LIFE SPAN DEVELOPMENT EXAM SCRIPT 2026
COMPLETE ANSWER KEY A+
◉ Andropause. Answer: A term coined to signify a drop in
testosterone levels in older men, which normally results in reduced
sexual desire, erections, & muscle mass. (Male menopause)
◉ Morbidity / Mortality. Answer: Disease / Death
◉ Disability. Answer: The usual result of morbidity. The inability to
do something that people can usually do. (vision loss)
◉ Vitality. Answer: The most important way to measure health, but
also the most difficult. Some people with morbid conditions that
increase disability & the risk of mortality are nonetheless happy &
active.
◉ Problem-focused Coping. Answer: A strategy to deal with stress
by tackling a stressful situation directly.
◉ Emotion-focused Coping. Answer: A strategy to deal with stress
by changing feelings about the stressor rather than changing the
stressor itself.
,◉ General Intelligence. Answer: The idea that assumes that
intelligence is one basic trait, underlying all cognitive abilities.
According to this concept, people have varying levels of this general
ability.
◉ Flynn Effect. Answer: The rise in average IQ scores that has
occurred over the decades in many nations.
◉ Seattle Longitudinal Study. Answer: The first cross-sequential
study of adult intelligence. This study began in 1965; the most
recent testing was conducted in 2005.
◉ Fluid Intelligence. Answer: Those types of basic intelligence that
make learning of all sorts quick & thorough. Abilities such as short-
term memory, abstract thought, learning new things efficiently, &
speed of processing info are all usually considered part of it.
◉ Crystallized Intelligence. Answer: Those types of intellectual
ability that reflect accumulated learning. Vocab, facts, & general
information are examples. Some developmental psychologists think
it increases with age, while fluid intelligence declines.
◉ Selective Optimization with Compensation. Answer: The theory,
developed by Paul & Margart Baltes, that people try to maintain a
balance in their lives by looking for the best way to compensate for
, physical & cognitive losses & to become more proficient in activities
they can already do well.
◉ Automatic Processing. Answer: Thinking that occurs without
deliberate, conscious thought. Experts process most tasks
automatically, saving conscious thought for unfamiliar challenges.
◉ Analytic Intelligence. Answer: A form of intelligence that involves
such mental processes as abstract planning, strategy selection,
focused attention, & information processing, as well as verbal &
logical skills.
◉ Creative Intelligence. Answer: A form of intelligence that involves
the capacity to be intellectually flexible & innovative.
◉ Practical Intelligence. Answer: The intellectual skills used in
everyday problem solving.
◉ Midlife Crisis. Answer: A supposed period of unusual anxiety,
radical self-reexamination, & sudden transformation that was once
widely associated with middle age but that actually had more to do
with developmental history than with chronological age.
◉ Big Five. Answer: The 5 basic clusters of personality traits that
remain quite stable throughout adulthood:
COMPLETE ANSWER KEY A+
◉ Andropause. Answer: A term coined to signify a drop in
testosterone levels in older men, which normally results in reduced
sexual desire, erections, & muscle mass. (Male menopause)
◉ Morbidity / Mortality. Answer: Disease / Death
◉ Disability. Answer: The usual result of morbidity. The inability to
do something that people can usually do. (vision loss)
◉ Vitality. Answer: The most important way to measure health, but
also the most difficult. Some people with morbid conditions that
increase disability & the risk of mortality are nonetheless happy &
active.
◉ Problem-focused Coping. Answer: A strategy to deal with stress
by tackling a stressful situation directly.
◉ Emotion-focused Coping. Answer: A strategy to deal with stress
by changing feelings about the stressor rather than changing the
stressor itself.
,◉ General Intelligence. Answer: The idea that assumes that
intelligence is one basic trait, underlying all cognitive abilities.
According to this concept, people have varying levels of this general
ability.
◉ Flynn Effect. Answer: The rise in average IQ scores that has
occurred over the decades in many nations.
◉ Seattle Longitudinal Study. Answer: The first cross-sequential
study of adult intelligence. This study began in 1965; the most
recent testing was conducted in 2005.
◉ Fluid Intelligence. Answer: Those types of basic intelligence that
make learning of all sorts quick & thorough. Abilities such as short-
term memory, abstract thought, learning new things efficiently, &
speed of processing info are all usually considered part of it.
◉ Crystallized Intelligence. Answer: Those types of intellectual
ability that reflect accumulated learning. Vocab, facts, & general
information are examples. Some developmental psychologists think
it increases with age, while fluid intelligence declines.
◉ Selective Optimization with Compensation. Answer: The theory,
developed by Paul & Margart Baltes, that people try to maintain a
balance in their lives by looking for the best way to compensate for
, physical & cognitive losses & to become more proficient in activities
they can already do well.
◉ Automatic Processing. Answer: Thinking that occurs without
deliberate, conscious thought. Experts process most tasks
automatically, saving conscious thought for unfamiliar challenges.
◉ Analytic Intelligence. Answer: A form of intelligence that involves
such mental processes as abstract planning, strategy selection,
focused attention, & information processing, as well as verbal &
logical skills.
◉ Creative Intelligence. Answer: A form of intelligence that involves
the capacity to be intellectually flexible & innovative.
◉ Practical Intelligence. Answer: The intellectual skills used in
everyday problem solving.
◉ Midlife Crisis. Answer: A supposed period of unusual anxiety,
radical self-reexamination, & sudden transformation that was once
widely associated with middle age but that actually had more to do
with developmental history than with chronological age.
◉ Big Five. Answer: The 5 basic clusters of personality traits that
remain quite stable throughout adulthood:
