All GRE Subject Test: Psychology Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
A parent hesitates to set boundaries for her children but is nurturing and warm. She caters to her children's needs and desires and has trouble saying "no." Which of the following best identifies this type of parenting style?
Authoritative
Uninvolved
Authoritarian
Permissive-indulgent
Permissive-indulgent
According to Baumrind (1966), permissive parents do not establish themselves as role models or authority figures. Instead, they act more like peers, allowing their children to do as they please. Baumrind's work suggested that the most effective style of parenting is authoritative, which combines the warmth and compassion of permissive parenting with the boundary setting that is characteristic of authoritarian parenting.
Example Question #2 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
Which of the following best identifies the Russian-American psychologist who proposed the Ecological Systems Theory and was the founder of the Head Start Program for low SES preschoolers?
Martin Seligman
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Erich Fromm
Erik Erikson
Urie Bronfenbrenner
The only Russian-American in this grouping is Urie Bronfenbrenner. Moreover, it was Bronfenbrenner who devised and explicated the Ecological Systems Theory of development, which describes increasingly broad swaths of social and cultural influences from parents and the local neighborhood on up through mass media and cultural values. Bronfenbrenner highlighted the need for community, social, and cultural involvement in the healthy development of children.
Example Question #3 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
Which of the following best identifies the Danish-German-American developmental psychologist who introduced the 8 stages of psychosocial development?
Martin Seligman
Carl Rogers
Alfred Adler
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson
Erikson aligned himself with the psychodynamic perspective, but reached beyond the work of his peers by incorporating a social component into his explanation of human development across the lifespan. His 8-stage model explains development from infancy through old age. This model has generated an abundance of research and has secured his place in psychology's history. It is important the note the place of conflict and crisis in his model as those are key elements in a psychodynamic orientation.
Example Question #4 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
According to Erik Erikson, which of the following events would be most distressing for a child in elementary school?
Learning that they'd had the worst performance in the class on a recent math test
Being kicked off a sports team
Being yelled at by a parent for making too much noise
Being ignored by a parent when they ask for a glass of water
Being rejected by a romantic interest
Learning that they'd had the worst performance in the class on a recent math test
In Erikson's eight-stage model of psychosocial development, children between the ages of five and twelve years are in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage, which is characterized by the drive to prove one's worth both by society's standards and one's own. If a child in this stage should learn that he or she had the worst performance in the class on an exam, then he or she would have failed to meet both his/her and the teacher's standards.
Example Question #5 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
Which developmental psychologist is most well known for discovering that "contact comfort" is more essential in bond formation than physical needs?
Lawrence Kolberg
Harry Harlow
Harry Harlow
Example Question #6 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
According to Mary Ainsworth's strange situation task, which of the following infant reactions would be considered a secure attachment?
Distressed upon separation and are inclined to resist physical contact with the mother upon her return
Mildly distressed upon separation, but greet the mother positively upon her return
Mildly distressed upon separation, and show no interest with the mother upon her return
Mildly distressed upon separation, but greet the mother positively upon her return
Example Question #7 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
The Heinz Dilemma devised by Lawrence Kolberg is aimed at determining which of the following?
Moral development
Psychosocial development
Gender development
Cognitive development
Moral development
Example Question #8 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
In Sternberg's triangular theory of love, what traits lead to companionate love?
Commitment and passion
Intimacy and commitment
Passion and intimacy
Intimacy, commitment and passion
Intimacy
Intimacy and commitment
Companionate love occurs after a long period of partner union. It lacks the passion associated with the first 5-10 years of a relationship, by Sternberg's model. This is the difference between companionate love and consummate love, which includes passion, commitment and intimacy.
Example Question #9 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
Gottman could predict the risk of divorced in couples based upon four interaction patterns he termed the "four horsemen of the apocalypse." Which of the following is not one of Gottman's interaction patterns?
Contempt
Defensiveness
Inconsistent communication
Criticism
Stonewalling
Inconsistent communication
Gottman's four horsemen all have to do with the quality of interactions, not the quantity. Traits like defensiveness and stonewalling act as strategies to create separation, and contempt and criticism in language are attacks on the other partner. While inconsistent communication is certainly not good, it does not fall into Gottman's categorization.
Example Question #10 : Socialization, Family & Cultural Influences
Between what time period is the average infant expected to show stranger anxiety
12-15 months
1-3 months
7-11 months
4-6 months
7-11 months
Stranger anxiety begins around 7 months and lasts until 11 months. Of note, separation anxiety can set in between 12-15 months. At 1-6 months is too young to demonstrate these characteristics, so babies are typically comfortable with strangers during this time.
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