GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE
LIFESPAN EXAM 3 2026 SOLVED QUESTIONS
ANSWERS GRADED A PLUS AGING AND
TRANSITIONS HANDBOOK
◉ Development is Multideminsional.
Answer: Development has biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
dimensions.
Even within a dimension, there are many components. For example,
attention, memory, abstract thinking, speed of processing
information, and social intelligence are just a few of the components
of the cognitive dimension. No matter what your age might be, your
body, mind, emotions, and relationships are changing and affecting
each other.
◉ Development is plastic.
Answer: Plasticity means the capacity for change.
◉ Development is Lifelong.
Answer: In the life-span perspective, early adulthood is not the
endpoint of development; rather, no age period dominates
,development. Researchers increasingly study the experiences and
psychological orientations of adults at different points in their lives.
◉ Development is Multidisciplinary.
Answer: Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists,
and medical researchers all share an interest in unlocking the
mysteries of development through the life span.
◉ Development is Contextual.
Answer: All development occurs within a context, or setting.
Contexts include families, schools, peer groups, churches, cities,
neighborhoods, university laboratories, countries, and so on. Each of
these settings is influenced by historical, economic, social, and
cultural factors.
◉ Nature vs. Nurture.
Answer: "Nature" refers to genetic factors involved in development
(heredity)
"Nurture" refers to environmental factors and experiences involved
in development
◉ Continuity vs. Discontinuity.
, Answer: "Continuity" theory says that development is a gradual,
continuous process.
"Discontinuity" theory says that development occurs in a series of
distinct stages.
◉ Stability vs. Change.
Answer: Debate about whether we become older renditions of our
early experience (stability) or whether we develop into someone
different from who we were at an earlier point in development
(change).
◉ Frued's Psychosexual Theory of development.
Answer: Theory that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and
sexual impulses shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to
the genitals. As a result, we go through five stages of psychosexual
development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Our adult
personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between
sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.
◉ Erik Erikson's stages of Psychosocial development.
Answer: Pyschosocial theory that proposes eight stages of human
development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task
that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
LIFESPAN EXAM 3 2026 SOLVED QUESTIONS
ANSWERS GRADED A PLUS AGING AND
TRANSITIONS HANDBOOK
◉ Development is Multideminsional.
Answer: Development has biological, cognitive, and socioemotional
dimensions.
Even within a dimension, there are many components. For example,
attention, memory, abstract thinking, speed of processing
information, and social intelligence are just a few of the components
of the cognitive dimension. No matter what your age might be, your
body, mind, emotions, and relationships are changing and affecting
each other.
◉ Development is plastic.
Answer: Plasticity means the capacity for change.
◉ Development is Lifelong.
Answer: In the life-span perspective, early adulthood is not the
endpoint of development; rather, no age period dominates
,development. Researchers increasingly study the experiences and
psychological orientations of adults at different points in their lives.
◉ Development is Multidisciplinary.
Answer: Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists,
and medical researchers all share an interest in unlocking the
mysteries of development through the life span.
◉ Development is Contextual.
Answer: All development occurs within a context, or setting.
Contexts include families, schools, peer groups, churches, cities,
neighborhoods, university laboratories, countries, and so on. Each of
these settings is influenced by historical, economic, social, and
cultural factors.
◉ Nature vs. Nurture.
Answer: "Nature" refers to genetic factors involved in development
(heredity)
"Nurture" refers to environmental factors and experiences involved
in development
◉ Continuity vs. Discontinuity.
, Answer: "Continuity" theory says that development is a gradual,
continuous process.
"Discontinuity" theory says that development occurs in a series of
distinct stages.
◉ Stability vs. Change.
Answer: Debate about whether we become older renditions of our
early experience (stability) or whether we develop into someone
different from who we were at an earlier point in development
(change).
◉ Frued's Psychosexual Theory of development.
Answer: Theory that as children grow up, their focus of pleasure and
sexual impulses shifts from the mouth to the anus and eventually to
the genitals. As a result, we go through five stages of psychosexual
development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Our adult
personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between
sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality.
◉ Erik Erikson's stages of Psychosocial development.
Answer: Pyschosocial theory that proposes eight stages of human
development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task
that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
