DSST® practice test

Free DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology Practice Test

This is a set of 25 original practice questions that follow the official DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology content outline and its topic weights, each with a short explanation. Answer all 25, then read the explanations to see which topics need more study.

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  • 5 topics from the official outline
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25 questions

Question 1 of 25A study of 9-year-olds already has written informed consent from each child's parent. What else do ethical standards for research with children expect?
Question 2 of 25In Thomas and Chess's study, a baby is wary and withdrawn in new situations at first, but with mild reactions gradually adapts after repeated exposure. Which temperament type is this?
Question 3 of 25Which type of memory usually shows the largest decline in healthy older adults?
Question 4 of 25A 5-year-old sees two rows of 7 coins lined up evenly and agrees they have the same number. After one row is spread out, she says the longer row has more coins. In Piaget's theory, this error shows she has not yet mastered
Question 5 of 25In the Sally-Anne task, a child must predict where Sally will look for a marble that was moved while she was out of the room. Passing this false-belief task is the classic sign that a child has
Question 6 of 25A 50-year-old engineer starts mentoring young colleagues and volunteering with a youth program because she wants to leave something of value to the next generation. In Erikson's theory, which stage is she working through?
Question 7 of 25In Ainsworth's Strange Situation, an infant shows little distress when the mother leaves and ignores or turns away from her when she returns. Which attachment pattern is this?
Question 8 of 25Infants gain control of their heads and necks before their trunks, and their trunks before their legs. Which principle of growth does this show?
Question 9 of 25Which theorist argued that children are born with a language acquisition device that lets them learn the grammar of any language they hear?
Question 10 of 25Paul Baltes's lifespan perspective holds that at every age development involves both gains and losses, such as a teen gaining abstract reasoning while losing ease in learning a new accent. This principle is that development is
Question 11 of 25In Albert Bandura's Bobo doll study, children who watched an adult hit an inflatable doll later hit it themselves, though they had never been rewarded for doing so. What kind of learning is this?
Question 12 of 25Which theory says workers are most satisfied when their personality type, such as realistic, investigative or artistic, matches the type of work environment they are in?
Question 13 of 25A researcher tests memory in four groups of adults, aged 20, 40, 60 and 80, all in the same month, and finds that scores drop with age. Which design is this, and what is its main weakness?
Question 14 of 25Maya has firmly decided to become a dentist because both her parents are dentists, and she has never considered any other path. In Marcia's identity statuses, Maya is in
Question 15 of 25In Carolyn Rovee-Collier's studies, a ribbon tied a 3-month-old's ankle to a mobile, and the baby learned to kick to make it move. A week later the baby kicked again as soon as it saw the same mobile. What did this show?
Question 16 of 25Which ability tends to hold steady or even rise through middle adulthood, while others decline?
Question 17 of 25A father's employer changes his shifts to nights, and his young daughter, who never visits the workplace, starts seeing him less and sleeping worse. In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model, the workplace is part of the child's
Question 18 of 25A 75-year-old has cut back to a small circle of close family and old friends, explaining that with less time ahead she wants to spend it on the people who matter most. Which theory best explains this choice?
Question 19 of 25In Gibson and Walk's visual cliff studies, most crawling infants would not cross a glass surface over an apparent drop, even when their mothers called them. What ability did this test?
Question 20 of 25During which prenatal period is exposure to a teratogen most likely to cause major structural birth defects, such as malformed limbs or heart?
Question 21 of 25A child can't solve a puzzle alone but succeeds when an older sibling gives hints. Vygotsky called the range between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with such help the
Question 22 of 25During childhood and adolescence, the brain removes connections between neurons that are seldom used, which makes the remaining networks more efficient. What is this process called?
Question 23 of 25Two parents who do not have cystic fibrosis are both carriers of the recessive gene for it. What is the chance that any one of their children will have the disorder?
Question 24 of 25Parents set clear, firm rules, explain the reasons for them, and are warm and responsive to their children's views. In Baumrind's terms, their style is
Question 25 of 25In Sternberg's triangular theory of love, a long marriage with deep intimacy and commitment but little passion is called

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