Human Development and Interventions Questions and Answers

Answer: C

In Bronfenbrenner's model the macrosystem represents the larger cultural influences on an individual.

Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory nests the developing child within layers. The microsystem holds the immediate settings and relationships (family, school, peers). The mesosystem links those settings, the exosystem includes settings that affect the child indirectly, such as a parent's workplace, and the macrosystem is the overarching culture: its values, laws, customs and ideology.

'Immediate influences' describes the microsystem, and the bonds between children and parents or students and teachers are microsystem relationships. 'Broader influences' is too vague to single out the cultural layer, which is what the macrosystem specifically means.

Answer: C

'Automatic thoughts' is a term from cognitive behaviour therapy.

Aaron Beck described automatic thoughts as quick, spontaneous evaluations that pop into the mind in response to situations, such as 'I always fail'. In depression and anxiety they are often distorted and negative. Cognitive therapy teaches clients to notice these thoughts, test them against evidence and replace them with more balanced ones.

Mindfulness-based approaches teach non-judgemental awareness of thoughts rather than identifying automatic thoughts as such. Hypnotherapy uses trance and suggestion. Dialectical behaviour therapy, though rooted in CBT, is known for its emphasis on acceptance and emotion regulation, not for this term.

Answer: C

The official key gives (C), A is true but R is false. This is the one item here whose key could not be confirmed from a source.

A is true: the OECD studies education and its economic returns, for example in Education at a Glance and in its work on the economic and social outcomes of education.

The key treats R as false. One line of research supports that reading: Hanushek and Woessmann argue that what links education to growth is the cognitive skills pupils actually acquire, and note that expanding school attainment has not by itself guaranteed better economic conditions. On the other hand, OECD reports also associate higher attainment with higher earnings and growth, so a reader could call R true, and (A) or (B) would then follow. The examiner's own source could not be found.

The key is therefore followed, with the caution that R is contestable as worded: attainment is a quantity measure, and the cited research gives skills the main role.

Answer: B

Piaget appears to have underestimated infants.

Later research using methods that do not depend on infants' motor skills, such as looking-time and violation-of-expectation studies by Renee Baillargeon and others, found that infants show signs of object permanence, numerical sensitivity and understanding of physical events months earlier than Piaget's search tasks suggested. Piaget's tasks required infants to reach and search, which they cannot do well until later.

So he did not overestimate infants, and his timetable for infancy was not more accurate. Overestimating culture is not the criticism; Piaget was criticised rather for paying too little attention to cultural and social influences.

Answer: A

Down's syndrome is associated with trisomy 21.

Most people with Down's syndrome have three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two, usually because the chromosomes failed to separate when the egg or sperm formed. It causes intellectual disability and characteristic physical features, and its risk rises with maternal age.

Cri du chat syndrome is caused by a deletion on chromosome 5. The XXY combination is Klinefelter syndrome, and the XO pattern (a single X chromosome) is Turner syndrome.

Answer: C

Folie à deux is a type of delusional disorder.

Folie à deux, 'madness shared by two', is a condition in which a delusion held by one person, usually the dominant member of a close relationship, is taken up by another person, often in relative isolation. DSM-IV classified it as shared psychotic disorder, and DSM-5 includes it under delusional disorder (or delusional symptoms in the partner of someone with delusional disorder).

It is not an anxiety disorder, a depressive disorder or a sleep disorder, since its core feature is a shared false belief.

Answer: B

The statement that is not true is that dialogic teaching is individualistic.

Robin Alexander describes dialogic teaching by five principles: it is collective (teachers and children address learning tasks together), reciprocal (they listen to each other, share ideas and consider alternatives), supportive (children speak freely without fear of wrong answers), cumulative (they build on their own and each other's ideas into coherent lines of thinking) and purposeful.

Collective, reciprocal and cumulative are therefore true of it. Individualistic contradicts its collective nature.

Answer: C

The correct statements are (1), (2) and (3).

Kohlberg's theory traces moral reasoning through three levels. Pre-conventional reasoning is concerned with rewards and punishment (1). Conventional reasoning focuses on social conventions, rules and the expectations of others (2). Post-conventional reasoning moves towards universal ethical principles (3).

The super-ego (4) is Freud's concept of the internalised conscience, not part of Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental sequence, so every option including (4) is wrong.

Answer: C

The period is adolescence.

Adolescence is marked by growing independence from parents, the search for a personal identity (Erikson's identity versus role confusion) and the emergence of abstract, hypothetical thinking (Piaget's formal operational stage, from about age 11 or 12).

Middle and late childhood belong to Piaget's concrete operational stage and Erikson's industry versus inferiority, when thinking is still tied to concrete situations. Early adulthood is concerned with intimacy, careers and partnerships, after identity has largely been established.

Answer: A

Paraphilias are disorders pertaining to sexual functioning.

Paraphilias are intense and persistent sexual interests in unusual objects, situations or individuals, such as fetishism, voyeurism and exhibitionism. DSM-5 calls them paraphilic disorders when they cause distress or harm to the person or others.

Sleep problems are classed as sleep-wake disorders, appetite problems as feeding and eating disorders, and problems of social behaviour fall under other categories such as social anxiety disorder or personality disorders.