1. Identify the FALSE statement regarding personal development:

a) Development stops when we reach adulthood.
b) Physical developments are a key consideration when considering adult changes.
c) Social perspectives are important in adult development.
d) Cognitive themes are relevant to our development as adults.

2. Which of these is true in terms of an adolescent’s physical development?

a) Girls experience their adolescent growth spurt at an earlier age than boys.
b) Boys experience their adolescent growth spurt at an earlier age than girls.
c) With the beginnings of adolescence, most individuals undergo a decline in their rate of growth.
d) Puberty is the final phase of the reproductive process.

3. Research has documented that physical development during adolescence affects all of the following except _________.

a) Sense of self
b) Secondary sex characteristics
c) Computer skills
d) Relationships with others
e) Treatment by others

4. Which stage of Piaget�s theory of cognitive development occurs during adolescence and refers to the ability to reason about abstract concepts and principles and evaluate issues in the broader social environment?

a) Formal operations
b) Concrete operations
c) Sensorimotor
d) Postformal reasoning
e) Preoperational

5. Which of the following statements is correct?

a) The evidence found in the area of formal operational reasoning is entirely consistent with Piaget’s theory.
b) Large-scale studies have reported that the vast majority of adolescents perform sufficiently well to meet the criteria for formal operational reasoning.
c) Contemporary researchers agree with Piaget that cognitive development proceeds during the adolescent years.
d) Piaget believed that adolescents make a dramatic switch from domain-general to domain-specific cognitive styles.

6. Identify the correct statement from those given below, with respect to peer influence in adolescence:

a) Adolescents tend to choose friends who have markedly different interests to their own.
b) Adolescents tend to choose friends who have similar interests to their own.
c) Adolescents invariably report that peer pressures have a major influence on their behaviour.
d) Causation exists between friends� behaviour and adolescents� choices and actions.

7. Which research findings have challenged the belief that adolescents are dominated by peer pressure?

a) Peers are less influential when it comes to moral values or career choices
b) Parental influence can be stronger than peer influence
c) Friends and peer groups are influenced by parents
d) Adolescents do not report feeling significant pressure from peers
e) All of the above

8. Which of the following statements is NOT a feature of physical development in early adulthood?

a) Manual dexterity begins to reduce in the mid-thirties.
b) Physical strength declines substantially compared to the late teens.
c) A decline in the perception of high-pitched tones is found by the late twenties.
d)The health status and prospects of young adults are influenced by their own behavioural choices.

9. Which of Kramer�s three stages of cognitive development in adulthood may be facilitated by undergraduate training at university?

a) Postformal reasoning
b) Absolutist reasoning
c) Relativist reasoning
d) Dialectical reasoning
e) Inductive reasoning

10. K. Warner Schaie and his colleagues have conducted major longitudinal studies of the evolution of primary mental abilities among several thousand adult Americans (Schaie, 1995, 2000). But which of the following are primary mental abilities?

Narrative memory
Dialectical reasoning.
Spatial orientation.
Verbal ability.

a) 1 & 2
b) 2 & 3
c) 3 & 4
d) 1 & 4

11. Adults who find it difficult to trust others, and are reluctant to commit to intimate relationships, may be described as having which type of attachment style?

a) Secure
b) Insecure
c) Avoidant
d) Anxious
e) (b) or (d)

12. Which term was used by Erik Erikson to refer to the feeling experienced by some individuals in mid-life that they have achieved relatively little and have little to offer to the next generation?

a) Menopause
b) Stagnation
c) Generativity
d) Presbyopia
e) Mid-life crisis

13. Erikson (19130) saw middle age as a period when adults have to face a conflict between generativity and stagnation. But which of the following descriptions of these terms are accurate?

Generativity can be realized in a variety of ways through personal, family or career attainments that provide a basis for others to progress.
Stagnation is the feeling of having achieved relatively little and of having little to offer to the next generation.
Some people respond to the feeling they have not met their life goals with a period of self-absorption, and an acute awareness that time is limited.
Those who fail to resolve the conflict between generativity and stagnation care more about the future.

a) 1, 2 & 4
b) 1, 2 & 3
c) 1 & 4
d) 2 & 3

14. Which of the following do we know to be true of middle adulthood?

a) Unlike adolescence, it is clear where middle adulthood starts and ends.
b) During mid-life, people experience a range of external and internal physical changes.
c) One of the most noticeable changes for most middle-aged people is the onset of myopia.
d) All of the above.

15. Which research findings have been used to support the belief that every middle-aged person experiences a mid-life crisis?

a) Periods of turbulence and self-doubt are experienced by adults of most ages
b) In large samples of middle-aged people, a minority of people report the experience of a mid-life crisis
c) Many middle-aged people report better mental health and self-esteem during this period of life than ever before
d) None of the above
e) All of the above

16. Which of the following are ‘myths’ of middle age?

Periods of turbulence and self-doubt are peculiar to this age group.
The majority of middle-aged people feel they have experienced a crisis.
Substantial proportions of middle-aged people report better mental health and self-esteem during this phase of life than ever before.
In middle age, a lot depends on the quality of a person’s attachment to his or her partner.

a) 1 & 2
b) 2 & 3
c) 3
d) 4

17. On the average, how do people in late adulthood (mid-60�s) compare to people in early adulthood (mid-20�s) on tests of cognitive performance?

a) 60-year olds perform roughly the same as 20-year olds
b) 60-year olds perform better than 20-year olds
c) 60-year olds perform worse than 20-year olds
d) Research has not compared 60-year olds to 20-year olds
e) None of the above

18. Which factor(s) have been identified as critical to maintaining positive mental and physical health in late adulthood?

a) Having grandchildren
b) Retirement
c) Social support
d) (a) and (b)
e) All of the above

19. Which of the following statements is FALSE? In old age:

a) Some people find that the marital relationship becomes more rewarding.
b) The most long-lasting relationships are usually with siblings.
c) Family becomes more important.
d) Social networks are no longer important.

20. According to longitudinal research by Levy and colleagues, what psychological factors were significantly associated with how long people actually lived?

a) Parents� age of death and will to live
b) Generativity and secure attachments
c) Optimism and openness to experience
d) Perceptions of ageing and will to live
e) All of the above