A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development Exam Preparation
Notes Questions with Correct Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: What is the core belief of Freud's psychoanalytic theory?
Answer: Unconscious forces act to determine personality & behavior
Question 2: Define lifespan development
Answer: field of study that examines
patterns of growth, change & stability that occur from birth,
throughout a persons' life, into and during old age.
Question 3: What type of theory is attributed to Vygotsky?
Answer: Sociocultural theory emphasizes how cognitive development
proceeds as a result of social interactions btwn members of a culture
Question 4: What is the theory behind cognitive development?
Answer: Piaget's theory is based on approach to development - all children
pass through a series of four universal stages from birth thru
adolescence: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational &
formal operational. Movement from one stage to next occurs when
child reaches appropriate level of physical maturation & exposure to
experience. Without such experience, Piaget assumed child
incapable of reaching cognitive potential
Question 5: How is personality development defined?
Answer: Development
involves the ways that enduring characteristics which differentiate
one person from another change over the lifespan
Question 6: How is social development defined?
Answer: the way in which
individuals' interactions with other and their social relationships
grow, change & remain stable over the lifespan
Page 1
, Question 7: What is the evolutionary perspective?
Answer: theory that seeks
to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from
our ancestors
Question 8: What are Piaget's two basic stages of cognitive development?
Answer: Assimilation and Accommodation
- Assimilation is the process in which people understand a new
experience in terms of current stage of cognitive development and
existing ways of thinking
- accommodation refers to changes in existing ways of thinking in
response to encounters with new stimuli or events.
Question 9: What type of learning is modeling?
Answer: Learning behavior by
observing the behavior of another person
Question 10: What is Nature in relationship to development?
Answer: traits,
abilities & capacities that are inherited from one's parents.
Encompasses predetermined genetic information
Question 11: Who is behind theory of self-actualization?
Answer: Carl Rogers &
Abraham Maslow
Question 12: What is the "behavioral perspective"?
Answer: the keys to
understanding development are observable behavior and outside
stimuli in the environment
Question 13: What is the sociocultural perspective?
Answer: cognitive
development is a result of social interactions between members of a
cultural
Page 2
Notes Questions with Correct Answers (Grade A+)
Question 1: What is the core belief of Freud's psychoanalytic theory?
Answer: Unconscious forces act to determine personality & behavior
Question 2: Define lifespan development
Answer: field of study that examines
patterns of growth, change & stability that occur from birth,
throughout a persons' life, into and during old age.
Question 3: What type of theory is attributed to Vygotsky?
Answer: Sociocultural theory emphasizes how cognitive development
proceeds as a result of social interactions btwn members of a culture
Question 4: What is the theory behind cognitive development?
Answer: Piaget's theory is based on approach to development - all children
pass through a series of four universal stages from birth thru
adolescence: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational &
formal operational. Movement from one stage to next occurs when
child reaches appropriate level of physical maturation & exposure to
experience. Without such experience, Piaget assumed child
incapable of reaching cognitive potential
Question 5: How is personality development defined?
Answer: Development
involves the ways that enduring characteristics which differentiate
one person from another change over the lifespan
Question 6: How is social development defined?
Answer: the way in which
individuals' interactions with other and their social relationships
grow, change & remain stable over the lifespan
Page 1
, Question 7: What is the evolutionary perspective?
Answer: theory that seeks
to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from
our ancestors
Question 8: What are Piaget's two basic stages of cognitive development?
Answer: Assimilation and Accommodation
- Assimilation is the process in which people understand a new
experience in terms of current stage of cognitive development and
existing ways of thinking
- accommodation refers to changes in existing ways of thinking in
response to encounters with new stimuli or events.
Question 9: What type of learning is modeling?
Answer: Learning behavior by
observing the behavior of another person
Question 10: What is Nature in relationship to development?
Answer: traits,
abilities & capacities that are inherited from one's parents.
Encompasses predetermined genetic information
Question 11: Who is behind theory of self-actualization?
Answer: Carl Rogers &
Abraham Maslow
Question 12: What is the "behavioral perspective"?
Answer: the keys to
understanding development are observable behavior and outside
stimuli in the environment
Question 13: What is the sociocultural perspective?
Answer: cognitive
development is a result of social interactions between members of a
cultural
Page 2
