In Levinson’s destruction”creation developmental task, the midlifer
A) gives up certain youthful qualities and finds positive meaning in being older.
B) must create a better balance between masculine and feminine parts of the self.
C) counters past hurtful acts with a strong desire to leave a legacy for the future.
D) must forge a better balance between engagement with the external world and
separateness.
Mr. Suko is 80 years old. He is argumentative, bitter, and regretful. He has a tendency
to blame others for his personal failures. According to Erikson, Mr. Suko’s behavior
disguises
A) fear.
B) mistrust.
C) isolation.
D) self-contempt.
Which of the following three-phase sequences do many homosexual adolescents and
adults move through in coming out to themselves and others?
A) questioning, information seeking, and satisfaction
B) feeling different, confusion, and self-acceptance
C) worry, self-acceptance, and happiness
D) confusion, embarrassment, and resignation
Which of the following statements about centenarians is true?
A) The majority of centenarians are located in the United States.
B) Only about 10 to 15 percent of centenarians are able to lead active, autonomous
lives.
C) Among centenarians, women outnumber men by five to one.
D) The past 30 years have seen a 65 percent decrease in centenarians in the
industrialized world.
Most divorces occur __________ marriage.
A) within the first seven years of
B) between 8 and 11 years after
C) between 12 and 15 years after
D) after at least 15 years of
With age, possible selves become
A) more concrete.
B) greater in number.
C) more idealistic.
D) loftier.
The term teratogenrefers to
A) any environmental agent that causes damage during the prenatal period.
B) a limited time span during which a part of the body is biologically prepared to
develop rapidly.
C) a rapid period of prenatal neurological development.
D) a synthetic hormone used to prevent miscarriage.
Identity-foreclosed individuals
A) lack clear direction.
B) often reject their parents’ values and goals.
C) have not yet committed themselves to values and goals.
D) have committed themselves to values and goals without exploring alternatives.
An inner-brain structure called the __________ plays a vital role in memory and in
images of space that help us find our way.
A) hippocampus
B) corpus callosum
C) reticular formation
D) cerebellum
Which of the following statements about gay and lesbian partnerships in late adulthood
is true?
A) Few report happy, highly fulfilling relationships in late adulthood.
B) They face unique challenges because of continuing prejudice and lack of societal
recognition of their partnerships.
C) Compared with homosexual older adults who live alone, couples rate their physical
and mental health less favorably.
D) A lifetime of coping with an oppressive social environment may have weakened
homosexuals’ skill at dealing with late-life changes.
Mrs. Nguyen agrees with the following statement: “As I get older, things are better than
I thought they”d be.” Mrs. Nguyen’s self-perception
A) is an example of stereotype threat.
B) may help her live a longer life.
C) suggests that she is in denial.
D) is consistent with the prevailing Western stereotype of late adulthood.
Adolescents in moratorium resemble identity-achieved individuals in using a(n)
__________ cognitive style to make personal decisions and solve problems.
A) dogmatic, inflexible
B) active, information-gathering
C) diffuse-avoidant
D) reactive and defensive
Among the middle-aged adults who rate their health unfavorably,
A) men are more likely than women to suffer from nonfatal, limiting health problems.
B) men usually attribute health complaints to temporary infections.
C) men are more likely than women to suffer from fatal illnesses.
D) sexuality is typically excluded as a positive indicator of health.
Compared to their agemates, older adults with the cognitive, reflective, and emotional
qualities that make up wisdom are
A) less open to experience.
B) involved in fewer positive relationships.
C) more likely to be experiencing physical challenges.
D) more favorably adjusted to aging.
In order for social support to foster well-being,
A) friends and family must provide informal rather than formal support.
B) friends and family should follow the dependency”support script.
C) older adults need to take personal control of it.
D) older adults need to request it, rather than having it offered.
Men show more physical and mental health problems than women following the death
of a spouse because men
A) have greater financial worries.
B) are also mourning the loss of their career.
C) have a large number of emotionally satisfying ties outside of marriage.
D) tend to rely on their wives for social connectedness and coping with stress.
Preschoolers who __________ are seen as more socially competent by their teachers.
A) prefer to play alone
B) spend more time at sociodramatic play
C) use more realistic objects in their pretend play
D) make up imaginary companions
Children conceived through in vitro fertilization
A) may be genetically unrelated to both of their parents.
B) tend to develop insecure attachments to their parents during infancy.
C) cannot be born to postmenopausal women.
D) tend to be less well-adjusted than their naturally conceived counterparts.
Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, information processing, and Vygotsky’s
sociocultural theory all stress
A) nature over nurture.
B) changes in thinking.
C) unconscious motives and drives.
D) the effects of punishment and reinforcement on behavior.
According to Sternberg’s triarchic theory, applying strategies and engaging in
self-regulation are examples of __________ intelligence.
A) practical
B) creative
C) analytical
D) emotional
Parents who __________ usually find it easier to grant teenagers appropriate autonomy
and experience less conflict with them.
A) have time-consuming, stressful jobs
B) have a permissive parenting style
C) are content with their marriages
D) have an authoritarian parenting style
Compared with cognitive theories, mental tests
A) focus on the products of cognitive development rather than on the process of
development.
B) focus on the process of cognitive development rather than on the products of
development.
C) are more accurate indicators of what babies and toddlers understand.
D) focus on environmental influences on intelligence.
Symptoms of heart disease in women tend to
A) be stronger than those experienced by men.
B) take the form of heart attack more often than angina.
C) get overlooked by doctors.
D) be treated more aggressively by doctors.
For synaptic pruning to advance,
A) the neural tube must produce fewer neurons during the prenatal period than the brain
will need.
B) the prefrontal cortex must attain adult levels of synaptic connections during the
prenatal period.
C) appropriate stimulation of the child’s brain is vital during periods in which the
formation of synapses is at its peak.
D) between 80 and 90 percent of the neurons produced during the first two years must
undergo programmed cell death.
According to Piaget, a __________ is a means of building schemes in which infants try
to repeat chance motor behaviors again and again.
A) sensorimotor reflex
B) circular reaction
C) mental representation
D) goal-directed behavior
On average, __________ retire earlier than __________.
A) men; women
B) poor women; men
C) poor women; wealthier women
D) women; men
A lateralized brain
A) is more common in left-handed than right-handed individuals.
B) is more effective at regulating emotion than a nonlateralized brain.
C) means that many areas of the cerebral cortex are not yet committed to specific
functions.
D) may have evolved because it enabled humans to cope more successfully with
changing environmental demands.
As long as loneliness is not overwhelming, it
A) promotes defensive responses that lead to further isolation.
B) is associated with self-promoting attitudes and behaviors.
C) can motivate young people to take on more adultlike responsibilities.
D) can encourage young people to reach out to others.
In a large study of children with injuries to the cerebral cortex that occurred before birth
or in the first six months of life, researchers found that
A) language functioning was highly lateralized from birth to age 5.
B) compared with spatial skills, language skills were more impaired after early brain
injury.
C) undamaged areasin either the left or the right hemispheretook over certain language
functions.
D) children never fully caught up in vocabulary or grammatical skills.
Early dating
A) is related to academic and social success.
B) is related to drug use, delinquency, and poor academic achievement.
C) promotes identity development and self-esteem.
D) is more common among high-SES than low-SES teens.
Which of the following individuals is the most likely to support voluntary active
euthanasia?
A) Goran, a man from Croatia
B) Katia, a woman from Romania
C) Helen, a woman from Poland
D) Greg, a man from the United States