1. The answer is c. The complexity of development demands an explanatory model that recognizes the interactions among the multiple levels that shape growth and development. Explanations that concentrate on only one topic are not adequate.

2. The answer is a. No one can tolerate intense stress indefinitely. Some of the secrets of resiliency still elude researchers.

3. The answer is c. Emerging around ages 3-5 years, the superego represents an internalization of social standards for good and bad behavior. It is the individual’s way of policing his or her own behavior. The 10-year-old girl has internalized social standards for privacy, and feels guilty knowing that she has willfully violated those standards.

4. The answer is c. As the most primitive component of personality, the id is the seat of instinctual drives, especially sex, food, and aggression. Operating on the pleasure principle, the id seeks immediate gratification and wants to avoid physical and psychic pain. The drives for sex and aggression are particularly conflicted because they are subject to ambiguous social norms. Freud developed the concept of defense mechanisms, which humans use to protect the ego from unpleasant feelings, especially anxiety and guilt.

5. The answer is b. Erikson recognized that the social environment plays a significant role in shaping a child’s sense of self. His theory of psychosocial development is based on the premise that humans interact with an ever-widening circle of people, beginning with the mother and ending with humankind. The eight stages of the life cycle are marked by normative developmental crises, the resolution of which form the personality.

6. The answer is d. Erikson’s concept of the identity crisis in adolescence is the cornerstone of his theory. He believed that most adolescents go through a serious struggle in achieving a self-identity. The developmental struggle is to integrate childhood identifications with new biological urges, assumption of social roles, and recognition of one’s abilities and limitations. Failure to form an identity may result in identity diffusion—that is, of feeling like a nobody, with no sense of direction or commitment to a set of values.

7. The answer is b. The term “universal constructivist” implies that all humans construct their understanding of the world in predictable ways. Humans are not passive organisms, but rather take an active role in their own development by acting on the physical environment. Piaget believed that mental life in infancy begins with motor activity. The infant who swings an arm toward and finally grasps a toy is learning about controlling the body, the nature of objects, and the relationship between the body and objects.

8. The answer is d. To Piaget, the definition of intelligence is adaptation—that is, an ability to effectively negotiate environmental demands. Adaptation consists of the dual processes of assimilation and accommodation. When people assimilate, they incorporate an experience into existing schemata and structures: “Oh, I know this. It’s just like that.” When they cannot fit an experience into existing schemata or structures, people must accommodate—that is, modify their way of thinking to fit the experience. Accommodation can be a lot of mental work; hence the famous line, “Assimilate if you can; accommodate if you must.”

9. The answer is b. Vygotsky’s belief in the power of social interactions to shape development distinguished his work from the work of other theorists such as Piaget.