Candidate Number
C8813
THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
BSc FIRST YEAR EXAMINATION 2015
PSYCHOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESENCE
SAMPLE PAPER
DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL INSTRUCTED
TO BY THE CHIEF INVIGILATOR
Candidates must attempt ALL questions
Time allowed: 1 hour
The answers, one to each question, should be marked on the answer sheet
provided (place a cross in the relevant box to indicate your answer: a, b, c or
d).
There are 50 questions.
INSTRUCTIONS
1.
Do not write your name on the question paper (or answer sheet).
2.
Do not tear off any part of this question paper.
3.
At the end of the examination the question paper and/or answer sheet, used
or unused, will be collected from you before you leave the examination room;
[THIS SAMPLE PAPER ONLY HAS 25 QUESTIONS
SO YOU SHOULD ALLOW YOURSELF
ONLY 30 MINUTES]
1
C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
1. ‘Social learning’ approaches to child development:
a) Emphasise the importance of observational learning
b) Focus on developmental stages in children’s responses to peer
influences
c) Were introduced by Vygotsky to account for social influences on
children’s behaviour
d) All of the above
[NOTE: If d is the correct answer, no credit will be given for answering a, b or c]
2. Which of the following pieces of evidence would provide the most support for the
influence of the interaction between nature and nurture on the development of
empathy?
a) Children who grow up with caring and altruistic parents are more
likely than other children to be empathetic
b) The only adopted children who show high levels of empathy are
those whose biological parents are empathetic and who grow up
with caring and altruistic parents
c) Children whose biological parents are empathetic are more likely
than other children to be empathetic, even when adopted as infants
d) None of the above
3. Piaget’s concept of adaptation involves which two complementary activities?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Assimilation and representation
Assimilation and accommodation
Representation and organisation
Construction and organisation
4. How does Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development differ from Piaget’s?
a) Vygotsky emphasised the role of cultural tools in children’s mental
growth
b) Vygotsky discounted the importance of inner speech
c) Vygotsky’s theory presented the child as a passive respondent to
reinforcement by more capable others
d) All of the above
[Note: If d is the correct answer, no credit will be given for answering a, b or c]
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C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
5. In Piagetian theory, ‘organisation’ refers to:
a) Children’s increasingly sophisticated use of private speech
b) That part of adaptation in which the individual utilises current
schemas in order to interpret the external world
c) The skill that allows children in the pre-operational stage to succeed
on the pendulum task
d) The child’s coordination and combination of schemas
6. The zone of proximal development is:
a) A range of developmental milestones achieved through rewards and
punishments by more capable others
b) The distance between what children can accomplish unaided and
what they are capable of learning with the assistance of others
c) The aspects of cognitive development that develop rapidly in the
first two years of life
d) The notion that children’s learning is based upon active striving
rather than upon passive acquisition
7. According to Siegler’s model of strategy choice:
a) Once children find a successful strategy, they use it consistently
b) Wide variation in strategy use is maladaptive
c) Children will always use the most adaptive strategy to solve a
problem
d) A child given the same type of problem on two occasions may often
use different strategies
8. Which of the following is the most powerful cue for infants to know that elements
are a unitary object?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Different colour
Common texture
Common shape
Common movement
9. What did Hood (1995) show about 2- to 4.5-year-old children’s perception of
gravity?
a) Children of that age do not understand gravity
b) Children of that age think that balls travel in the trajectory of the tube
c) Children of that age apply rules about gravity too strongly in some
circumstances
d) Children of that age do not cannot integrate their knowledge of
gravity with their knowledge of depth
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C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
10. If an experimenter points to an unfamiliar object and says “that’s foff”, children will
almost always guess that “foff” refers to:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Some part of the object
The whole object
The material from which the object is made
The colour of the object
11. Research examining groups of deaf children who had no exposure to formal
spoken or signed languages has demonstrated that:
a) Children rarely go beyond the linguistic input they receive
b) Although children sometimes go beyond the linguistic input they
receive, their spontaneous language remains far from qualifying as
a true language
c) Children do go beyond the linguistic input they receive, and their
spontaneous language can develop into a true language
d) Children who are not exposed to a formal language are unable to
comprehend or produce language
12. In Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, an infant who shows contradictory and
disoriented behaviour would most likely be described as having the following type
of attachment:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Inhibited
Resistant
Avoidant
None of the above
13. Which of the following is not one of the phases of attachment development?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Pre-attachment
Monotropy
Attachment in the making
Reciprocal relationship
14. The puppet interview technique developed by Ablow and Measelle (1993) is
commonly used to assess:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Parental warmth and hostility
Attachment of parent to child
Child temperament
All of the above
[Note: If d is the correct answer, no credit will be given for answering a, b or c]
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C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
15. For schizophrenia, if the resemblance for MZ twins is 80% and for DZ twins is
45%, what is the estimated heritability of the trait?
a) 50%
b) 70%
c) 80%
d) 100%
16. Which of the following phenotypes is LESS likely to have a genetic basis?
a) Phenylketonuria
b) ADHD
c) Schizophrenia
d) Flu
17. Which of the following is NOT one of Kohlberg’s identified levels of moral
understanding?
a)
b)
c)
d)
The postconventional level
The interconventional level
The conventional level
The preconventional level
18. Individuals in Piaget's heteronomous morality stage:
a) Take into account multiple perspectives when faced with moral
dilemmas
b) Want to maintain the affection and approval of others by being a
"good person"
c) View rules as unchangeable and requiring strict obedience
d) Focus on abstract ethical principles
19. Parents who use coercive control techniques with their children and grant them
very little autonomy are utilising a(n) ________ style of parenting.
a) Authoritative
b) Permissive
c) Authoritarian
d) Uninvolved
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C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
20. Sociometric techniques are frequently used to:
a) Analyse parent-child and sibling relationships
b) Evaluate children’s peer status
c) Measure the degree of self-disclosure within best friendships
d) Assess children’s social information-processing skills
21. Which of the following peer status groups scored most highly on loneliness in
Asher & Wheeler’s (1985) study?
a) ‘Rejected’ children
b) ‘Neglected’ children
c) ‘Controversial’ children
d) ‘Average’ children
22. Research on family factors related to young people’s sexual relations suggests
that:
a) Later initiation of sex occurs in girls who have better relationships
with their parents
b) Later initiation of sex occurs in boys who have better relationships
with their parents
c) Both a and b
d) Neither a nor b
[Note: If c is the correct answer, no credit will be given for answering a or b.]
23. Which of the following is classified in the DSM-IV as an internalising problem?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Conduct Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorder
None of the above
24. Sex differences in the prevalence of depression, whereby higher rates are
reported for females, emerge during:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Early childhood
Middle childhood
Adolescence
Adulthood
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C8813
Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence – SAMPLE PAPER
25. Which of the following statements about conduct disorder is FALSE?
a) The prevalence is higher for boys than for girls
b) The prevalence tends to increase with age during childhood
c) The DSM-IV diagnosis requires the presence of physically
aggressive behaviour
d) Parenting interventions have been found to be effective in treating
the disorder
End of Paper
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PCA Sample Questions: Answers
1. A
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. D
6. B
7. D
8. D
9. C
10. B
11. C
12. D
13. B
14. A
15. B
16. D
17. B
18. C
19. C
20. B
21. A
22. A
23. D
24. C
25. C
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