Experiencing the lifespan 5th edition by belsky test bank
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1. List three normative and three non-normative influences in your life.
2. Describe (and speculate) on the ways an 80-year-old and a 20-year-old might view the
Great Recession and Obama's presidency.
3. Joey and Jack are born on the same day in the same hospital. The socioeconomic status
of Joey's family is higher than average. Jack comes from a poverty-level family. What
differences between Joe and Jack might you predict as they travel through life?
4. Explain how you might teach table manners to a 4-year-old, using operant conditioning.
5. Brandi, a college sophomore, seeks help from the counseling center for her extreme
shyness and is offered a choice of treatments. She can have sessions with a behavioral
therapist, work with a psychoanalyst, or get therapy from a person who follows the
developmental systems perspective. Explain in a sentence how each treatment would
differ from the others.
6. Dr. Ragan, a behaviorist, is the new director of an organization that prepares people to
return to college after they have dropped out. Dr. Ragan's mission is to design a program
to assist clients in their efforts to successfully reenter school. Using the principles of
traditional behaviorism, modeling, and self-efficacy, spell out some strategies that Dr.
Regan might employ.
7. Spell out the main similarity and difference between John Bowlby's attachment theory
and traditional psychoanalytic theory.
8. As a psychologist, you want to determine the heritability (or genetic contribution) to
political attitudes. Describe how you would design your study. What findings would
suggest that political attitudes are highly genetic?
9. Give an example each of evocative and active genetic/environment forces and how they
have shaped the person you are. Then give an example of either an optimum or poor
person-environment fit this semester in your life.
10. Compare and contrast Erikson and Freud's ideas.
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11. Explain Piaget's concepts of assimilation and accommodation and give a concrete
example of those processes.
12. You are a developmentalist studying the relationship between parenting practices and
children's sociability. Your plan is to watch each family's interactions at home, and then
observe each child's relationships with peers at school. Name your type of measurement
and spell out its advantage and disadvantages.
13. Melissa and Ramon want to conduct a study to determine if exercise promotes health.
Melissa plans to test this question using a correlational approach, while Ramon decides
to conduct an experiment. Describe what each student's research might look like and
discuss the respective pluses and minuses of each plan.
14. After conducting a cross-sectional study, you find that older workers are more satisfied
with their jobs than are younger workers. How should you interpret this finding?
15. List the pluses and minuses of conducting longitudinal research.
16. Take a specific concept, term, or theory in this chapter and discuss how it applies to
your own life.
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, Experiencing the lifespan 5th edition by belsky test bank
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Answer Key
1. Here, while answers will vary, normative influences would center on predictable
culturally and biologically shared events, such as going to kindergarten, reaching
puberty, having children, dying, and so forth. In cataloguing non-normative influences,
students should refer to any major unexpected event in their lives.
2. Students' answers could legitimately vary, but I'd suspect for the 80-year-old, this
election of our first Black president might be an incredible surprise; not so for today's
emerging adults. In contrast, the opposite might be true of the financial crisis: it is likely
to be a shock for emerging adults, but all too familiar for people who were born during
the Great Depression of the l930s.
3. At every age, Joey might be healthier; Joey also may end up more well-educated; more
likely to be married, and so forth.
4. Answers will center on reinforcing the child for sitting still, using a fork, saying “please
pass the peas,” etc.; and ignoring the child when he shows inappropriate behavior. You
can also use time out when the child misbehaves.
5. The behaviorist might focus on getting Brandi in positively reinforcing social situations
to try to extinguish her shyness. The psychoanalyst would encourage Brandi to talk
about her early life experiences and get insight into the unconscious roots of her
shyness. A developmental systems proponent would attack the problem on several fronts
—trying out medications and different types of therapy, exploring how everything from
cultural and family values to genetic predispositions might be causing Brandi's
symptoms.
6. From traditional behaviorism—Reinforce clients step by step for making applications,
going for interviews, either individually or as a group. From modeling—specifically
bring in people who have successfully returned to college years after they dropped out,
to talk to clients; have clients model each other in filling out applications, and so forth,
in group sessions. Self-efficacy interventions—continually bring home the message
“you can succeed” directly and also via using the other techniques mentioned
previously.
7. Bowlby agreed with the Freudians that our early experiences with caregivers shape our
mental health; but he also believed in a nature explanation of behavior, namely, that the
attachment response is biologically built in to promote species survival.
8. Here you could conduct a twin study, soliciting a large sample of identical and fraternal
twins and comparing the similarity of “identicals” attitudes on a test of political attitudes
with those of “fraternals.” If the identical twins had much more similar views than the
fraternal twins, your conclusion would be that political attitudes are highly genetically
determined. Alternatively, you could select adopted children and compare their political
views with their biological and adoptive parents' views. If you found a high correlation
between adoptees' attitudes and their birth parents views and virtually no similarity
between adoptees' attitudes and their adoptive parents' views, you could make the same
conclusion.
9. Answers will vary. Evocative influences, however, will relate to how personality traits—
shyness, happiness, kindness, and so forth, naturally affect how other people relate to
that student. In describing active forces, students should talk about talents and interests
that propelled them to actively select environments where they learned to improve at
Page 3
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, Experiencing the lifespan 5th edition by belsky test bank
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that skill, such as. “I was good at sports, so I've been playing soccer since the age of 3.”
Person/environment fit = “I'm terrible at math, so when I had to take statistics, I
failed. . . . I really 'get' psychology so I'm getting all A's in my psych classes . . . I'm not
a morning person, so why did I take all 8 AM classes?”
10. Freud focused on the crucial importance of early childhood alone. Freud believed that
our main life mission is to satisfy sexual feelings (libido) and that during early
childhood we progress from the oral to the anal to the phallic stage. Erikson believed we
develop throughout life and that our main life mission is to become an independent
person and relate to others. His stages of development are lifelong and involve how well
we have resolved each of eight “psychosocial tasks” linked to age.
11. Piaget believed that that all learning occurs by fitting new information to what we know
—assimilation—and, in the process, expanding what we know or growing mentally. So
assimilation and accommodation ALWAYS take place together. For example, a baby can
only suck, so he assimilates all objects, to what he knows—sucking—and in the process
learns about the world of objects.
12. Measurement approach = naturalistic observation
Advantage: gives a concrete record of the behavior
Disadvantage: very time-intensive; parents in particular may not reveal their true
childrearing because they will be on good behavior while you are watching.
13. Melissa would select a sample of adults who naturally vary in their exercise practices
and relate these variations to scores on tests of health. On the plus side, this study would
be easy to carry out and not pose ethical issues. On the minus side, this research design
cannot prove that exercise leads to better health. Ramon would randomly assign people
to either regularly exercise or not exercise, and then compare the health of the respective
groups at a later date. On the plus side, Ramon's intervention could really prove that
exercising promotes health. On the minus side, this study would have serious practical
problems and may be unethical.
14. You can conclude that yes, older COHORTS may be happier in their jobs, but that
says nothing about whether job satisfaction really rises with age.
15. Minuses: Longitudinal studies are incredibly expensive, take years, and involve the
hassle of getting people to return. Subject attrition is nonrandom. Therefore, particularly
with adults, these studies only sample how “elite” people develop.
Pluses: This is the only research method that can chart real age changes, and, more
important, reveal individual patterns of development, and how earlier life experiences
relate to later behavior.
16. There are multiple possibilities.
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1. List three normative and three non-normative influences in your life.
2. Describe (and speculate) on the ways an 80-year-old and a 20-year-old might view the
Great Recession and Obama's presidency.
3. Joey and Jack are born on the same day in the same hospital. The socioeconomic status
of Joey's family is higher than average. Jack comes from a poverty-level family. What
differences between Joe and Jack might you predict as they travel through life?
4. Explain how you might teach table manners to a 4-year-old, using operant conditioning.
5. Brandi, a college sophomore, seeks help from the counseling center for her extreme
shyness and is offered a choice of treatments. She can have sessions with a behavioral
therapist, work with a psychoanalyst, or get therapy from a person who follows the
developmental systems perspective. Explain in a sentence how each treatment would
differ from the others.
6. Dr. Ragan, a behaviorist, is the new director of an organization that prepares people to
return to college after they have dropped out. Dr. Ragan's mission is to design a program
to assist clients in their efforts to successfully reenter school. Using the principles of
traditional behaviorism, modeling, and self-efficacy, spell out some strategies that Dr.
Regan might employ.
7. Spell out the main similarity and difference between John Bowlby's attachment theory
and traditional psychoanalytic theory.
8. As a psychologist, you want to determine the heritability (or genetic contribution) to
political attitudes. Describe how you would design your study. What findings would
suggest that political attitudes are highly genetic?
9. Give an example each of evocative and active genetic/environment forces and how they
have shaped the person you are. Then give an example of either an optimum or poor
person-environment fit this semester in your life.
10. Compare and contrast Erikson and Freud's ideas.
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11. Explain Piaget's concepts of assimilation and accommodation and give a concrete
example of those processes.
12. You are a developmentalist studying the relationship between parenting practices and
children's sociability. Your plan is to watch each family's interactions at home, and then
observe each child's relationships with peers at school. Name your type of measurement
and spell out its advantage and disadvantages.
13. Melissa and Ramon want to conduct a study to determine if exercise promotes health.
Melissa plans to test this question using a correlational approach, while Ramon decides
to conduct an experiment. Describe what each student's research might look like and
discuss the respective pluses and minuses of each plan.
14. After conducting a cross-sectional study, you find that older workers are more satisfied
with their jobs than are younger workers. How should you interpret this finding?
15. List the pluses and minuses of conducting longitudinal research.
16. Take a specific concept, term, or theory in this chapter and discuss how it applies to
your own life.
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, Experiencing the lifespan 5th edition by belsky test bank
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Answer Key
1. Here, while answers will vary, normative influences would center on predictable
culturally and biologically shared events, such as going to kindergarten, reaching
puberty, having children, dying, and so forth. In cataloguing non-normative influences,
students should refer to any major unexpected event in their lives.
2. Students' answers could legitimately vary, but I'd suspect for the 80-year-old, this
election of our first Black president might be an incredible surprise; not so for today's
emerging adults. In contrast, the opposite might be true of the financial crisis: it is likely
to be a shock for emerging adults, but all too familiar for people who were born during
the Great Depression of the l930s.
3. At every age, Joey might be healthier; Joey also may end up more well-educated; more
likely to be married, and so forth.
4. Answers will center on reinforcing the child for sitting still, using a fork, saying “please
pass the peas,” etc.; and ignoring the child when he shows inappropriate behavior. You
can also use time out when the child misbehaves.
5. The behaviorist might focus on getting Brandi in positively reinforcing social situations
to try to extinguish her shyness. The psychoanalyst would encourage Brandi to talk
about her early life experiences and get insight into the unconscious roots of her
shyness. A developmental systems proponent would attack the problem on several fronts
—trying out medications and different types of therapy, exploring how everything from
cultural and family values to genetic predispositions might be causing Brandi's
symptoms.
6. From traditional behaviorism—Reinforce clients step by step for making applications,
going for interviews, either individually or as a group. From modeling—specifically
bring in people who have successfully returned to college years after they dropped out,
to talk to clients; have clients model each other in filling out applications, and so forth,
in group sessions. Self-efficacy interventions—continually bring home the message
“you can succeed” directly and also via using the other techniques mentioned
previously.
7. Bowlby agreed with the Freudians that our early experiences with caregivers shape our
mental health; but he also believed in a nature explanation of behavior, namely, that the
attachment response is biologically built in to promote species survival.
8. Here you could conduct a twin study, soliciting a large sample of identical and fraternal
twins and comparing the similarity of “identicals” attitudes on a test of political attitudes
with those of “fraternals.” If the identical twins had much more similar views than the
fraternal twins, your conclusion would be that political attitudes are highly genetically
determined. Alternatively, you could select adopted children and compare their political
views with their biological and adoptive parents' views. If you found a high correlation
between adoptees' attitudes and their birth parents views and virtually no similarity
between adoptees' attitudes and their adoptive parents' views, you could make the same
conclusion.
9. Answers will vary. Evocative influences, however, will relate to how personality traits—
shyness, happiness, kindness, and so forth, naturally affect how other people relate to
that student. In describing active forces, students should talk about talents and interests
that propelled them to actively select environments where they learned to improve at
Page 3
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Page 3
, Experiencing the lifespan 5th edition by belsky test bank
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that skill, such as. “I was good at sports, so I've been playing soccer since the age of 3.”
Person/environment fit = “I'm terrible at math, so when I had to take statistics, I
failed. . . . I really 'get' psychology so I'm getting all A's in my psych classes . . . I'm not
a morning person, so why did I take all 8 AM classes?”
10. Freud focused on the crucial importance of early childhood alone. Freud believed that
our main life mission is to satisfy sexual feelings (libido) and that during early
childhood we progress from the oral to the anal to the phallic stage. Erikson believed we
develop throughout life and that our main life mission is to become an independent
person and relate to others. His stages of development are lifelong and involve how well
we have resolved each of eight “psychosocial tasks” linked to age.
11. Piaget believed that that all learning occurs by fitting new information to what we know
—assimilation—and, in the process, expanding what we know or growing mentally. So
assimilation and accommodation ALWAYS take place together. For example, a baby can
only suck, so he assimilates all objects, to what he knows—sucking—and in the process
learns about the world of objects.
12. Measurement approach = naturalistic observation
Advantage: gives a concrete record of the behavior
Disadvantage: very time-intensive; parents in particular may not reveal their true
childrearing because they will be on good behavior while you are watching.
13. Melissa would select a sample of adults who naturally vary in their exercise practices
and relate these variations to scores on tests of health. On the plus side, this study would
be easy to carry out and not pose ethical issues. On the minus side, this research design
cannot prove that exercise leads to better health. Ramon would randomly assign people
to either regularly exercise or not exercise, and then compare the health of the respective
groups at a later date. On the plus side, Ramon's intervention could really prove that
exercising promotes health. On the minus side, this study would have serious practical
problems and may be unethical.
14. You can conclude that yes, older COHORTS may be happier in their jobs, but that
says nothing about whether job satisfaction really rises with age.
15. Minuses: Longitudinal studies are incredibly expensive, take years, and involve the
hassle of getting people to return. Subject attrition is nonrandom. Therefore, particularly
with adults, these studies only sample how “elite” people develop.
Pluses: This is the only research method that can chart real age changes, and, more
important, reveal individual patterns of development, and how earlier life experiences
relate to later behavior.
16. There are multiple possibilities.
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