power. - Answers Although this
process is natural, it can become problematic if the groups last for too long or create a permanent
imbalance of power. The idea that family life is a series of actions and reactions is an assumption of
Milan systematic family therapy. This approach to family therapy emphasizes patterns of behavior that
lock family members into their roles, therefore inhibiting their personal growth. Behavioral family
therapists assume that bad behavior persists when it is reinforced. These therapists strive to show
family members how they may be inadvertently rewarding the very behavior they seek to discourage.
Object relations family therapists assume that ill will in a family is often a result of negative projection. In
other words, the members of a family may attribute their own negative characteristics to their family
members.
One drawback of inpatient treatment for alcoholism is that it is expensive. - Answers Inpatient programs
are not often covered by health insurance, forcing the family to pay out of pocket. The efficacy of these
programs is well established, estimating 70% of participants to stay sober for at least five years. Many of
these programs include the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step model. Patients cannot drink while enrolled
since they are on the property. The inpatient programs require the personal commitment of the patient.
, According to Piaget's model, the ability to imagine the mental lives of others emerges during the
preoperational stage. - Answers The preoperational stage is the second of the four stages and occurs
between 2 and 7 years old. This ability is called sympathy. The first stage in the Piaget model is
sensorimotor, which lasts from birth until about age 2. During this time, the sense organs become
activated, and the child learns about object permanence. In the third stage, known as concrete
operational, the child improves his or her cognition and realizes that objects with different shapes may
have the same volume. This stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 12. In the formal operational stage,
the capacity for abstract thought is developed. When this stage occurs (and it does not for every
person), it typically occurs after age 12.
Role strain is exemplified by a new teacher who struggles to maintain authority in the classroom. -
Answers Role strain is any hardship a person encounters while trying to fulfill the socially accepted
requirements of a role. Individuals are almost never a perfect fit for any role they attempt to inhabit, so
role strain is inevitable. A public speaker who cultivates his or her expertise is displaying role
performance, or the conscious fulfillment of a social role's characteristics. A person whose parents die
goes through the role exit process, because he or she no longer is in the role of a son or daughter. A
child who imagines what it would be like to be a police office is demonstration role taking, in which a
person imagines what it would be like to fill a certain social role. A substitute teacher who waits tables
on the weekend exemplifies the idea of the role set, or the different roles that a single person can
inhabit at a given point in his or her life.
An eight year-old with the mental age of a ten year-old is likely to have an IQ of 125. - Answers IQ is
measured by dividing mental age by actual age and then multiplying by 100. Mental age is defined as the
average amount of knowledge held by a person at a given age. IQ is seen as an arbitrary figure and
somewhat unreliable as an indicator of intellectual development. Many critics feel that it ignores
intuitive, spatial, and creative abilities. The average IQ should be 100.
A student whose interest level and performance have steadily declined admits to his teacher that he is
depressed, but is not yet willing to do anything to remedy this problem. He is in the contemplation stage
of the transtheoretical model of change. - Answers In this stage, a person recognizes the need for a
change but is not yet prepared to take action. This is the second of six stages. IN the first stage,
precontemplation, the person does not yet recognize that he or she has a problem. In the third stage,
preparation/commitment, the persona determines that a change is necessary and begins to collect
information about solutions. The fourth stage is action, when the person begins to change his or her
behavior. In the fifth stage, maintenance, the person notes the benefits of the new behavior and strives
to avoid falling back into bad habits. IN the sixth and final stage, termination, the person has made the
new behavior habitual and is very unlikely to backslide.
Starting at about nine months, an infant will begin nonsensically imitating adult speech, or echolalia. -
Answers Most children begin exhibiting echolalia at about nine months of age. This is one of the steps in
language acquisition. There are six such stages: crying, cooing, babbling, echolalia, holophrastic speech,
and telegraphic speech. Over the first few months of life, an infant will develop different cries to express
different emotions. After six or eight weeks, the infant will begin to display a vowel-intensive warbling
Individuation is the process through which a person comes to think of himself or herself as a distinct
person despite being a member of a family. - Answers Children at first identify entirely with the mores,
norms, and values of their family; it is only after prolonged exposure to other people outside the home
that a child will begin to question his or her upbringing and perhaps modify his or her belief system. A
fully individualized person is able to maintain a coherent personality without renouncing membership in
a family with which he or she may have some disagreement.
Agrarian societies are more likely to live with their extended families. - Answers An extended family is
comprised of more than one adult couple. For instance, it might include a man and a woman, their
children, and their grandchildren. Agrarian societies in which people tend the same land for their entire
lives are more conducive to the maintenance of the extended family. This is in part because it is more
difficult for a large group to move around together. In modern, industrial, urban, and nomadic societies,
it is more common for people to be grouped together in nuclear families (one adult couple and their
children)
Financial Stability is NOT necessary for a person to commit emotionally to a marriage. - Answers Despite
money being a main issue for divorce, it is more important for partners to have good self-esteem,
empathy, a feeling of permanence in the relationship, and strong personal identities. Solid marriages
weather the inevitable hard times with a mixture of humor, empathy, and habit. The idea of empathy is
particularly important in marriage because it implies that each partner may not fully understand the
other. Nevertheless, a loving spouse with try to help whenever possible.
Having a child between the ages of 2 and 4 has little to no effect on job satisfaction. - Answers Research
suggests that parents often feel some strain as they occupy multiple roles, but this is offset by the
enjoyment they derive from their work. Having a newborn, on the other hand, has a noticeably
damaging effect on job satisfaction. The demands of caring for a newborn, as well as the desire to spend
as much time as possible with this new child, make it unpleasant to be away from home for any reason.
Flexible scheduling, high wages, and intellectual challenge are all directly correlated with job
satisfaction.
Accepting that the marriage is over is the first step a person should take after divorce. - Answers
Psychologists estimate that it takes most people at least two years to accept divorce entirely. Until this is
reached, the divorcee should not initiate a new relationship. The best way to complete the process of
acceptance is to establish an individual identity. This may include developing a balance between being
single and being a parent. It is appropriate to plan for the future, but people should be aware that it is
impossible to predict what they will want once they have fully processed the finality of the divorce.
Sibling rivalry is most pronounced in same-sex siblings within three years of age. - Answers In the first
eight to ten years of life, siblings tend to alternate between cooperation and competition. As they grow
older, they will often spend little time together for a few years, but during adolescence will gradually
develop empathy for one another. Most research suggests that adult relationships between siblings
,simply exaggerate the tone of the relationship of the youth; that is, good relationships get better and
bad relationships get worse.
Married women typically earn a lower wage than single women. - Answers This is an exception to the
general trend, which is that married people are healthier, wealthier, and more content than their single
counterparts. Married men are less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, and less likely to become
depressed. Married women are healthier and more likely to report satisfaction with their home lives.
One reason why married women may earn less money is that they are more likely to be raising children,
and therefore less focused on professional development. Despite reports about the decline of marriage,
an overwhelming majority of Americans will marry at least once during their lives.
Accepting a stepparent is hardest for adolescent girls. - Answers The bond between a stepparent,
particularly a stepfather, and an adolescent girl takes the longest to form. One possible reason for this
phenomenon is that stepfathers tend to be less engaged with stepdaughters than with stepsons. The
effect of remarriage on children is much the same as divorce because it involves a fundamental
restructuring of the family concept. Nevertheless, stepparents who work to engage with their
stepchildren can develop positive relationships over time.
Both the content and the style of family communication are important. - Answers The members of a
family should work on communicating positively. The decisions made by families tend to reinforce the
status quo in the interest of conformity and conflict avoidance. For reasons both genetic and
environmental, the members of families are likely to struggle with the same sorts of problems in life.
Despite a general tendency toward stability and consistency, families inevitably change in response to
the aging of each member and to pressures from the environment. Finally, it is a central tenet of family
science that it is impossible to understand a family member without understanding the family as a
whole.
According to John Gottman, humor is the best response to criticism by a spouse. - Answers When the
criticized partner responds to criticism by deflecting or soothing the other person, tempers are quelled
and the partnership remains strong. Gottman's research suggests that there is a classic pattern of
degenerating communication in an unsuccessful relationship. The pattern begins with criticism that is
not directed at a certain behavior, but at the other person as a whole. In other words, the criticism of
unsuccessful couples tends to lean toward character assassination. Eventually, these negative
interactions lead to contempt, in which one partner openly disparages and disrespects the other. The
inevitable response to contempt is defensiveness, followed by stonewalling or a total lack of
communication. When couples stop communicating, the relationship is not likely to endure.
The greatest amount of variation between people of the same age is found during early adolescence. -
Answers The onset of puberty may occur at any time over the span of five years, though it typically
occurs earlier in females than in males. The changes brought on by puberty are monumental and can
cause rapid changes in personality, physical development, and emotional maturity. Teachers need to be
aware of these changes, particularly when working with middle-school children. Family and consumer
,science teachers may need to act as liaisons between parents and their children, as family relationships
can become strained during early adolescence.
When two children have a dispute and agree to settle it according to their mother's opinion, they are
engaging in arbitration. - Answers In arbitration, two conflicting parties agree to rely on the advice of a
supposedly impartial third party. Sometimes, the parties will also establish guidelines for the way a
decision is to be reached. In parenting, it can be difficult to settle a dispute with arbitration, since
children are unlikely to honor a decision that goes against their interest. Conciliation is a method of
settling disputes in which the conflicting parties are simply asked to meet and converse, with the idea
that a resolution will naturally occur as a result of this meeting. In mediation, the conflicting parties
decide to enlist the aid of an impartial third party as they attempt to settle their differences. The parties
in mediation do not agree to follow the advice of the third party. In negotiation, two parties try to agree
on terms that are acceptable to both. Negotiation in family life is a bit like compromise. A restorative
justice system is where the person who has been wronged gets some kind of compensation from the
wrongdoer. When the parents force one sibling to apologize to the other, they are essentially using
restorative justice.
In general, when a mother works, her children have more self-esteem. - Answers There is no one reason
for this phenomenon, although one can speculate that girls might be inspired by the positive example of
a successful working mother. The daughters of working mothers tend to be more independent, and they
are likely to have a more egalitarian view of gender relations. When the sons of working mothers are
unsupervised, their performance in school tends to decline. It is important for both parents to have a
positive attitude about maternal employment, and it is especially important for husbands to support
their wives in ways that can be perceived positively by children.
During times of conflict, family members will take sides to consolidate power. - Answers Although this
process is natural, it can become problematic if the groups last for too long or create a permanent
imbalance of power. The idea that family life is a series of actions and reactions is an assumption of
Milan systematic family therapy. This approach to family therapy emphasizes patterns of behavior that
lock family members into their roles, therefore inhibiting their personal growth. Behavioral family
therapists assume that bad behavior persists when it is reinforced. These therapists strive to show
family members how they may be inadvertently rewarding the very behavior they seek to discourage.
Object relations family therapists assume that ill will in a family is often a result of negative projection. In
other words, the members of a family may attribute their own negative characteristics to their family
members.
One drawback of inpatient treatment for alcoholism is that it is expensive. - Answers Inpatient programs
are not often covered by health insurance, forcing the family to pay out of pocket. The efficacy of these
programs is well established, estimating 70% of participants to stay sober for at least five years. Many of
these programs include the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step model. Patients cannot drink while enrolled
since they are on the property. The inpatient programs require the personal commitment of the patient.
, According to Piaget's model, the ability to imagine the mental lives of others emerges during the
preoperational stage. - Answers The preoperational stage is the second of the four stages and occurs
between 2 and 7 years old. This ability is called sympathy. The first stage in the Piaget model is
sensorimotor, which lasts from birth until about age 2. During this time, the sense organs become
activated, and the child learns about object permanence. In the third stage, known as concrete
operational, the child improves his or her cognition and realizes that objects with different shapes may
have the same volume. This stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 12. In the formal operational stage,
the capacity for abstract thought is developed. When this stage occurs (and it does not for every
person), it typically occurs after age 12.
Role strain is exemplified by a new teacher who struggles to maintain authority in the classroom. -
Answers Role strain is any hardship a person encounters while trying to fulfill the socially accepted
requirements of a role. Individuals are almost never a perfect fit for any role they attempt to inhabit, so
role strain is inevitable. A public speaker who cultivates his or her expertise is displaying role
performance, or the conscious fulfillment of a social role's characteristics. A person whose parents die
goes through the role exit process, because he or she no longer is in the role of a son or daughter. A
child who imagines what it would be like to be a police office is demonstration role taking, in which a
person imagines what it would be like to fill a certain social role. A substitute teacher who waits tables
on the weekend exemplifies the idea of the role set, or the different roles that a single person can
inhabit at a given point in his or her life.
An eight year-old with the mental age of a ten year-old is likely to have an IQ of 125. - Answers IQ is
measured by dividing mental age by actual age and then multiplying by 100. Mental age is defined as the
average amount of knowledge held by a person at a given age. IQ is seen as an arbitrary figure and
somewhat unreliable as an indicator of intellectual development. Many critics feel that it ignores
intuitive, spatial, and creative abilities. The average IQ should be 100.
A student whose interest level and performance have steadily declined admits to his teacher that he is
depressed, but is not yet willing to do anything to remedy this problem. He is in the contemplation stage
of the transtheoretical model of change. - Answers In this stage, a person recognizes the need for a
change but is not yet prepared to take action. This is the second of six stages. IN the first stage,
precontemplation, the person does not yet recognize that he or she has a problem. In the third stage,
preparation/commitment, the persona determines that a change is necessary and begins to collect
information about solutions. The fourth stage is action, when the person begins to change his or her
behavior. In the fifth stage, maintenance, the person notes the benefits of the new behavior and strives
to avoid falling back into bad habits. IN the sixth and final stage, termination, the person has made the
new behavior habitual and is very unlikely to backslide.
Starting at about nine months, an infant will begin nonsensically imitating adult speech, or echolalia. -
Answers Most children begin exhibiting echolalia at about nine months of age. This is one of the steps in
language acquisition. There are six such stages: crying, cooing, babbling, echolalia, holophrastic speech,
and telegraphic speech. Over the first few months of life, an infant will develop different cries to express
different emotions. After six or eight weeks, the infant will begin to display a vowel-intensive warbling
