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CLEP cheat sheet

CLEP Human Growth and Development cheat sheet

A condensed reference for the formulas, graph-reading rules, and must-know facts most worth reviewing before exam day.

The stage theories

  • Piaget (cognitive): sensorimotor (0-2) → preoperational (2-7) → concrete operational (7-11) → formal operational (11+).
  • Erikson (psychosocial): 8 stages, e.g., trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame, initiative vs guilt, industry vs inferiority, identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy, generativity, integrity vs despair.
  • Kohlberg (moral): preconventional → conventional → postconventional.
  • Freud (psychosexual): oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.

Attachment and key concepts

  • Ainsworth's Strange Situation: secure, anxious-ambivalent, avoidant (later, disorganized) attachment styles.
  • Harlow's monkeys: contact comfort matters more than feeding. Bowlby: attachment is adaptive.
  • Vygotsky: zone of proximal development + scaffolding; learning is social.
  • Nature vs nurture; the roles of maturation vs environment.

Lifespan milestones

  • Infancy: rapid brain growth, object permanence, first words around 12 months.
  • Adolescence: puberty, formal-operational thinking, identity formation.
  • Adulthood: Erikson's intimacy → generativity; physical peak then decline.
  • Aging/death: Kübler-Ross stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

Practice this first: Theories, prenatal, and infancy — The core developmental theories plus early milestones and attachment are the largest share.

Now put it to work — practice CLEP Human Growth and Development free

Reviewing the sheet is step one. Passers are usually hitting about 70-80% on realistic practice before test day (CLEP costs about $93, with a 3-month retake lockout on a miss), so the fastest way to know you are ready is to start answering real questions.