EPPP Developmental Psychology Study
Guide | Comprehensive Review |
2026/2027
B.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development identifies four developmental stages,
roughly correlated with specific age ranges. As children progress through these
stages, their methods of assimilating new information, accommodating existing
cognitive structures to new information, and mentally representing information in
general become more sophisticated. The third stage, concrete operational,
develops around the ages of 7-11. During this phase, children develop the ability
to employ a number of logical operations they use to solve concrete (as opposed
to abstract) problems. One of these operations, called reversibility, involves the
ability to imagine that objects can be changed and then restored to their original
state. The child described by the question is using reversibility. Regarding the
other choices, conservation is the ability to understand that quantity or
fundamental properties of an object are not necess - correct answer-According to
Piaget's theory of cognitive development, a child who can imagine that clay
broken up into many pieces can be reassembled into the original clay ball is
displaying:
A. conservation.
B. reversibility.
C. multiple classification.
D. hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
,A.
Stranger anxiety can first appear as early as 6 months of age, but it usually begins
in infants between 8 and 10 months of age, peaks at about 18 months of age, and
then gradually declines during the end of the second year. - correct answer-
Symptoms of anxiety in response to the presence of unfamiliar adults usually
begins at:
A. 9 months
B. 12 months
C. 18 months
D. 24 months
A.
Kohlberg believed that the three levels of moral reasoning reflect different levels
of cognitive development, which encompasses changes in social perspective-
taking. At the conventional level, the person views an individual as a member of
society and bases his/her moral judgments on that conceptualization - correct
answer-Kohlberg's theory of moral development is based on the assumption that
progress through his hypothesized stages is related to:
A. changes in social perspective.
B. changes in self-concept.
C. socioemotional development.
D. identity development.
D.
Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of gender concept development,
grounded in Piagetian theory, asserts that children gradually progress through
three stages. Gender identity, usually gained by age three, is the ability to
,correctly label own gender and identify others as boys/men and girls/women.
Gender stability - knowledge, usually gained by age four years, that reflects an
understanding that one's gender remains the same throughout life. Gender
constancy: realization, around age 5, 6 or 7 years, that one's gender stays the
same even with alterations in appearance, behaviors, or desires - correct answer-
By the age of 6, which of the following are established?
A. gender identity and stability
B. gender identity and constancy
C. gender constancy and stability
D. gender constancy, identity and stability
C.
Cognitive flexibility involves the ability to simultaneously reason about or
conceptualize two or more abstract representations. Linguistic competence is
correlated with cognitive flexibility, and studies have demonstrated that bilingual
children tend to outperform monolingual children on tasks requiring such
flexibility. For example, in one study, bilingual children performed better on a task
that required them to sort cards on one dimension and then again on a different
dimension. The study suggested that this result was due to the bilingual children's
superior ability to inhibit attention to previous mental representations. Another
study showed that bilingual children were better able to switch between different
possible interpretations of ambiguous figures. - correct answer-Research on
bilingualism in children has suggested that:
A. bilingual children are more likely to display cognitive and learning difficulties
than monolingual children.
B. on the average, bilingual and monolingual children do not display any
differences in cognitive functioning.
C. bilingual children tend to display greater cognitive flexibility than their
monolingual counterparts.
, D. the cognitive functioning of bilingual children is related to the degree of
difference in the languages they know.
C.
There are a variety of approaches to the treatment of aggression in children; the
cognitive-behavioral approach is probably most common. In children who are
older or developmentally advanced enough to understand, cognitive approaches
tend to focus on helping the person accurately interpret external cues, so that he
or she does not respond inappropriately with aggression. In younger children, the
goal is often to identify the child's goals, the negative consequences of using
aggression to meet those goals, and alternatives to aggression. The other choices
are not as likely to be helpful: consistent discipline is good, but contrary to choice
A, overly harsh discipline can serve to increase the child's aggression.
Reinforcement for alternative behaviors is not a proven method of directly
addressing aggression. And the notion that aggression is something that can be
released through venting it on a safe target (or, b - correct answer-To reduce a
child's aggressive behavior, the best approach is to:
A. punish the aggression consistently and harshly.
B. use differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors.
C. identify the consequences of the behavior and alternatives to it.
D. have the child vent his or her aggressive feelings by hitting a pillow.
B.
Bronfenbrenner's ecological model identifies interacting environmental systems,
ranging from the most proximal to the most global, that impact development. The
microsystem includes relations between an individual and the immediate
environment, i.e., parents, siblings, caregivers, classmates, and teachers. The
mesosystem (c.) includes the connections between immediate settings, or aspects
of the microsystem, such as school and home. The exosystem (a.) involves social
settings that do not directly contain the developing individual (i.e., parental
Guide | Comprehensive Review |
2026/2027
B.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development identifies four developmental stages,
roughly correlated with specific age ranges. As children progress through these
stages, their methods of assimilating new information, accommodating existing
cognitive structures to new information, and mentally representing information in
general become more sophisticated. The third stage, concrete operational,
develops around the ages of 7-11. During this phase, children develop the ability
to employ a number of logical operations they use to solve concrete (as opposed
to abstract) problems. One of these operations, called reversibility, involves the
ability to imagine that objects can be changed and then restored to their original
state. The child described by the question is using reversibility. Regarding the
other choices, conservation is the ability to understand that quantity or
fundamental properties of an object are not necess - correct answer-According to
Piaget's theory of cognitive development, a child who can imagine that clay
broken up into many pieces can be reassembled into the original clay ball is
displaying:
A. conservation.
B. reversibility.
C. multiple classification.
D. hypothetico-deductive reasoning.
,A.
Stranger anxiety can first appear as early as 6 months of age, but it usually begins
in infants between 8 and 10 months of age, peaks at about 18 months of age, and
then gradually declines during the end of the second year. - correct answer-
Symptoms of anxiety in response to the presence of unfamiliar adults usually
begins at:
A. 9 months
B. 12 months
C. 18 months
D. 24 months
A.
Kohlberg believed that the three levels of moral reasoning reflect different levels
of cognitive development, which encompasses changes in social perspective-
taking. At the conventional level, the person views an individual as a member of
society and bases his/her moral judgments on that conceptualization - correct
answer-Kohlberg's theory of moral development is based on the assumption that
progress through his hypothesized stages is related to:
A. changes in social perspective.
B. changes in self-concept.
C. socioemotional development.
D. identity development.
D.
Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of gender concept development,
grounded in Piagetian theory, asserts that children gradually progress through
three stages. Gender identity, usually gained by age three, is the ability to
,correctly label own gender and identify others as boys/men and girls/women.
Gender stability - knowledge, usually gained by age four years, that reflects an
understanding that one's gender remains the same throughout life. Gender
constancy: realization, around age 5, 6 or 7 years, that one's gender stays the
same even with alterations in appearance, behaviors, or desires - correct answer-
By the age of 6, which of the following are established?
A. gender identity and stability
B. gender identity and constancy
C. gender constancy and stability
D. gender constancy, identity and stability
C.
Cognitive flexibility involves the ability to simultaneously reason about or
conceptualize two or more abstract representations. Linguistic competence is
correlated with cognitive flexibility, and studies have demonstrated that bilingual
children tend to outperform monolingual children on tasks requiring such
flexibility. For example, in one study, bilingual children performed better on a task
that required them to sort cards on one dimension and then again on a different
dimension. The study suggested that this result was due to the bilingual children's
superior ability to inhibit attention to previous mental representations. Another
study showed that bilingual children were better able to switch between different
possible interpretations of ambiguous figures. - correct answer-Research on
bilingualism in children has suggested that:
A. bilingual children are more likely to display cognitive and learning difficulties
than monolingual children.
B. on the average, bilingual and monolingual children do not display any
differences in cognitive functioning.
C. bilingual children tend to display greater cognitive flexibility than their
monolingual counterparts.
, D. the cognitive functioning of bilingual children is related to the degree of
difference in the languages they know.
C.
There are a variety of approaches to the treatment of aggression in children; the
cognitive-behavioral approach is probably most common. In children who are
older or developmentally advanced enough to understand, cognitive approaches
tend to focus on helping the person accurately interpret external cues, so that he
or she does not respond inappropriately with aggression. In younger children, the
goal is often to identify the child's goals, the negative consequences of using
aggression to meet those goals, and alternatives to aggression. The other choices
are not as likely to be helpful: consistent discipline is good, but contrary to choice
A, overly harsh discipline can serve to increase the child's aggression.
Reinforcement for alternative behaviors is not a proven method of directly
addressing aggression. And the notion that aggression is something that can be
released through venting it on a safe target (or, b - correct answer-To reduce a
child's aggressive behavior, the best approach is to:
A. punish the aggression consistently and harshly.
B. use differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors.
C. identify the consequences of the behavior and alternatives to it.
D. have the child vent his or her aggressive feelings by hitting a pillow.
B.
Bronfenbrenner's ecological model identifies interacting environmental systems,
ranging from the most proximal to the most global, that impact development. The
microsystem includes relations between an individual and the immediate
environment, i.e., parents, siblings, caregivers, classmates, and teachers. The
mesosystem (c.) includes the connections between immediate settings, or aspects
of the microsystem, such as school and home. The exosystem (a.) involves social
settings that do not directly contain the developing individual (i.e., parental
