Essential Psychology
Student Resources
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Achievement of which milestones mark the transition to adulthood?
- buying a car
- having a family
- buying a house
- none of these; the transition to adulthood is gradual and not marked by a single factor
Answer: D
2. What are the first two stages of Levinson’s (1978) stage model for adult development?
- transition phase, entering adult world phase
- transition phase, settling down period
- transition phase, age 30 transition phase
- settling down period, age 30 transition phase
Answer: A
3. What are the final two phases of Levinson’s (1978) stage model for adult development?
- transition phase, settling down period
- age 30 transition phase, settling down period
- transition phase, entering adult world phase
- settling down period, age 30 transition phase
Answer: B
4. Social and emotional well-being in young adulthood can be affected by what?
- establishing a career
- establishing first serious relationships
- increasing responsibility and independence
- all of these
Answer: D
5. During early adulthood, which of the following begin to decline?
- metabolism
- dexterity
- physical fitness
- cognitive functioning
Answer: A
6. During early adulthood, which of the following are thought to be at their peak?
- hearing high-pitched noises
- metabolism
- flexibility
- reaction times
Answer: D
7. Schaie’s (1996) longitudinal study exploring the intelligence throughout the lifespan looked at five primary abilities. What did their results show?
- modest decreases across most of the five areas of ability
- modest gains across most of the five areas of ability
- significant gains across most of the five areas of ability
- significant decreases across most of the five areas of ability
Answer: B
8. What are some of the ‘crises’ affecting social and emotional well-being in middle adulthood?
- physical signs of ageing
- children growing up and leaving home
- boredom with a chosen career
- all of these
Answer: D
9. Leuner, Gould and Shors (2006) found that
- new neurons can develop in certain parts of the brain throughout the lifespan
- no new neurons develop after adolescence; the brain is static
- neurons begin to die and are not replaced after adolescence
- none of these
Answer: A
10. Fluid abilities such as short-term memory are
- more susceptible than crystallized abilities to cognitive decline
- less susceptible than crystallized abilities to cognitive decline
- equally susceptible to cognitive decline as crystallized abilities
- none of these
Answer: A
11. Fluid abilities include
- information-processing ability
- short-term memory ability
- long-term memory ability
- all of these
Answer: D
12. Crystallized abilities include the ability to use skills, knowledge and experience. These abilities tend to
- improve with age as individuals expand their knowledge through experience
- decline with age along with general cognitive function
- stay static over time
- none of these
Answer: A
13. The frontal lobe hypothesis is the theory that decline in frontal lobe functioning underlies general age-related cognitive ______?
- improvements
- stereotypes
- decline
- perceptual skills
Answer: C
14. When a participant is effectively inhibiting attention towards a distracting item, if that item is then deemed relevant in the next trial of the task, his/her response will typically be slowed. This is an example of what?
- learning difficulties
- negative priming
- cognitive decline
- fluid intelligence
Answer: B
15. Research on changes in the way cognitive skills develop or decline across the entire lifespan would need to use what type of research design?
- cross sectional
- longitudinal
- observational
- natural
Answer: B
16. Carstensen, Turan, Schiebe, Ram, Ersner-Hershfield et al. (2011) found that
- positive emotional experiences decrease with age
- positive emotional experiences increase with age
- positive and negative experiences increase with age
- positive experiences are higher in early adulthood than in late adulthood
Answer: B
17. Which of the following lifestyle factors are known to affect well-being positively in late adulthood?
- mental and physical activity, nutrition
- alcohol consumption and retiring early
- drug consumption, mental and physical activity
- none of these
Answer: A
18. What does the term ‘population ageing’ mean?
- the trend for the youngest age groups in society to grow faster than the oldest age groups
- the trend for the middle-aged groups in society to grow faster than the oldest age groups
- the trend for the oldest age groups in society to grow faster than the younger age groups
- the trend for the youngest age groups in society to grow faster than the middle-aged groups
Answer: C
19. Carson et al. (2013) found that giving up smoking in later life
- is pointless as the damage has already been done
- tends to lead to a decrease in life expectancy
- makes no significant difference to health outcomes
- can add years to life expectancy
Answer: D
20. The concept of ‘grand-generativity’ refers to
- the creation of large and significant projects that contribute to wider society
- having grandchildren
- people developing their abilities and transmitting knowledge and values to younger generations in later life
- younger generations teaching those in older generations to understand new concepts relating to changes in the modern world
Answer: C
21. What are the five dimensions of Martin Seligman’s PERMA model?
- Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment
- Patience, Energy, Reasoning, Management, Acceptance
- Polecat, Echidna, Rat, Mouse, Anteater
- Placidity, Equitability, Resilience, Measurement, Adaptation
Answer: A