How many of these 20 do I need to get right to be on track?

About 16. A passing score works out to roughly 80 percent, so clearing 16 of 20 consistently across a few sets puts you in passing range.

Are these the same questions that appear on the real exam?

No. These are representative practice questions in the exam's style. The real exam draws from a much larger pool, which is why practice volume, not memorizing any single set, is what moves your score.

Where do I get more questions like these?

The Flying Prep DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology question bank has every question explained and reviewed against the current outline. Start a free trial and drill the topics your misses point to.

20 DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology practice questions, with answers and video walkthroughs

Twenty practice questions for DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology, in the real exam's style. Score 16 of 20 here and you are in passing range. Miss more than four, and the pattern of your misses points straight at the topic to review next. Every question below is explained on video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.

What students preparing for this exam tell us is that steady practice in the exam's format, with an explanation for every miss, is what moves a score. Use these the same way: answer, check, and read why the wrong choices are tempting. For the full plan around them, see the DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology pillar guide.

Watch the full video walkthrough above, then test yourself on the twenty questions below. Each one is explained on the video, including why the wrong answers trap most test-takers.

Questions 1 to 5 (questions 1 to 5)

1. A study that follows the SAME group of people over many years to track how they change is called a: Longitudinal Study. A longitudinal study tests one group repeatedly over time, so it can show real change within the same people. A cross-sectional study, by contrast, compares different age groups all at once.

2. According to Erik Erikson, the central psychosocial conflict of adolescence is: Identity Versus Role Confusion. Erikson placed identity versus role confusion in adolescence, when the central task is forming a coherent sense of self. Intimacy comes next in young adulthood, and trust is the infant's first stage.

3. A researcher comparing reaction time in groups of twenty-, forty-, and sixty-year-olds tested on the same day is using a: Cross-sectional Design. A cross-sectional design compares different age groups at a single point in time. It is fast and avoids dropout, but it can confuse age differences with cohort, or generational, differences.

4. The ongoing debate over how much development is driven by genes versus experience is known as: Nature Versus Nurture. Nature versus nurture asks how much heredity and environment each shape development. Most modern developmentalists answer both, and study how genes and experience interact rather than compete.

5. In Vygotsky's theory, the gap between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help from a more skilled partner is called the: Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the range of tasks a child cannot yet do alone but can do with guidance. Teaching aimed at that zone, often through scaffolding, drives cognitive growth.

Questions 6 to 10 (questions 6 to 10)

6. In Piaget's theory, object permanence is the major achievement of the: Sensorimotor Stage. Object permanence develops in the sensorimotor stage, roughly the first two years, as infants learn that objects continue to exist when out of sight. Mastering it marks the close of that stage.

7. In Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation, an infant who explores freely, is upset when the caregiver leaves, and is quickly comforted on reunion is classified as: Securely Attached. Securely attached infants use the caregiver as a safe base, protest separation, and settle quickly on reunion. The pattern is linked to caregivers who respond sensitively to the baby's signals.

8. Harry Harlow's experiments with infant monkeys and wire versus cloth surrogate mothers showed that attachment depends most on: Contact Comfort. Harlow's monkeys clung to the soft cloth mother even when the wire mother held the bottle. This showed that contact comfort, not feeding, is the foundation of early attachment.

9. A two-year-old insists on feeding herself and shouts no at every request. In Erikson's framework, she is working through the stage of: Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt. Erikson's second stage, autonomy versus shame and doubt, falls in toddlerhood as children assert independence in choices like feeding and toileting. Supporting that drive builds a sense of will.

10. The fastest period of physical growth across the entire human lifespan occurs during: Infancy. Infancy brings the most rapid physical growth of any life stage; babies often triple their birth weight within the first year. The adolescent growth spurt is dramatic but still slower than infancy.

Questions 11 to 15 (questions 11 to 15)

11. In Piaget's theory, the ability to reason about abstract and hypothetical ideas emerges in the: Formal Operational Stage. Formal operational thought, beginning around adolescence, allows reasoning about abstractions and hypothetical possibilities. Younger concrete-operational children reason logically only about tangible, present situations.

12. Adolescent egocentrism in which teens believe everyone is watching and judging them is described as the concept of the: Imaginary Audience. The imaginary audience is the adolescent's sense of being constantly observed and evaluated by others. Its partner concept, the personal fable, is the teen's belief that their own experiences are unique.

13. The female reproductive milestone marking the end of menstruation and fertility in midlife is called: Menopause. Menopause, typically around age fifty, ends menstruation and natural fertility. It contrasts with menarche, which is the first menstrual period at the start of adolescence.

14. In Kohlberg's theory of moral development, reasoning based on gaining rewards and avoiding punishment is characteristic of the: Preconventional Level. At Kohlberg's preconventional level, right and wrong are judged by direct consequences, rewards and punishments. Conventional reasoning later shifts to social approval and law, and postconventional to abstract ethical principles.

15. According to Baltes and the selective optimization with compensation model, older adults age most successfully when they: Focus on Key Goals and Use Strategies to Offset Losses. Selective optimization with compensation describes aging well by choosing priorities, practicing them, and finding workarounds for declines. A pianist who plays fewer pieces but rehearses them more is the classic example.

Questions 16 to 20 (questions 16 to 20)

16. The type of intelligence that reflects accumulated knowledge and vocabulary, and tends to hold steady or rise into old age, is: Crystallized Intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is stored knowledge and verbal skill, and it generally stays stable or grows with age. Fluid intelligence, the ability to solve novel problems quickly, tends to decline in later adulthood.

17. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's well-known model describes five stages of: Dying and Grief. Kubler-Ross proposed five emotional stages of facing death and loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. She emphasized that people do not pass through them in a fixed order.

18. A genetic disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome twenty-one, associated with intellectual disability, is: Down Syndrome. Down syndrome results from an extra twenty-first chromosome, a condition called trisomy twenty-one. Its likelihood rises with maternal age and it brings characteristic features and intellectual disability.

19. A specific window during which an organism is biologically primed to acquire certain abilities, such as a bird imprinting shortly after hatching, is called a: Critical Period. A critical, or sensitive, period is a limited window when the brain is especially ready to acquire a skill, like language or imprinting. Konrad Lorenz showed goslings imprint on the first moving object they see soon after hatching.

20. A newborn reflex in which the infant turns the head and opens the mouth when the cheek is touched, helping the baby find the breast, is the: Rooting Reflex. The rooting reflex makes a newborn turn toward a touch on the cheek and open the mouth to feed. Like other newborn reflexes, it is a sign of healthy neurological development and fades within months.

What to do with your score

The point of twenty questions is not the twenty, it is the pattern. Mark which topic each miss came from, then spend your next session on that topic alone. None of it requires starting over, only tightening the spots that cost you points.

A single twenty-question set is a snapshot, not a study plan. To pass with margin you need volume: enough questions, in the exam's format, with explanations that turn a wrong answer into a correction. That is what Flying Prep's DSST Lifespan Developmental Psychology practice is built for: every question explained, with a free trial before you decide.