Quiz — Chapter 14: Psychological Development Across the Lifespan

25 questions. Answer key at end.

Section 1: Foundations of Development (Questions 1–6)

1. Which of the following best describes the concept of developmental plasticity?

A) The tendency for personality to become more rigid with age B) The capacity of the developing organism to change in response to new experience — a capacity that is present throughout the lifespan C) The malleability of cognitive ability, which peaks in early childhood and declines thereafter D) The flexibility of the brain exclusively during sensitive periods of early development

2. John Bowlby's internal working models are best described as:

A) Conscious plans for how to behave in relationships B) Unconscious mental representations of how relationships work, whether the self is worthy of care, and whether others can be trusted C) Cognitive maps of the social environment constructed in middle childhood D) Scripts for responding to specific interpersonal situations

3. Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure identified which of the following as the most common attachment pattern in Western samples?

A) Anxious-preoccupied B) Avoidant C) Disorganized D) Secure

4. Piaget's concept of "accommodation" differs from "assimilation" in that accommodation involves:

A) Applying existing schemas to new information B) Changing existing schemas to incorporate new information that doesn't fit C) Learning through social observation and modeling D) Moving from concrete to abstract reasoning through biological maturation

5. Which of the following is NOT one of the three forms of development discussed in the chapter?

A) Normative development B) Adaptive development C) History-graded development D) Non-normative development

6. The maturity principle in personality development (Roberts et al.) refers to:

A) The finding that personality is fully formed by age 30 and does not change thereafter B) The normative increase in Conscientiousness and Agreeableness and decrease in Neuroticism across adulthood C) The relationship between adult maturity and childhood secure attachment D) The principle that deliberate effort is required for any personality change in adulthood

Section 2: Erikson's Stages (Questions 7–12)

7. According to Erikson, the central task of the Trust vs. Mistrust stage is:

A) Developing cognitive competence through school success B) Developing basic trust in the reliability and safety of the environment through consistent, responsive caregiving C) Developing the capacity for exploration and autonomous action D) Distinguishing what is right from what is personally advantageous

8. A child who was consistently shamed for independent initiative in the toddler years might show which residual pattern in adulthood?

A) High generativity — compensating through care for others B) Doubt about the validity of their own desires and chronic difficulty with autonomous action C) Avoidant attachment as a direct consequence of shame D) Excessive industry and achievement motivation — overcompensating for early shame

9. Erikson's Stage 4, Industry vs. Inferiority, occurs primarily during:

A) The toddler years (18 months–3 years) B) Middle childhood and the school years (6–12 years) C) Early adolescence (12–14 years) D) Early adulthood (20s–30s)

10. Erikson's concept of generativity refers to:

A) The productive expansion of social relationships in middle adulthood B) The concern for establishing and guiding the next generation — through parenting, mentoring, creating, or contributing to what will outlast oneself C) The ability to generate new ideas and solutions in the workplace D) The developmental achievement of full identity consolidation in young adulthood

11. Ego integrity, in Erikson's framework, means:

A) A life free of significant regret or moral failure B) The capacity to accept one's life as it actually was — with its losses and choices — without demanding it had been different C) The achievement of a fully integrated, stable identity D) The ability to live in accordance with one's stated values consistently

12. Which Eriksonian stage is most directly implicated in Jordan's midcareer moratorium described throughout Part 2?

A) Stage 5: Identity vs. Role Confusion — Jordan is re-engaging identity work he did not fully complete originally B) Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation — Jordan is resolving the tension between his relationship and his career C) Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation — Jordan's proposal represents his generative impulse D) Both A and C are implicated — the moratorium involves identity and the proposal involves generativity

Section 3: Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood (Questions 13–17)

13. The neurological explanation for adolescent risk-taking and emotional intensity centers on:

A) Higher testosterone levels, which peak during puberty and drive aggressive behavior B) A developmental mismatch: the limbic system (emotional, reward-sensitive) matures earlier than the prefrontal cortex (regulatory) C) The social pressure of peer evaluation, which overrides cognitive function D) Incomplete myelination of the entire cortex, which impairs all forms of reasoning until the mid-twenties

14. Jeffrey Arnett's "emerging adulthood" is characterized by which combination of features?

A) Stable identity, occupational commitment, and the beginning of intimate relationships B) Identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and a sense of possibilities C) Moratorium across all identity domains, high social support, and educational focus D) Biological maturity combined with incomplete legal adulthood

15. Arnett's concept of emerging adulthood has been criticized primarily because:

A) It overestimates the psychological sophistication of most 18-25 year olds B) It applies more to middle-class Western contexts with access to extended education than to working-class populations who assume adult responsibilities earlier C) It fails to account for the neurological development of the prefrontal cortex D) It is not supported by longitudinal research on young adults

16. Erikson's Stage 6 (Intimacy vs. Isolation) proposes that genuine intimacy requires a sufficiently stable identity because:

A) Identity determines whether a person is psychologically capable of love B) Without a stable identity, a person cannot risk genuine self-disclosure without the threat of losing themselves in the relationship C) Intimacy is impossible until all identity domains have been resolved D) A stable identity predicts interpersonal competence

17. Which of the following would be MOST consistent with the identity achievement status (Marcia)?

A) A 22-year-old who has adopted their parents' political and religious values without questioning them B) A 25-year-old who has actively explored multiple career paths and committed to clinical psychology after examining other options C) A 19-year-old who has not engaged with identity questions in any domain D) A 30-year-old who is actively exploring career options after leaving a job that was not the right fit

Section 4: Later Life and Aging (Questions 18–21)

18. Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen) proposes that older adults prioritize emotionally meaningful goals over novelty and information-gathering primarily because:

A) Cognitive decline reduces the capacity to learn new information B) Social networks necessarily contract with age, leaving fewer relational options C) As time horizon becomes perceived as limited, motivation shifts toward present emotional meaning and relationship depth D) Biological changes in the limbic system reduce the capacity for novelty-seeking

19. The U-shaped curve of life satisfaction across adulthood found in many longitudinal studies means that:

A) Life satisfaction is highest in youth, declines through adulthood, and never recovers B) Life satisfaction is lowest in youth, rises through middle adulthood, and remains high in old age C) Life satisfaction typically declines through the thirties and forties, reaches a nadir around the fifties, then rises in later life D) Life satisfaction is equivalent in youth and old age, with higher satisfaction in young and late adulthood

20. Which cognitive ability is MOST preserved in normal aging?

A) Processing speed B) Episodic memory C) Working memory capacity D) Crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge and verbal ability)

21. The Harvard Study of Adult Development (Grant Study) found that the strongest predictor of late-life wellbeing was:

A) Financial security in midlife B) Physical health and exercise habits maintained through middle age C) Quality of relationships in midlife D) Having achieved a stable professional identity before age 40

Section 5: Integration and Application (Questions 22–25)

22. Robert Kegan's "self-authoring mind" differs from the "socialized mind" primarily in that:

A) The self-authoring person has resolved all major life challenges and achieved stable identity B) The self-authoring person uses an internalized value system to evaluate experience, rather than deriving values and identity primarily from external sources C) The self-authoring person no longer needs relationships for self-definition D) The self-authoring mind is associated with formal operational reasoning and develops in late adolescence

23. The ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) research finding that early adversity creates risk in a dose-response relationship is BEST interpreted as:

A) Proof that childhood trauma inevitably produces adult psychopathology B) Evidence that early adversity significantly elevates risk across outcomes, while also being consistent with the finding that resilience is common and later experience can modify trajectories C) Justification for deterministic pessimism about the outcomes of people who experienced difficult childhoods D) Proof that the first three years of life are the only developmental period that matters

24. A 45-year-old who finds that their current professional identity — which they committed to without genuine exploration at 22 — no longer fits their values would be experiencing what, in developmental terms?

A) A pathological midlife crisis requiring clinical intervention B) Developmentally inappropriate instability that should be resolved through recommitment to existing commitments C) A normative identity moratorium — developmentally appropriate re-engagement with identity questions in response to a life demand D) Identity diffusion — a failure to maintain the identity achievements of young adulthood

25. Nana Rose's question — "What are you becoming?" — reflects which of the following developmental insights?

A) That personal development is primarily the responsibility of parents and caregivers B) That the self is not a fixed thing to be discovered but an active, ongoing process of organization and reorganization C) That questions of identity belong exclusively to adolescence and emerging adulthood D) That development is most visible in childhood and slows significantly in adulthood

Answer Key