LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE EXAM
2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
GUARANTEED
◉ Extreme Sports. Answer: Forms of recreation that include
apparent risk in injury or death and are attractive and thrilling as a
result.
◉ Drug Abuse / Addiction. Answer: The ingestion of a drug to the
extent that it impairs the user's biological or psychological well-
being.
◉ Postformal Thought. Answer: A proposed adult stage of cognitive
development, following Piaget's four stages. Postformal thought
goes beyond adolescent thinking by being more practical, more
flexible, & more dialectical (more capable of combining
contradictory elements into a comprehensive whole).
◉ Stereotype Threat. Answer: The possibility that one's appearance
or behavior will be misread to confirm another person's
oversimplified, prejudiced attitudes.
◉ Massification. Answer: The idea that establishing higher learning
institutions & encouraging college enrollment could benefit
,everyone, leading to marked increases in the number of emerging
adults in college.
◉ Ethnic Identity. Answer: The development of ethnic & racial
identity.
◉ Personality in Emerging Adulthood. Answer: Continuity & change
are evident. This age is characterized by years of freedom from a
settled lifestyle. New characteristics appear & negative traits
diminish.
◉ Psychological Disorders. Answer: The rate of emotional disorders
rises in emerging adulthood. The causes are thought to include
psychological vulnerability, combined with one's own identity apart
from the family. (schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, suicide, drug
addiction)
◉ Intimacy vs. Isolation. Answer: The 6th of Erikson's 8 stages of
development. Adults seek someone with whom to share their lives in
an enduring and self-sacrificing commitment. Without such
commitment they risk profound loneliness & isolation.
◉ Choice Overload. Answer: Having so many options that a
thoughtful choice becomes difficult, & regret after making a choice is
more likely.
, ◉ Cohabitation. Answer: An arrangement in which a couple live
together in a committed romantic relationship but are not formally
married.
◉ Linked Lives. Answer: Lives in which the success, health, & well-
being of each family member are connected to those of other
members, including members of another generation, as in the
relationship between parents & children.
◉ Senescence. Answer: A gradual physical decline related to aging. It
occurs in everyone & in every body part, but the rate of decline is
highly variable within & between persons.
◉ Organ Reserve. Answer: The extra capacity built into each organ,
such as the heart & lungs, that allows a person to cope with
extraordinary demands or to withstand organ strain.
◉ Homeostasis. Answer: The adjustment of all the body's systems to
keep physiological functions in a state of equilibrium, moment by
moment. As the body ages, it takes longer for these homeostatic
adjustments to occur, so it becomes harder for older bodies to adapt
to stress.
2026 QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
GUARANTEED
◉ Extreme Sports. Answer: Forms of recreation that include
apparent risk in injury or death and are attractive and thrilling as a
result.
◉ Drug Abuse / Addiction. Answer: The ingestion of a drug to the
extent that it impairs the user's biological or psychological well-
being.
◉ Postformal Thought. Answer: A proposed adult stage of cognitive
development, following Piaget's four stages. Postformal thought
goes beyond adolescent thinking by being more practical, more
flexible, & more dialectical (more capable of combining
contradictory elements into a comprehensive whole).
◉ Stereotype Threat. Answer: The possibility that one's appearance
or behavior will be misread to confirm another person's
oversimplified, prejudiced attitudes.
◉ Massification. Answer: The idea that establishing higher learning
institutions & encouraging college enrollment could benefit
,everyone, leading to marked increases in the number of emerging
adults in college.
◉ Ethnic Identity. Answer: The development of ethnic & racial
identity.
◉ Personality in Emerging Adulthood. Answer: Continuity & change
are evident. This age is characterized by years of freedom from a
settled lifestyle. New characteristics appear & negative traits
diminish.
◉ Psychological Disorders. Answer: The rate of emotional disorders
rises in emerging adulthood. The causes are thought to include
psychological vulnerability, combined with one's own identity apart
from the family. (schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, suicide, drug
addiction)
◉ Intimacy vs. Isolation. Answer: The 6th of Erikson's 8 stages of
development. Adults seek someone with whom to share their lives in
an enduring and self-sacrificing commitment. Without such
commitment they risk profound loneliness & isolation.
◉ Choice Overload. Answer: Having so many options that a
thoughtful choice becomes difficult, & regret after making a choice is
more likely.
, ◉ Cohabitation. Answer: An arrangement in which a couple live
together in a committed romantic relationship but are not formally
married.
◉ Linked Lives. Answer: Lives in which the success, health, & well-
being of each family member are connected to those of other
members, including members of another generation, as in the
relationship between parents & children.
◉ Senescence. Answer: A gradual physical decline related to aging. It
occurs in everyone & in every body part, but the rate of decline is
highly variable within & between persons.
◉ Organ Reserve. Answer: The extra capacity built into each organ,
such as the heart & lungs, that allows a person to cope with
extraordinary demands or to withstand organ strain.
◉ Homeostasis. Answer: The adjustment of all the body's systems to
keep physiological functions in a state of equilibrium, moment by
moment. As the body ages, it takes longer for these homeostatic
adjustments to occur, so it becomes harder for older bodies to adapt
to stress.
