6.9 MC Answers and Review

⛔STOP!⛔ Before you look at the answers make sure you gave this practice quiz a try so you can assess your understanding of the concepts covered in unit 6. Click here for the practice questions: AP Psychology Unit 6 Multiple Choice Questions.

Facts about the test: The AP Psychology exam has 100 multiple choice questions and you will be given 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete the section. That means it should take you around 11 minutes to complete 15 questions.

A. FAS

C. telomeres

D. habituation

Answer: Teratogens are substances or other factors that can reach a developing embryo or fetus and cause harm. Cigarettes, alcohol, viruses, and chemicals are all examples of teratogens.

A. maturation

B. assimilation

C. imprinting

Answer: Newborns naturally pay attention to any novel (new) stimulus in their environment. Eventually, they will habituate (become familiar) to the stimuli and their responses will decrease over time. In this we see the earliest forms of learning in the newborn infant.

B. nurture rather than nature

C. assimilation

D. habituation

Answer: Maturation refers to the orderly physical and cognitive development of a child. For example, all children will sit up before they crawl and crawl before they walk. The age at which they reach these milestones in their motor development, however, falls within a general range. Most children will walk by their first birthday, but some may walk as early as 9 months, and others as late as 15 months.

A. maturation

B. the pruning process

D. lack of theory of mind

Answer: We have few if any conscious memories of our lives prior to the age of 3 or 4. This is because parts of our brain have yet to develop, particularly the hippocampus where episodic (autobiographical) memories are consolidated. It may also be related to the fact that infants and toddlers do not yet have the language ability necessary to encode these memories, and this theory does coincide with the timing of language development.

B. object permanence; egocentrism

C. conservation; egocentrism

D. stranger anxiety; egocentrism

Answer: The sensorimotor and concrete operational stages are stages in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Each stage has several key milestones that children reach. Object permanence is the child's ability to understand that objects still exist even when they can't see them; conservation refers to their ability to understand that mass and volume remain the same despite changes in form.

A. maturation

B. accommodation

D. theory of mind

Answer: Assimilation refers to a child's ability to fit new experiences into their existing schemas, or framework for understanding and interpreting information. Archie's schema for a dog is an animal with 4 legs and a tail. Because the horse fits within this schema, he mistakenly believes that the horse is a dog. As Archie's cognitive abilities develop, he will be able to accomodate, or adapt, his schema and come to a new understanding that a horse is different than a dog.

A. imprinting

B. insecure attachment

C. a critical period

Answer: Stranger anxiety is perfectly normal and generally develops around 6-8 months of age. It is thought to occur because of the infants inability to assimilate unfamiliar faces into their existing schema of familiar faces.

A. continued to play happily when their mother left the room

B. cried when she left, but were indifferent when she returned

D. were indifferent when they left the room, but cried when she returned

Answer: Ainsworth discovered that about 60% of infants and young children were securely attached to their mothers. They played happily when their mothers were in the room, became distressed when she left and sought contact and comfort from her when she returned.

A. young adulthood

C. late adulthood

D. elementary school

Answer: Erikson developed an 8-stage theory of our psychosocial, or social emotional development. He proposed that at each stage of our life, we experience a “psychosocial crisis,” which must be resolved before we move on to the next stage. In middle adulthood, we discover our sense of meaningful life, usually through family and work.

B. authoritative; authoritarian

C. authoritative; permissive

D. Neither has a specific style

Answer: The authoritarian parenting style is marked by strict rules and an expectation that their children be obedient, and if not, punished. Permissive parents impose few limits and rarely punish. Authoritative parents set rules and limits, but generally welcome open discussion with their children about rules and consequences. The authoritative style tends to have the best outcome in terms of a child's self-esteem, academic success and social competence.

B. gender expression

C. gender identity

D. gender schema

Answer: Gender typing refers to awareness of our gender and the expected roles society expects us to play. This is often seen in how boys and girls are treated differently from a very young age in the way they are dressed (pink v blue), the activities they engage in and the toys they play with.

A. abstract thinking

B. conventional moral reasoning

C. egocentrism

Answer: Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a 3-stage theory of moral development. In the first phase, preconventional, we make decisions to either gain rewards or avoid punishment. Sylvia did not want to get caught and be punished. In the 2nd, conventional stage, we make decisions to gain social approval. We do the "right" thing based on the laws and rules of society. In the last stage, we reason based on ethics.

A. breasts; facial hair

B. penis; testes

D. facial hair; deepening voice

Answer: Primary sex characteristics are parts of our body involved in sexual reproduction (vagina, ovaries, penis, testes). Secondary sex characteristics refers to changes in the body that occurring during adolescence (facial hair, breast/hip development, deepening voice).

A. generativity

C. social connectedness

D. social identity

Answer: The social clock refers to the notion that there is a preferred timing for certain life events, like starting a career, getting married and having children. The particular "right time" for these events changes over time and also differs across cultures.

B. longitudinal study

C. experiment

D. correlational study

Answer: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are often used to study psychological development. Cross-sectional studies compare people at different stages of life; longitudinal studies study the same group of people over time.