Chapter 8: Well-Being Across the Life Span

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. ______ are considered more sensitive to cultural and historical differences in social role expectations than the other models.

A. Life course models

B. Growth models

C. Stage models

D. Life span models

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Well-Being Over the Life Span

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is considered a ______.

A. life course model

B. life span model

C. life stage model

D. nonnormative event model

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Stage Models and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. ______ assumed that a successful resolution of each stage challenge resulted in the two poles finding a healthy balance.

A. Erikson

B. Maslow

C. Baltes

D. Carstenson

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Stage Models and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Which of the following is TRUE regarding generativity?

A. It is unrelated to education.

B. No significant differences in generativity have been found between men and women.

C. It is associated with well-being.

D. The highest levels of generativity are found among those in emerging adulthood and young adulthood.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Generativity: Nurturing and Guiding Others

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Which of the following is NOT one of the 5 Cs that characterizes the process of positive youth development?

A. competence

B. conscientiousness

C. character

D. caring

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Positive Youth Development

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. When researchers in the area of positive youth development refer to developmental assets, they are talking about ______.

A. a high IQ.

B. the personality trait of extraversion

C. supportive contexts

D. character strengths

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Positive Youth Development

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Of the following, who would be most likely to perceive the smallest discrepancy between their life goals and their actual achievements in life?

A. Bruno, a 17-year-old male

B. Sharna, a 25-year-old female

C. Maxine, a 40-year-old female

D. Gertrude, a 69-year-old female

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Early and Middle Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Jamil is 49 years of age. ______ is most likely to have shown a decline since his college days.

A. His level of empathy

B. His ability to multitask

C. His ability to see the big picture

D. His ability to make financial decisions

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Middle-Aged Brain

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Historically, research on resilience began with the study of ______. Werner’s well-known study included participants from Hawaii.

A. infants

B. children

C. adolescents

D. middle-age adults

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Resilience in Children

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. According to socioemotional selectivity theory, ______.

A. adults with lower self-esteem are biologically programmed to be more conforming

B. most older adults will conduct a life review

C. the older we get, the more important it becomes to acquire knowledge

D. shrinking social networks in adulthood are by choice

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Successful Aging and Aging Well

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. According to Antonovsky, a sense of coherence comprises meaningfulness, manageability, and ______.

A. comprehensibility

B. training

C. mature defense mechanisms

D. generativity

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Sense of Coherence

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Which of the following is TRUE of posttraumatic growth?

A. It refers to common but potentially transient adjustments to adversity. In other words, “seeing the glass as half full.”

B. It requires taking action on the world.

C. It posits that true growth only occurs when people do not alter their sense of identity.

D. It posits that true growth only occurs when people maintain their life goals.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Adjusting to Difficult Life Events

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Narratives that display transformational processing are characterized by ______.

A. high self-esteem and resilience

B. generativity and ego resiliency

C. high coherent positive processing and high exploratory processing

D. high sense of future possibilities and identity exploration

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Themes in Life Stories

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Arthur Rubenstein was a famous pianist who still performed well into his 80s. Although he could no longer play as fast as he used to, he maintained his reputation as one of the top concert pianists. He did this by selecting a smaller rage of pieces, practicing those remaining pieces more, and making the fast parts seem faster by playing the slower parts that came right before extra slow. This is an example of ______.

A. selective optimization with compensation

B. flow

C. a mature defense mechanism

D. socioemotional selectivity theory

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Middle-Aged Brain

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Which of the following is NOT one of the five features of emerging adulthood according to Arnett?

A. the age of stability

B. the self-focused age

C. the age of feeling in-between

D. the age of possibilities

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Emerging Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. The concepts of fixed and growth mind-sets apply to children, but not adults.

B. When children were praised for their intelligence, it was more difficult for them to adapt to later difficulties.

C. Children with a growth mind-set believe that their abilities are determined by their innate intelligence.

D. Those with a growth mind-set lost interest in solving difficult problems after they were informed that their answers were incorrect.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Emerging Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. According to Carol Dweck, children with ______ are more likely to persist in difficult tasks and overcome challenges.

A. a commitment script

B. higher emotional intelligence

C. a growth mind-set

D. generativity

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Emerging Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Arnett’s coined the term ______ for the period after adolescence and before early adulthood.

A. young adulthood

B. advanced adolescence

C. youth

D. emerging adulthood

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Emerging Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. Researchers who have used a narrative approach have noted that two of the major functions for our personal stories are ______.

A. to increase flow and positive emotions

B. to aid in the creation of a sense of self and help create a sense of meaning

C. to change one’s age identity and increase opportunities for resilience

D. to serve as a cathartic release of bottled up emotions and to increase generativity

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Narrative Approaches to the Life Span: Telling Stories to Make Sense of Our Lives

Difficulty Level: Easy

20. According to Laura Carstensen, the drive for emotional regulation becomes dominant in ______.

A. childhood

B. adolescence

C. emerging adulthood

D. late adulthood

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Middle-Aged Brain

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Increased generativity is the best predictor of well-being in midlife.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: Generativity: Nurturing and Guiding Others

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Olga is 72 years old. If her experiences are consistent with research, to remain relatively happy and satisfied, she must continue to have good health.

Cognitive Domain: Applied

Answer Location: Successful Aging and Aging Well

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. In Western cultures, the increase in well-being with age is mostly attributed to an increase in positive emotions rather than a decrease in negative emotions.

Cognitive Domain: Conceptual

Answer Location: The Middle-Aged Brain

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Early research on resilience tended to focus on the personality traits of resilient children.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: New Perspectives on Resilient Children

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Antonovsky theorized that a sense of coherence is made up of three factors. One of those factors is comprehensibility, the extent to which life events seem ordered and consistent. Life does not appear to be chaotic and random.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Sense of Coherence

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Describe what Erikson meant by generativity. Include an example of how someone might achieve generativity and at least one correlate of those who score high on measures of generativity.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Generativity: Nurturing and Guiding Others

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Give an example of selective optimization with compensation.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Life Span and Life Course Models and Well-Being

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Explain what Dweck meant by fixed and growth mind-sets. Give an example of how these impact motivation to persist on difficult tasks.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Emerging Adulthood

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Explain socioemotional selectivity theory.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Middle-Aged Brain

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Discuss at least two environmental factors that research shows play a vital role in the resilience of children.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: New Perspectives on Resilient Children

Difficulty Level: Medium