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Child Development - A Thematic Approach
, Fifth Edition
Danuta Bukatko - College of the Holy Cross
Marvin W. Daehler - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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| | Concept/Application Questions
Chapter 2:
Studying Child Development
- Dr. Jones has developed a new test to measure intelligence. However, every
time he administers the test, the results are very different, even when the
same child takes the test. Dr. Jones's test lacks _______________
- validity.
- reliability.
- operational definitions.
- inter-rater reliability.
- Professor Torrez studies helping behavior in toddlers. She had two undergraduate
assistants independently analyze the same videotape of toddlers engaging
in play activity for the frequency of helping behavior. The results tabulated
by both students were very similar, suggesting that they achieved
- low inter-rater reliability.
- high inter-rater reliability.
- low inter-rater validity.
- high inter-rater validity.
- One disadvantage of naturalistic observations is that
- children may not always respond truthfully or accurately.
- children will not react to situations as they would in real life.
- cause-and-effect relationships are difficult to establish.
- they are worthwhile only for topics that have undergone intense research.
- Miguel would like to systematically compare the responses of children of
various ages to questions related to death and dying. Miguel should probably
use the ____________________ method to gather data.
- structured interview
- clinical
- experimental
- naturalistic observation
- An advantage of the clinical method of interviewing over the structured interview
is that with the clinical method, the interviewer can
- modify the questions in response to the child's responses to follow the child's train of thought.
- gain knowledge about what children know by asking them directly.
- gain information from many children at the same time.
- determine the reasons the children know what they know.
- When reviewing the extensive literature on the effects of moderate alcohol
consumption by pregnant mothers on the behavioral development of infants,
Harlene was frustrated to find that the results were inconsistent and in
conflict. Harlene should
- probably abandon this area of research.
- consider conducting a correlational study.
- consider conducting a meta-analysis.
- consider conducting an observational study.
- As part of her honor's thesis Adrienne examined the relationship between drinking and grades in
college students. She found that students who consumed the most alcohol had
the lowest grades. Adrienne found:
- a positive correlation.
- a negative correlation.
- zero correlation.
- causal correlation.
- One advantage of using the experimental research design to study development
is that
- the observations made are personal and subjective.
- the results of the research are always straightforward and unequivocal.
- cause-and-effect relationships among variables can be more easily identified.
- the design is usually exhaustive, examining every important aspect of development.
- Tonya believes that playing adventure video games can actually enhance problem-solving
abilities in seven-year-olds. To best test her hypothesis, Tonya should
- conduct a correlational study.
- conduct a naturalistic observation study.
- design and conduct an experiment.
- conduct structured interviews with seven-year-olds who play adventure video
games.
- Stephen believes he can toilet train toddlers at an earlier age by having
them view films of children successfully learning to use the toilet. To test
his idea, Stephen randomly assigns toddlers who are not yet toilet trained
to two groups. One group of toddlers views short films of young children who are praised for successfully
going to the "potty." The other group views short films of children playing, with no reference
to toilet training. Stephen then notes the number of toddlers who are successfully toilet trained by the end of the experiment. The independent variable in
this experiment is
- whether or not the toddlers are toilet trained by the end of the experiment.
- the type of film viewed by the toddlers.
- the random assignment of toddlers to groups.
- the number of toddlers in each group.
- An experiment investigates whether infants display different amounts of looking,
smiling, and vocalizing when they are shown video images of themselves, of
another infant, or of a puppet. The three different types of video images
shown to the infants comprise the
- baseline variable.
- experimental variable.
- independent variable.
- dependent variable.
- Since their birth sixteen years ago, Mark and Martin have participated in
a research study on twins and their development. They fill out a questionnaire
twice a year and are visited by a psychologist who gives them standardized
intelligence tests once a year. Mark and Martin have been participating in a
- cross-sectional study.
- longitudinal study.
- quasi-experimental study.
- cohort study.
- In carrying out research cross-culturally, researchers must be careful to
ensure that
- the work is cross-sectional, since repeated testing may not be possible in
other cultures.
- the research attempts to determine experiential influences on development,
since biological factors cannot be tested cross-culturally.
- the experimenter is from outside the culture, since the major goal of such
research is to determine the impact of reactions to individuals from other
cultures.
- language and materials employed with different cultural groups are similar,
since observed differences may arise from these rather than from cultural
variations.
- Georgine has volunteered to have her two-year-old participate in a perception
experiment at a nearby university. When she arrives at the laboratory with
her child, the first thing that she will probably do after being told about
the study is
- undergo a debriefing on the real purpose of the experiment.
- sign an informed consent form.
- have her child tested before he begins to get fussy and cry.
- receive a small sum of money to cover her travel expenses.
- As part of their work, including participation in professional organizations
such as the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research
in Child Development, researchers must
- conduct studies on children using experimental methods.
- follow guidelines for the ethical conduct of research.
- carry out field experiments as well as laboratory studies.
- not carry out any research that involves deception.
- Dr. Kally is interested in how using cocaine influences pre-natal development.
In order to conduct this study, Dr. Kally should use a(n)
- cross-sectional design.
- experimental design.
- correlational design.
- case-study design.
- Which of the following shows the strongest correlation?
- +0.0
- +1.2
- - 0.7
- +0.5
- Jennifer wants to see if children's memory gets better as they get older. She goes into a local school and
tests children in the first, third, and fifth grade, and finds that older
children were better able to memorize a list than younger children. Jennifer has used a _______________ design.
- meta-analytic
- cross-sectional
- longitudinal
- sequential
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