Life History Interview Assignment | Psychology

The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a life review interview with an older person (65 or older) to gain a subjective understanding of aging. In the paper, you are asked to document your findings from the interview and apply scholarly theory, concepts, and research on families and aging. You are also asked to detail personal reflections to the interview. Please see below for details. Papers should be double-spaced with 12-point font and should be 10-15 pages in length.

Instructions for Life Review Interview of Older Adult and Paper

Interview: Use the questions below to interview a person 65 or older.

Past

When and where were you born?
Where did you grow up?
Tell me about your family? (parents/stepparents, brothers, sisters)
What kind of schooling did you have?
How would you describe yourself during your childhood and teenage years?
Did you marry? At what age? If not, why not?
Tell me about your marriage, about your first job, about leaving home.
Tell me about your work life or career.
Did you have children? Get details about names, gender, and ages of kids.
What was your relationship with your children like over their childhood and teenage years?
Present

Who are the most important people in your life now? How often do you see them?
What is your relationship with your children?
Do you keep in touch with any of your old friends? How large is your friend circle?
Are you still working or have you retired?
How do/did you feel about retirement?
Describe your health and your feelings about it.
If you need help (such as financial help, housekeeping, transportation, and emotional support) who do you reach out to?
What is your philosophy of life? If a person came to you asking you what the most important thing in living a good life is, what would you say?
What sorts of things make you happy or give you the most pleasure now?
How do you feel about growing older? Hardest and best thing about getting old?
What would you still like to accomplish in your life?
Do are your plans for the future? What are your concerns for the future?
Looking back

Who have been the most influential people at various stages in your life? Why? When?
How have your friendships changed through the years?
What do you feel have been the important successes in your life?
What do you feel have been the disappointments?
What about your life, if anything, would you change?
Could you describe any turning points/ most influential experiences in your life?
What do you think has stayed the same about you during your life? What do you think has changed?
Did you have any expectations at various points in your life about what growing older would be like for you? What about when your parents grew older?
Questions adapted with minor editing and reorganization of interview questions from Clark University (undated). Life Review Interview Manual. Worcester, MA.

Life review paper

To maximize the number of points you earn for this assignment, please follow this outline. Use bold-faced type for the headings that are bolded below (this will help us give you credit for the points you earn). Be sure to read the rubric for the paper before you write it as the rubric shows how it will be graded.

Life review interview

Description of person you interviewed and circumstances of interview
Past
Present
Looking back
Identify three themes in your interviewee’s life story and analyze them. Analysis should include description of and evidence for the theme and application of ideas from lectures/readings

Theme 1
Description of and evidence for theme
Application of ideas from lectures/readings
Theme 2
Description of and evidence for theme
Application of ideas from lectures/readings
Theme 3
Description of and evidence for theme
Application of ideas from lectures/readings
Application of 2 scholarly journal article not presented in the lectures, readings or other course materials with proper APA reference.
9. Reflections on personal reaction to interview

10. References (page not included in page count)

Use American Psychological Association (APA)-style references for citations. For information about APA-style bibliographic references go to: http://www.write.armstrong.edu/handouts/APAstyle.pdf (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)

What are peer reviewed sources? view the links below. You can also google this.

http://lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=326724&p=2193942 (Links to an external site.)

http://lib.guides.umd.edu/FIRESemesterI (Links to an external site.)

HOW TO CITE LECTURE NOTES:

For citing lecture material, use the following format: (but adjust for the correct date and topic accordingly)

Schull, C. (2013). Lecture notes on child care settings, FMSC 332, February 29, 2013.

Papers should be double-spaced with 12-point font and should be 10-15 pages in length.