PSYC1003 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY EXAMINATION SCRIPT
2025/2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS GUARANTEE A+
✔✔pre-operational stage - ✔✔2nd stage Piaget's theory, the stage from about 2 to 6 or
7 years of age, during which a child learns to use language but does not yet
comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
✔✔concrete operational stage - ✔✔3rd stage Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age, during which children gain the mental
operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
✔✔formal operational stage - ✔✔4th stage Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development (age 13+) during which people begin to think logically about abstract
concepts
✔✔Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development - ✔✔proposed children understand the
world based on social interactions within their culture and the sign systems that
represent ideas.
✔✔zone of proximal development - ✔✔(Vygotsky) phase of learning during which
children can benefit from instruction
✔✔milestones in motor development - ✔✔- Rolls over: 2.5 mo
- Sits unassisted: 5.5 mo
- Crawls: 7 mo
- Pulls to stand: 7.5 mo
- Walks w/ support: 9 mo
- Stands alone: 11.5 mo
- Walks alone: 12 mo
- Walks up steps: 17 mo
✔✔infant sensory abilities - ✔✔sight - poor clarity
touch - temperature change & pain?
sound - can discriminate mum's voice
taste - like sweet, evidence that they can't taste much saltiness
smell - can smell mum's milk
✔✔Spitz (1965) - ✔✔reactive attachment disorder
evidence that lack of social stimulation is absolutely detrimental to kids
37% of infants in orphanage died within short period and almost all had delayed
development
✔✔"strange situation" test - ✔✔baby plays while mum is in room
stranger enters
mum leaves
, mum comes back
mum leaves
stranger leaves
stranger comes back
mum comes back
reactions:
- secure attachment
- anxious-resistant attachment
- anxious-avoidant attachment
✔✔secure attachment - ✔✔a relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and
confidence from the presence of caregiver
✔✔anxious-resistant attachment - ✔✔an insecure attachment between infant and
caregiver, characterised by distress at separation and anger at reunion
✔✔anxious-avoidant attachment - ✔✔an insecure attachment between infant and
caregiver, characterised by indifference on the part of the infant toward the caregiver
✔✔active child - ✔✔children contribute to their own development
✔✔egocentrism - ✔✔the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
✔✔sensorimotor substages - ✔✔1. Birth - 1 mo. Infants modify the reflexes with which
they are born to make them more adaptive
2. 1-4 mo. Organise separate reflexes into larger behaviours - grasping, mouthing
3. 4-8 mo. Increased interest in world, lack object permanence
4. 8-12 mo. Search for hidden objects, make A-not-B error
5.12-18 mo. Actively explore objects
6. 18-24 mo. Form enduring mental representations, use symbols. deferred imitation
✔✔imitation - ✔✔copying the behaviour of another person even after time has passed
✔✔object permanence - ✔✔the awareness that things continue to exist even when not
perceived
✔✔simple hiding place problem - ✔✔0-5 months
toy shown to baby and then covered
no active search
mastered between 6 - 9 months
✔✔changed hiding place - ✔✔8-12 months
toy place under towel A and baby can retrieve it
toy hidden under B this time in view of baby but baby will reach for A
mastered between 10 - 12 months
2025/2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS GUARANTEE A+
✔✔pre-operational stage - ✔✔2nd stage Piaget's theory, the stage from about 2 to 6 or
7 years of age, during which a child learns to use language but does not yet
comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
✔✔concrete operational stage - ✔✔3rd stage Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age, during which children gain the mental
operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
✔✔formal operational stage - ✔✔4th stage Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive
development (age 13+) during which people begin to think logically about abstract
concepts
✔✔Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development - ✔✔proposed children understand the
world based on social interactions within their culture and the sign systems that
represent ideas.
✔✔zone of proximal development - ✔✔(Vygotsky) phase of learning during which
children can benefit from instruction
✔✔milestones in motor development - ✔✔- Rolls over: 2.5 mo
- Sits unassisted: 5.5 mo
- Crawls: 7 mo
- Pulls to stand: 7.5 mo
- Walks w/ support: 9 mo
- Stands alone: 11.5 mo
- Walks alone: 12 mo
- Walks up steps: 17 mo
✔✔infant sensory abilities - ✔✔sight - poor clarity
touch - temperature change & pain?
sound - can discriminate mum's voice
taste - like sweet, evidence that they can't taste much saltiness
smell - can smell mum's milk
✔✔Spitz (1965) - ✔✔reactive attachment disorder
evidence that lack of social stimulation is absolutely detrimental to kids
37% of infants in orphanage died within short period and almost all had delayed
development
✔✔"strange situation" test - ✔✔baby plays while mum is in room
stranger enters
mum leaves
, mum comes back
mum leaves
stranger leaves
stranger comes back
mum comes back
reactions:
- secure attachment
- anxious-resistant attachment
- anxious-avoidant attachment
✔✔secure attachment - ✔✔a relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and
confidence from the presence of caregiver
✔✔anxious-resistant attachment - ✔✔an insecure attachment between infant and
caregiver, characterised by distress at separation and anger at reunion
✔✔anxious-avoidant attachment - ✔✔an insecure attachment between infant and
caregiver, characterised by indifference on the part of the infant toward the caregiver
✔✔active child - ✔✔children contribute to their own development
✔✔egocentrism - ✔✔the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
✔✔sensorimotor substages - ✔✔1. Birth - 1 mo. Infants modify the reflexes with which
they are born to make them more adaptive
2. 1-4 mo. Organise separate reflexes into larger behaviours - grasping, mouthing
3. 4-8 mo. Increased interest in world, lack object permanence
4. 8-12 mo. Search for hidden objects, make A-not-B error
5.12-18 mo. Actively explore objects
6. 18-24 mo. Form enduring mental representations, use symbols. deferred imitation
✔✔imitation - ✔✔copying the behaviour of another person even after time has passed
✔✔object permanence - ✔✔the awareness that things continue to exist even when not
perceived
✔✔simple hiding place problem - ✔✔0-5 months
toy shown to baby and then covered
no active search
mastered between 6 - 9 months
✔✔changed hiding place - ✔✔8-12 months
toy place under towel A and baby can retrieve it
toy hidden under B this time in view of baby but baby will reach for A
mastered between 10 - 12 months
