A researcher tests memory in groups of 20-, 40- and 60-year-olds, all in the same month. Which design is this?Answer: Cross-sectional. Source: Wikipedia, "Cross-sectional study". DSST outline area I (12%), b. Research methods
A study starts with several age groups and follows each of them for ten years. Which design combines the other two in this way?Answer: Cross-sequential. Source: Wikipedia, "Cross-sequential study". DSST outline area I (12%), b. Research methods
Before testing eight-year-olds, a researcher explains the tasks and risks to their parents and gets their signed permission. Which ethical requirement is this?Answer: Informed consent. Source: Wikipedia, "Informed consent". DSST outline area I (12%), c. Ethical issues
Bronfenbrenner drew a child's world as nested systems. What did he call the innermost one, made up of home, classroom and playmates?Answer: The microsystem. Source: Wikipedia, "Ecological systems theory". DSST outline area I (12%), a. Models and theories
Children who are read to more have larger vocabularies. Why can a correlational study not show that reading causes the gain?Answer: A third factor may drive both, or the cause may run the other way. Source: Wikipedia, "Correlation does not imply causation". DSST outline area I (12%), b. Research methods
Lorenz's goslings followed the first moving thing they saw in the hours after hatching, and only then. What does this show?Answer: A critical period. Source: Wikipedia, "Imprinting (psychology)". DSST outline area I (12%), a. Models and theories
Show all 50 questions (44 more)
Biological development 11
A couple with a family history of an inherited disorder meet a specialist to learn the chance of passing it on. What is this service called?Answer: Genetic counseling. Source: Wikipedia, "Genetic counseling". DSST outline area II (22%), a. Genetic factors (including counseling)
A delivery-room nurse scores a newborn on the Apgar scale twice. At what times?Answer: At one and five minutes after birth. Source: Wikipedia, "Apgar score". DSST outline area II (22%), b. Prenatal development and birth
A leaflet warns that a certain solvent is a teratogen. What does that word tell a pregnant worker?Answer: It may cause birth defects by its effect on the embryo or fetus. Source: Wikipedia, "Teratology". DSST outline area II (22%), b. Prenatal development and birth
A newborn's head is large for its body, and the proportion shrinks as the child grows. What is this head-to-tail pattern of growth called?Answer: The cephalocaudal trend. Source: Wikipedia, "Cephalocaudal trend". DSST outline area II (22%), c. Physical development
Between early childhood and the onset of puberty the brain removes many of the synapses it formed earlier. What is this process called?Answer: Synaptic pruning. Source: Wikipedia, "Synaptic pruning". DSST outline area II (22%), f. Neurological development
Brown eyes, height and a quick temper are things we can observe in a person. What is the set of an organism's observable traits called?Answer: The phenotype. Source: Wikipedia, "Phenotype". DSST outline area II (22%), a. Genetic factors (including counseling)
In middle age many people begin to hold a menu at arm's length to read it. Which age-related change is this?Answer: Presbyopia. Source: Wikipedia, "Presbyopia". DSST outline area II (22%), g. Sensory development
In the study of puberty, what does the term menarche name?Answer: The first menstrual period. Source: Wikipedia, "Menarche". DSST outline area II (22%), e. Sexual development
Kübler-Ross listed five emotions in a set order. Which one sits third, between anger and depression?Answer: Bargaining. Source: Wikipedia, "Five stages of grief". DSST outline area II (22%), i. Dying and death
Picking up a raisin between thumb and finger is an example of which kind of skill?Answer: A fine motor skill. Source: Wikipedia, "Motor skill". DSST outline area II (22%), d. Motor development
Prenatal development starts with fertilization and the germinal stage. What is the phase that follows embryonic development and lasts until birth?Answer: Fetal development. Source: Wikipedia, "Prenatal development". DSST outline area II (22%), b. Prenatal development and birth
Perception, learning and memory 8
A baby stares at a new mobile, then looks at it less and less each time it is shown. What is this decline in response called?Answer: Habituation. Source: Wikipedia, "Habituation". DSST outline area III (15%), a. Perceptual development
A teenager tidies his room and the nagging stops, so he tidies more often. Which process raised the behavior?Answer: Negative reinforcement. Source: Wikipedia, "Reinforcement". DSST outline area III (15%), b. Learning, conditioning and modeling
A ten-year-old notices that she remembers a list better when she groups the words, and starts doing it on purpose. What is this awareness of one's own thinking called?Answer: Metacognition. Source: Wikipedia, "Metacognition". DSST outline area III (15%), e. Attention and information processing
A toddler was startled by a loud noise in a clinic and now cries at the sight of a white coat. Which kind of learning explains this?Answer: Classical conditioning. Source: Wikipedia, "Classical conditioning". DSST outline area III (15%), b. Learning, conditioning and modeling
In Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, what did children do after watching an adult hit the doll?Answer: They imitated the aggression. Source: Wikipedia, "Bobo doll experiment". DSST outline area III (15%), b. Learning, conditioning and modeling
Inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility are the core of which set of abilities?Answer: Executive functions. Source: Wikipedia, "Executive functions". DSST outline area III (15%), d. Executive functioning
Most adults cannot recall events from before the age of about three. What is this called?Answer: Childhood amnesia. Source: Wikipedia, "Childhood amnesia". DSST outline area III (15%), c. Memory (over the entire life span)
What did Gibson and Walk's visual cliff apparatus test in infants?Answer: Depth perception. Source: Wikipedia, "Visual cliff". DSST outline area III (15%), a. Perceptual development
Cognition and language 10
A ball of clay is rolled out into a long snake, and a seven-year-old says there is still just as much clay. What has she grasped?Answer: Conservation. Source: Wikipedia, "Conservation (psychology)". DSST outline area IV (20%), a. Cognitive-development theory
A child cannot yet tie his shoes alone but manages when his sister talks him through each step. Vygotsky called this range of tasks what?Answer: The zone of proximal development. Source: Wikipedia, "Zone of proximal development". DSST outline area IV (20%), a. Cognitive-development theory
A four-year-old understands that a friend who did not see the candy moved will look for it in the old place. What has the child acquired?Answer: A theory of mind. Source: Wikipedia, "Theory of mind". DSST outline area IV (20%), e. Social cognition
A nine-month-old lifts a cloth to find the toy hidden under it. In which of Piaget's stages does this ability, object permanence, develop?Answer: Sensorimotor. Source: Wikipedia, "Piaget's theory of cognitive development". DSST outline area IV (20%), a. Cognitive-development theory
Chomsky proposed that children are born with a capacity that lets them pick up the grammar of any language they hear. What did he call it?Answer: The language acquisition device. Source: Wikipedia, "Language acquisition device". DSST outline area IV (20%), d. Language development and theories
"Daddy go." "More juice." What are a toddler's two-word sentences, which leave out the small words, called?Answer: Telegraphic speech. Source: Wikipedia, "Telegraphic speech". DSST outline area IV (20%), d. Language development and theories
Needing a paperweight, a student never thinks of using the stapler on her desk. Which barrier to problem solving is this?Answer: Functional fixedness. Source: Wikipedia, "Functional fixedness". DSST outline area IV (20%), b. Problem solving
On most modern IQ tests, what are the average score and the standard deviation?Answer: 100 and 15. Source: Wikipedia, "Intelligence quotient". DSST outline area IV (20%), c. Intelligence and intelligence testing
Reasoning about abstract ideas and testing hypotheses in an orderly way marks which of Piaget's stages?Answer: Formal operational. Source: Wikipedia, "Piaget's theory of cognitive development". DSST outline area IV (20%), a. Cognitive-development theory
Solving a new kind of puzzle quickly draws on one type of intelligence; a large vocabulary draws on another. What are the two called?Answer: Fluid and crystallized. Source: Wikipedia, "Fluid and crystallized intelligence". DSST outline area IV (20%), c. Intelligence and intelligence testing
Social, emotional and personality development 15
A 13-year-old is sure that no one has ever felt what she feels and that the dangers her friends face could never touch her. What did Elkind call this belief?Answer: The personal fable. Source: Wikipedia, "Personal fable". DSST outline area V (31%), b. Social behaviors and development
A machinist of 55 volunteers to train apprentices so that the trade will outlast him. Which of Erikson's conflicts is he working through?Answer: Generativity versus stagnation. Source: Wikipedia, "Erikson's stages of psychosocial development". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
A mother enforces a curfew, tells her son why it exists and hears out his objections kindly. What would Baumrind call her style?Answer: Authoritative. Source: Wikipedia, "Parenting styles". DSST outline area V (31%), b. Social behaviors and development
A two-year-old insists on choosing her own shoes and pulling them on herself. In Erikson's theory, which conflict belongs to this age?Answer: Autonomy versus shame and doubt. Source: Wikipedia, "Erikson's stages of psychosocial development". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
A woman of 48 supports her teenage children and also looks after her ailing father. What is her generation often called?Answer: The sandwich generation. Source: Wikipedia, "Sandwich generation". DSST outline area V (31%), c. Singlehood, cohabitation, marriage and family
An 80-year-old looks back on her life and feels it was well spent. Which of Erikson's conflicts has she resolved?Answer: Integrity versus despair. Source: Wikipedia, "Erikson's stages of psychosocial development". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
Harlow's infant monkeys could cling to a soft cloth "mother" or a wire one that held the bottle. What did they do?Answer: They spent most of their time on the cloth mother. Source: Wikipedia, "Harry Harlow". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
Holland matched people to careers with six personality types, known as RIASEC. Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social and Enterprising are five. What is the sixth?Answer: Conventional. Source: Wikipedia, "Holland Codes". DSST outline area V (31%), e. Occupational development and retirement
"I handed in the wallet because that is what a good person does, and people will think well of me." Where would Kohlberg place this reasoning?Answer: Conventional. Source: Wikipedia, "Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development". DSST outline area V (31%), b. Social behaviors and development
In Ainsworth's Strange Situation, a one-year-old is upset when the caregiver leaves and is quickly comforted when she returns. Which attachment pattern is this?Answer: Secure. Source: Wikipedia, "Strange situation". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
In Sternberg's triangular theory, love that has intimacy, passion and commitment together is called what?Answer: Consummate love. Source: Wikipedia, "Triangular theory of love". DSST outline area V (31%), c. Singlehood, cohabitation, marriage and family
Thomas and Chess sorted infants into three temperament types. Two are "easy" and "difficult". What is the third?Answer: Slow to warm up. Source: Wikipedia, "Temperament". DSST outline area V (31%), a. Personality and emotional development
Two three-year-olds sit side by side, each building with blocks, without playing together. In Parten's stages, what kind of play is this?Answer: Parallel play. Source: Wikipedia, "Parten's stages of play". DSST outline area V (31%), b. Social behaviors and development
Which kind of care centers on comfort and quality of life for people who are terminally ill, without trying to cure the illness?Answer: Hospice. Source: Wikipedia, "Hospice". DSST outline area V (31%), d. Extra-familial settings
Which theory holds that older adults are happiest when they keep up their activities and social ties after retirement?Answer: Activity theory. Source: Wikipedia, "Activity theory (aging)". DSST outline area V (31%), f. Adjustment to life changes and stresses
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the exam content outline in the DSST fact sheet for Lifespan Developmental Psychology (Prometric, Rev 11/2021, https://getcollegecredit.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/DSST_LifespanDevelopmentalPsychology.pdf, read 2026-10-14): The Study of Lifespan Development 12%, Biological Development 22%, Perception, Learning, and Memory 15%, Cognition and Language 20%, Social, Emotional, and Personality Development 31%. This bank holds 50: 6, 11, 8, 10 and 15, the nearest whole numbers to those shares. Every fact was read on 2026-10-14 on the Wikipedia article named under its question. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This free Lifespan Developmental Psychology DSST study guide covers the exam's five outline areas with 50 practice questions of our own. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Prometric, which owns the DSST exams.
Read the full guide
How the exam is weighted
The fact sheet (Rev 11/2021) lists five areas: the study of lifespan development 12%, biological development 22%, perception, learning and memory 15%, cognition and language 20%, and social, emotional and personality development 31%. The bank holds 6, 11, 8, 10 and 15.
From conception to death
Biological development alone runs from genetic factors and prenatal growth through motor, sexual, neurological and sensory development to aging, dying and death. The social area reaches day care, school, marriage, work, retirement and hospice.
Social, emotional and personality development is the largest area at 31%: attachment, temperament, parenting, moral reasoning, family, work and adjusting to loss.
The first area, 12%, is method: research designs, theories and the ethics of studying people.
Questions and answers
Is there a Lifespan Developmental Psychology DSST study guide?
Yes: this page follows the exam's own fact sheet, which Prometric gives away with the outline, sample questions and five textbook references. Each of the five areas has its own set of questions here, and every answer names the Wikipedia article it was checked on.
How many questions are on the Lifespan Developmental Psychology DSST?
100, with 2 hours to answer them. Practice here is at the same pace: exam mode gives 60 minutes for the 50 questions in the bank.
What score do you need to pass the DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology exam?
A scaled score of at least 400 is what the American Council on Education ties its recommendation to: 3 semester hours of upper-level baccalaureate credit. No percent right is published, and the receiving school decides.
Are these real DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology questions?
No. All 50 are written from the five outline areas, each checked on the Wikipedia article named under it, with nothing taken from the exam or from the fact sheet's sample questions, so scores here and there are unrelated.