NBCC Human Growth & Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to Vygotsky, the 'zone of proximal development' (ZPD) refers to:
- Skills a child can perform independently
- Tasks a child can complete only with guidance from a more capable other (Correct answer)
- The gap between a child's IQ and academic performance
- Developmental milestones that occur before formal schooling
Correct answer: Tasks a child can complete only with guidance from a more capable other
The ZPD is the range of tasks a learner cannot yet do alone but can accomplish with scaffolding from a more skilled person.
Question 2: Kohlberg's postconventional level of moral development is characterized by:
- Obedience to authority to avoid punishment
- Conforming to social norms to gain approval
- Following rules to maintain social order
- Reasoning based on universal ethical principles (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Reasoning based on universal ethical principles
Postconventional morality involves abstract principles of justice and human rights that may transcend societal laws.
Question 3: Which theorist proposed that adolescents must resolve the crisis of 'Identity vs. Role Confusion'?
- Jean Piaget
- Erik Erikson (Correct answer)
- Albert Bandura
- Lawrence Kohlberg
Correct answer: Erik Erikson
Erikson's fifth psychosocial stage places identity formation as the central developmental task of adolescence.
Question 4: Bronfenbrenner's microsystem includes:
- Cultural values and societal ideologies
- Linkages between two or more settings the child inhabits
- Direct environments such as family, school, and peers (Correct answer)
- Historical events that shape a generation
Correct answer: Direct environments such as family, school, and peers
The microsystem is the innermost layer of Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, encompassing settings where the child has direct, face-to-face interactions.
Question 5: A 14-month-old who uses 'mama' to mean any female caregiver is demonstrating:
- Overextension (Correct answer)
- Underextension
- Telegraphic speech
- Babbling
Correct answer: Overextension
Overextension occurs when a child applies a word too broadly to categories beyond its conventional meaning.
Question 6: In Piaget's concrete operational stage, conservation refers to the understanding that:
- Objects continue to exist even when out of sight
- Quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance (Correct answer)
- Rules of games must be followed consistently
- Symbols can stand for real objects
Correct answer: Quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance
Conservation is the grasp that properties like volume or number do not change when only the perceptual form changes.
Question 7: The Strange Situation procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth primarily assesses:
- Cognitive development in infants
- Temperament classifications in newborns
- Infant attachment patterns with a caregiver (Correct answer)
- Social referencing during play
Correct answer: Infant attachment patterns with a caregiver
The Strange Situation categorizes infants as securely attached, anxious-avoidant, anxious-resistant, or disorganized based on reunion behavior.
NBCC Human Growth & Development 2
According to Vygotsky, the 'zone of proximal development' (ZPD) refers to: