Perspectives on Development (Piaget formal-operational, Erikson identity-vs-role confusion) — Hard

Q1. Read the two statements about Gesell's maturational viewpoint: I. It explains the basic sequence in which physical and motor milestones appear in children. II. It adequately accounts for individual differences arising from culture, language and the child's environment. Which is/are correct?

• A. Only I
• B. Only II
• C. Both I and II
• D. Neither I nor II

Q2. In Bowlby's attachment theory, 'internal working models' refer to

• A. the eight episodes of the Strange Situation procedure
• B. cognitive representations of the self, the attachment figure and the relationship that the child carries into later life
• C. the genetic blueprint of brain maturation in infancy
• D. the parent's pattern of rewards and punishments in toddlerhood

Q3. A class 8 student in a government school in rural Bihar shows confused identity, sudden aggression toward classmates, occasional self-injury and shifts between approaching and avoiding the teacher. The MOST likely underlying attachment pattern is

• A. Secure attachment
• B. Avoidant / Dismissing attachment
• C. Resistant / Ambivalent attachment
• D. Disorganised / Disoriented attachment

Q4. Assertion (A): Good nurturing by parents and teachers cannot completely make up for poor genetic endowment in some children. Reason (R): As Harris (1998) observed, 'good nurturing cannot correct nature's mistakes'. Choose the BEST option

• A. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
• B. Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A
• C. A is true but R is false
• D. A is false but R is true

Q5. An infant gradually loses the ability to babble sounds not present in his home language even as he begins to speak Hindi words clearly. In Baltes' life-span perspective this BEST illustrates the principle that development is

• A. unidirectional — only gains, never losses
• B. multidirectional — every gain involves some loss and every loss opens new gains
• C. fixed by genetic maturation alone
• D. complete by the end of adolescence

Q6. Match the life-span 'contextual' influences in Column A with their examples in Column B: A. Normative age-graded influence B. Normative history-graded influence C. Non-normative life influence P. The Indo-Pak war affecting a generation of children Q. A teenage pregnancy in a 15-year-old girl R. Beginning formal schooling around age 6 Choose the correct match

• A. A–P, B–Q, C–R
• B. A–R, B–P, C–Q
• C. A–Q, B–R, C–P
• D. A–R, B–Q, C–P

Q7. A 'developmentally appropriate' upper-primary classroom is one that is appropriate to three things. These three are

• A. age, individuality and socio-cultural context of the learner
• B. syllabus, examination and school-policy of the institution
• C. the textbook, the teacher and the timetable only
• D. religion, caste and gender of the learner

Q8. Using Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, child alcohol use can be addressed at MULTIPLE levels. Which of the following pairings is INCORRECT?

• A. Exosystem — Madras High Court directing schools/colleges not to be within 100 metres of liquor outlets
• B. Macrosystem — raising drinking age and reducing cultural tolerance of alcohol
• C. Microsystem — alcohol-prevention programmes that train parents and the immediate family
• D. Chronosystem — a parent's loss of job at the workplace

Q9. Statement-I: In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, the child is a passive outcome of the environments she lives in. Statement-II: A teacher uses 'a nested array of variables' rather than a single variable to explain a class 7 student's underachievement. Which is the BEST option?

• A. Both I and II are correct
• B. Both I and II are incorrect
• C. I is incorrect, II is correct
• D. I is correct, II is incorrect

Q10. A class 7 boy who has only seen domestic dogs first calls a wolf 'a kind of dog' (fitting the new animal into his existing schema), and later, after learning more, builds a new category 'wolf' separate from dogs. In Piaget's terms, these two steps illustrate, in order

• A. Accommodation, then assimilation
• B. Assimilation, then accommodation
• C. Compensation, then optimization
• D. Encoding, then retrieval

Q11. The information-processing approach criticises Piaget's theory MAINLY because Piaget

• A. denied that culture has any role in development
• B. treated cognitive growth as a series of discontinuous stages whereas growth is actually a continuous process
• C. ignored the role of attachment with the primary caregiver
• D. did not propose any stages of development at all

Q12. In the information-processing approach, the brain is compared with a computer. In this analogy, 'mental hardware' refers to ____ while 'mental software' refers to ____.

• A. the strategies a child uses; the size of the child's brain
• B. the physical capacities of the mind (e.g., memory capacity); the learned skills and strategies (e.g., reading, problem-solving)
• C. the curriculum; the syllabus
• D. the attachment style; the temperament

Q13. An upper-primary teacher first solves one linear equation aloud on the board, then partially solves the next with the class supplying steps, and finally lets students solve the third equation entirely on their own. In Vygotsky's terms this graded support is BEST called

• A. assimilation
• B. compensation
• C. scaffolding
• D. loss-based selection

Q14. A teacher uses peer teaching, group discussions and role-play in the upper-primary classroom. Piaget would recommend this because he viewed

• A. interactions with peers as challenging the child's egocentric thinking and helping her reach the next cognitive stage
• B. peers as biological maturational agents
• C. peer talk as scaffolding from a 'more knowledgeable other' in the ZPD — Vygotsky's idea, not Piaget's
• D. peer interaction as harmful to logical thinking

Q15. Consider the concluding view of the five perspectives on development. Which statement is NOT correct?

• A. No single theory or perspective is comprehensive enough to explain all aspects of development.
• B. Each perspective has both strengths and limitations.
• C. A teacher of ages 11–14 should combine insights from biological, attachment, life-span, bioecological, cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives.
• D. Once a teacher chooses one perspective (say Piagetian), she should reject every claim of the other perspectives.