Adult Development and Aging MCQs 2026

Cognitive reserve refers to:

1. A A bone-density score ✓
2. B A menopause symptom ✓
3. C Brain resilience supported by education and mental activity ✓
4. D A fixed reflex present at birth ✓

Continuity theory of aging suggests older adults adapt best by:

1. A Maintaining familiar patterns and roles ✓
2. B Withdrawing from every relationship ✓
3. C Rejecting all past interests ✓
4. D Avoiding any routine ✓

Activity theory proposes that life satisfaction in old age is supported by:

1. A Continued social activity and roles ✓
2. B Total disengagement ✓
3. C Loss of all hobbies ✓
4. D Ignoring health completely ✓

Disengagement theory proposes that aging involves:

1. A Only biological disease ✓
2. B Mutual withdrawal between older adults and society ✓
3. C Increasing work demands forever ✓
4. D More infantile reflexes ✓

Elder abuse may include physical abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, and:

1. A Fluid intelligence ✓
2. B Secure attachment ✓
3. C Financial exploitation ✓
4. D Normal presbyopia ✓

Polypharmacy in older adults means:

1. A Use of multiple medications ✓
2. B A memory improvement game ✓
3. C Loss of all social roles ✓
4. D A stage of Piaget theory ✓

Bereavement refers to:

1. A The state of having lost a loved one ✓
2. B Normal sensory aging ✓
3. C A legal employment contract ✓
4. D A memory test score ✓

Palliative care mainly focuses on:

1. A Testing infant reflexes ✓
2. B Comfort and quality of life in serious illness ✓
3. C Curing every disease at any cost ✓
4. D Increasing workplace productivity ✓

The empty nest transition is best understood as:

1. A A disorder unique to old age ✓
2. B The same as dementia ✓
3. C A family change that can have varied effects ✓
4. D Always causing severe depression ✓

A key distinction between normal aging and dementia is that dementia:

1. A Significantly impairs everyday independence ✓
2. B Only slows reaction time slightly ✓
3. C Always begins in adolescence ✓
4. D Improves without assessment ✓

In adulthood, role strain means:

1. A Stress from competing demands within or across roles ✓
2. B Having no social expectations ✓
3. C A reflex in newborns ✓
4. D A hearing disorder only ✓

Reaction time in normal aging generally:

1. A Slows compared with young adulthood ✓
2. B Becomes infant-like at once ✓
3. C Disappears as a concept ✓
4. D Only improves after retirement ✓

Wisdom is often described as expert knowledge about:

1. A Visual acuity only ✓
2. B Practical life matters and judgment ✓
3. C Infant feeding reflexes only ✓
4. D Random guessing ✓

The sandwich generation refers to adults who:

1. A Reject all family roles ✓
2. B Are always unemployed ✓
3. C Care for both children and aging parents ✓
4. D Only live alone after retirement ✓

The idea of a universal midlife crisis is best evaluated as:

1. A Overstated because many adults do not experience crisis ✓
2. B Guaranteed for every adult ✓
3. C Limited only to infancy ✓
4. D A type of dementia ✓

Normal sleep in later adulthood often includes:

1. A More awakenings and less deep sleep ✓
2. B More deep sleep than adolescence ✓
3. C No circadian rhythm ✓
4. D Permanent REM absence in all elders ✓

Terminal drop refers to:

1. A Loss of childhood memories only ✓
2. B Accelerated decline shortly before death ✓
3. C A sudden improvement before death ✓
4. D A type of retirement plan ✓

Advance directives are used to:

1. A Increase hearing loss ✓
2. B Define job seniority ✓
3. C State future health-care preferences ✓
4. D Measure infant intelligence ✓

Activities of daily living include basic tasks such as:

1. A Bathing and dressing ✓
2. B Managing investments only ✓
3. C Writing a legal will only ✓
4. D Driving long distances only ✓

Instrumental activities of daily living include:

1. A Managing money and medications ✓
2. B Breathing reflexes only ✓
3. C Babbling and crawling ✓
4. D Startle responses ✓

A normal age-related memory change is more likely to involve:

1. A Complete loss of language ✓
2. B Slower retrieval of names ✓
3. C Severe disorientation in familiar places ✓
4. D Inability to recognize family ✓

Baltes model of selective optimization with compensation emphasizes:

1. A Choosing goals, improving strengths, and using aids ✓
2. B Complete withdrawal from society ✓
3. C Only childhood schooling ✓
4. D Avoiding all adaptation ✓

Working memory in normal aging generally shows:

1. A Some decline in capacity and manipulation ✓
2. B No possible change ✓
3. C A sudden gain after eighty ✓
4. D Loss only during infancy ✓

Semantic memory in healthy older adults is often:

1. A More impaired than all memory types ✓
2. B Relatively preserved ✓
3. C Always absent ✓
4. D Only present in children ✓

Procedural memory in aging refers to memory for:

1. A Childhood attachment only ✓
2. B Future appointments only ✓
3. C Skills and habits ✓
4. D New political facts only ✓

Episodic memory is memory for:

1. A Personally experienced events ✓
2. B Only word meanings ✓
3. C Muscle strength ✓
4. D Blood pressure level ✓

Dementia is best described as cognitive decline that:

1. A Interferes with daily functioning ✓
2. B Is normal in every older person ✓
3. C Occurs only for one hour ✓
4. D Improves by ignoring symptoms ✓

An early common symptom of Alzheimer disease is impairment in:

1. A Color blindness only ✓
2. B Recent episodic memory ✓
3. C Procedural walking skill only ✓
4. D Adolescent identity ✓

Delirium is distinguished from dementia by:

1. A No attention problems ✓
2. B Being a normal personality trait ✓
3. C Acute onset and fluctuating attention ✓
4. D Slow onset over many years only ✓

Depression in late adulthood should be viewed as:

1. A Treatable and not an inevitable part of aging ✓
2. B Always normal after age sixty ✓
3. C The same as dementia ✓
4. D Only a memory disorder ✓

Adjustment to retirement is most influenced by health, finances, choice, and:

1. A Planning and social support ✓
2. B Infant reflex history ✓
3. C Object permanence ✓
4. D Cephalocaudal growth ✓

Successful aging commonly includes low disease burden, engagement with life, and:

1. A Complete dependence ✓
2. B High cognitive and physical function ✓
3. C No contact with others ✓
4. D Avoidance of adaptation ✓

Ageism means:

1. A A normal sensory loss ✓
2. B A retirement savings plan ✓
3. C Stereotyping or discrimination based on age ✓
4. D A memory training method ✓

Life review in later adulthood can help a person achieve:

1. A Ego integrity ✓
2. B Preoperational thought ✓
3. C Stranger anxiety ✓
4. D Babbling ✓

Widowhood in older adulthood often increases risk of:

1. A Loneliness and grief-related stress ✓
2. B Object permanence ✓
3. C Infantile reflexes ✓
4. D Concrete operations ✓

Caregiver burden refers to:

1. A A type of infant play ✓
2. B Physical, emotional, and social strain from caregiving ✓
3. C Only financial profit ✓
4. D A legal retirement age ✓

Osteoporosis is mainly a loss of:

1. A Working memory ✓
2. B Social roles ✓
3. C Bone density ✓
4. D Hearing sensitivity ✓

Sarcopenia refers to age-related loss of:

1. A Skeletal muscle mass and strength ✓
2. B Near vision only ✓
3. C Moral values ✓
4. D Word knowledge ✓

Presbyopia is an age-related decline in:

1. A Near vision focusing ✓
2. B Attachment security ✓
3. C Moral reasoning ✓
4. D Longitudinal design ✓

Secondary aging is best defined as age-related change caused by:

1. A Normal puberty ✓
2. B Genetic imprinting only ✓
3. C Disease, lifestyle, or environmental factors ✓
4. D Universal maturation only ✓

Primary aging refers to changes that are:

1. A Always reversible diseases ✓
2. B Normative biological aging processes ✓
3. C Caused only by accidents ✓
4. D Limited to workplace stress ✓

Crystallized intelligence depends mainly on:

1. A Accumulated knowledge and vocabulary ✓
2. B Reaction time only ✓
3. C Infant reflexes ✓
4. D Unlearned startle responses ✓

Fluid intelligence is best described as ability to:

1. A Solve novel problems quickly ✓
2. B Recall only learned vocabulary ✓
3. C Maintain bone density ✓
4. D Perform daily self-care ✓

Presbycusis is age-related loss of:

1. A High-frequency hearing ✓
2. B Taste for sweet foods ✓
3. C Abstract reasoning at birth ✓
4. D Bone length only ✓

Erikson final psychosocial crisis in late adulthood is:

1. A Identity versus role confusion ✓
2. B Intimacy versus isolation ✓
3. C Integrity versus despair ✓
4. D Trust versus mistrust ✓

Erikson middle adulthood crisis is:

1. A Identity versus role confusion ✓
2. B Generativity versus stagnation ✓
3. C Autonomy versus shame ✓
4. D Initiative versus guilt ✓

In Erikson theory, the main young adult crisis is:

1. A Intimacy versus isolation ✓
2. B Industry versus inferiority ✓
3. C Trust versus mistrust ✓
4. D Integrity versus despair ✓

Emerging adulthood, proposed by Arnett, most often refers to ages:

1. A About 18 to 25 years ✓
2. B Birth to two years ✓
3. C Seven to eleven years ✓
4. D After eighty years only ✓

Adjustment to retirement is most influenced by health, finances, choice, and:

1. A Planning and social support ✓
2. B Infant reflex history ✓
3. C Object permanence ✓
4. D Cephalocaudal growth ✓

Successful aging commonly includes low disease burden, engagement with life, and:

1. A Complete dependence ✓
2. B High cognitive and physical function ✓
3. C No contact with others ✓
4. D Avoidance of adaptation ✓

Ageism means:

1. A A normal sensory loss ✓
2. B A retirement savings plan ✓
3. C Stereotyping or discrimination based on age ✓
4. D A memory training method ✓

Life review in later adulthood can help a person achieve:

1. A Ego integrity ✓
2. B Preoperational thought ✓
3. C Stranger anxiety ✓
4. D Babbling ✓

Caregiver burden refers to:

1. A A type of infant play ✓
2. B Physical, emotional, and social strain from caregiving ✓
3. C Only financial profit ✓
4. D A legal retirement age ✓

Osteoporosis is mainly a loss of:

1. A Working memory ✓
2. B Social roles ✓
3. C Bone density ✓
4. D Hearing sensitivity ✓

Sarcopenia refers to age-related loss of:

1. A Skeletal muscle mass and strength ✓
2. B Near vision only ✓
3. C Moral values ✓
4. D Word knowledge ✓