CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION
8TH EDITION
CHAPTER NO. 01: INTRODUCTION TO CHILD DEVELOPMENT
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS ANSWERS
1. Which one of the following best illustrates physical development as a developmental
domain?
a. Mark can watch a basketball player and critique his movements.
b. Tammy can hold and use a pencil more easily than she could last year.
c. Timothy is increasingly able to understand other people’s points of view.
d. Thomas learns how to count by practicing counting with a variety of household
objects.
Answer: b
2. Which one of the following best illustrates social-emotional development as a
developmental domain?
a. Pamela has decided to get a fashionable new haircut.
b. Annika cries in pain when she steps on a sharp pebble.
c. Carlos is learning how to play cooperatively with his preschool classmates.
d. Thomas used to think the earth was flat, but now he knows it’s round.
Answer: c
3. Many psychologists are interested in the ways in which nature and nurture interact to
influence development. Which one of the following examples illustrates the influence
of nature?
a. Fourteen-year-old Deborah is starting to grow pubic hair, and she’s just had her
first menstrual period.
b. Two-year-old Sophia is learning to speak two languages because her parents
speak Spanish at home but everyone at her preschool speaks English.
, c. Ten-year-old Bart loves being outdoors. As far back as he can remember, his
family has gone camping almost every weekend during the summer months.
d. Eight-year-old Yannie goes to his Aunt Jane’s house after school every day. As
he watches television, Jane gives him as much candy and other sweets as he
wants, and so he is becoming increasingly overweight.
Answer: a
4. Which one of the following statements reflects what developmentalists mean by the
term maturation?
a. Changes related specifically to children’s physical development
b. Changes related specifically to children’s emotional development
c. Changes that reflect increasingly appropriate social behavior
d. Developmental changes that are controlled largely by heredity
Answer: d
5. Many developmental theorists are interested in the ways in which nature and nurture
each influence development. In this context, the term nurture refers to:
a. A child’s characteristics at birth
b. Genetically controlled maturational changes
c. Environmental conditions that influence development.
d. The loving bonds that exist between children and their parents
Answer: c
6. Leanna believes that children have a natural curiosity that makes them eager to
learn. LeRoy believes that children’s motivation to learn is fostered by good nutrition,
positive relationships with other people, and opportunities to explore a complex
environment. This difference in viewpoints best reflects the issue of:
a. Nature and nurture
b. Universality and diversity
c. Progression and regression
, d. Quantitative and qualitative change
Answer: a
7. Three of the following statements are true regarding the interplay between heredity
and environment in child development. Which statement is false?
a. Certain environmental experiences may have a greater impact at some ages
than at others.
b. Inherited predispositions have a large influence in some aspects of development,
whereas environment is more influential in other aspects.
c. Children’s inherited tendencies may make them more or less susceptible to
particular environmental conditions.
d. Heredity is more influential when children live in extremely impoverished
circumstances than when they have good nutrition and other environmental
supports.
Answer: d
8. A sensitive period in development can best be described as:
a. An approach to teaching or parenting that takes a child’s developmental level into
account
b. A stage of development in which children display unpredictable (and often
inappropriate) emotional responses
c. An age range during which environmental conditions are most likely to have an
effect on a particular aspect of a child’s development
d. A period during children’s cognitive development in which they are highly
distractible and so are frequently off task in the classroom
Answer: c
9. In her book Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day “Wild Child,” Susan
Curtiss (1977) described a girl (whom Curtiss called “Genie” to protect her privacy)
who had been raised with little exposure to language. Convinced that his daughter
was retarded and unmanageable, Genie’s father kept her almost constantly confined
to a small room in the house. Genie’s life was one of physical abuse, neglect, and
, isolation from the outside world. The family rarely spoke to her, and she had no
access to either television or radio. Finally, when Genie was 13, she, her mother,
and an older brother left the home that Genie’s father had made so unbearable.
Shortly after, social services authorities became aware of Genie’s situation and
hospitalized her for severe malnutrition. At the time, Genie had only two words in her
speaking vocabulary and understood fewer than 20 words. In more nurturing care
over the next 41/2 years, Genie gradually learned many more words, but she never
did acquire the grammar of a typical 4- or 5-year-old. Which one of the following
concepts does this situation best illustrate?
a. Universality
b. A sensitive period
c. The role of maturation
d. The role of temperament
Answer: b
10. Aaron has always had an irritable temperament. As a baby, he often cried and was
difficult to soothe. As a toddler, he threw temper tantrums if he didn’t immediately get
something he wanted. As a preschooler, he was moody and unpredictable. He’s
often so ornery that other people—even family members—simply don’t want to be
around him very much. Which one of the following principles best describes this
situation?
a. Children’s natural tendencies affect their environment.
b. The relative effects of heredity and environment vary for different developmental
domains.
c. Inherited tendencies make children more or less responsive to particular
environmental influences.
d. For some aspects of development, when certain environmental conditions are
present is just as important as whether they are present.
Answer: a