The father of a 2-year-old finds that he becomes very impatient with his daughter when, night after night, she claims she cannot fall asleep because of a “monster that comes out in the dark.” Although each night the father tries to reassure and comfort his daughter, the next morning she does not remember his attempts to reason with her regarding her fear. He should probably:
a. try to understand the hidden causes and meaning of his daughter’s dreams.
b. give his daughter a reward the following morning if she stayed in bed all night.
c. realize that, because of her limited intellectual abilities at age 2, she cannot be reasoned with rationally.
d. consider how he can structure his interactions with his daughter to “mentor” her through her fear.
e. recognize that fears of the dark are partly genetic, because they undoubtedly helped our species survive.
2. Most adults become physiologically aroused when they hear the sound of a baby’s cry. This is because:
a. the baby’s cry evokes unconscious memories of their own painful childhood.
b. at some time during their past, the sound of a baby crying became associated with another stimulus that naturally elicited physiological arousal.
c. they consciously become irritated by the distracting sound.
d. nurturing young babies is a developmental challenge that all humans face and address in culture-specific ways.
e. humans are biologically predisposed to respond favorably to an infant crying.
3. A pre-teenage boy is not interested in having sexual experiences. The most reasonable explanation is that:
a. he feels threatened; he is denying his true feelings, possibly without realizing what they are.
b. he has probably had anxiety-producing experiences with sex and wants to avoid any repetition of these experiences.
c. his ideas and values make sexual experiences seem wrong or inappropriate for him right now.
d. his social or cultural background has not yet fostered such interests.
e. his biological immaturity means he has not yet experienced the hormonal surge of puberty.
4. Nine-year-old David is more aggressive in the classroom than is Maria. His teacher should probably:
a. refer David to a therapist who can get him to talk about his repressed urges.
b. contact the school psychologist so that he or she can perform a Functional Behavior Analysis to try to determine what is reinforcing the behavior.
c. find out why he is not concentrating on the material; to begin with, have his vision, hearing, and other perceptual abilities tested.
d. realize that David’s past social interactions have not challenged him to develop certain social competencies.
e. consider that boys are naturally somewhat more aggressive than girls.
5. Advertisers often incorporate “babyishness” in their promotional symbols because:
a. most adults have hidden consummatory urges stemming from their childhoods.
b. people are conditioned to act impulsively (and, perhaps, spend money) around children.
c. they are afraid of making their sales pitches too intellectually complex for the average consumer.
d. people in most cultures are socialized to respond favorably to babies.
e. adults are genetically predisposed to respond favorably to images of infancy.
1 – Did you find you tended to respond with the same 1 or 2 letters every time? Which one(s) were they?
2 – What theoretical orientation(s) do you lean towards (did you figure out which was which?)
3 – How do you think the theories you gravitate towards could affect (1) your learning of developmental psychology and (2) how you make sense of other people’s behavior more generally?
