Interview with an Older Adult

Select an older adult (at least 65 years of age) to interview. The older adult can be a parent, grandparent, other relative, friend, friend’s relative, neighbor, co-worker, church member, etc. Make sure to provide your interviewee with “informed consent,” explaining to them the purpose of the interview is to compare and integrate what you have learned in class about “lifespan development” with the life experiences of an older adult. If you are not able to interview someone at least 65 years old, it would be acceptable to interview someone between the ages of 55-64. I would like your interviewee to be at least 55 years old (but older is preferred). Please voice record the interview (with the interviewee’s permission) and submit the recording to the dropbox along with your paper. Please talk to your interviewee about the recording when you are setting up the time to interview them. The recording is important because it will help you re-visit parts of the conversation as you are writing your paper, and it also provides me with “proof” that you completed an interview (unfortunately in the past some students have tried to use AI to write their paper without actually having conducted an interview). No AI should be used for this paper! If you are interviewing a loved one, you may also want to consider saving the recording as a keepsake. A tip on recording—you can use Zoom to voice record, even if you are not meeting on Zoom. Then just upload the recording to the D2L dropbox. I encourage you to also take notes during the interview. Along with your voice recording, also submit a written copy of the interviewee’s answers to your questions along with your paper (you can write them in as you listen to the recording, or during the interview). Your notes do not need to be typed. Please submit your voice recording to the D2L dropbox as soon as you are finished with the interview (you can submit your paper later, by the due date). I will not accept your paper without a voice recording.

You may use an alias if your interviewee is not comfortable with using their real name in the paper.

Interview questions are provided below. Feel free to add questions of your own whenever one occurs to you, but I prefer that you don’t omit any unless your interviewee is not comfortable answering them.

You will then write a paper integrating your interviewee’s life story with concepts you learned in Lifespan Development, and in the last section of your paper, making comparisons with your own life. Even though you are asking your interviewee questions, your final paper should not be in question-answer format; it should be in essay format similar to a case study. I also want to see integration with course concepts and ideas throughout your paper!! Along with your interview, your textbook should be the primary resource used for this assignment, (please do not use other outside resources).

Papers should be at least 8 pages in length, but no more than 15 pages (typed, double-spaced, 12 font, 1-inch margins, (with a title page and reference page—not included in page count). Be sure to use APA format and use in-text citations throughout your paper when discussing course concepts. Please include the textbook section number where the concept is found in your textbook (author, date, section number). When discussing course material in your paper, be sure to briefly describe the theory, stage, concept, etc. (using APA in-text citations), and how it applies to the interviewee’s life. Please use APA section headings for each section of your paper and be sure to break your paper into paragraphs. Your paper should be written in third person, except when you are describing your own experiences. Resources for APA format can be found on D2L. Your Turnitin similarity scores for this paper must be 20% or less (similarity scores will be generated once submitted to D2L, and you can check your score in D2L and resubmit if necessary). Artificial Intelligence (AI) may not be used for any part of this paper (Turnitin will also be checking for AI).

Prior to your interview, determine what kind of historical context your interviewee would have grown up in. Review the “Historical Context” handout provided in this document, adding in your own ideas about important events of each decade. Think about the impact that these events may have had on them. You should ask them what they remember about these events during your interview. Since the handout centers around U.S. history, if your interviewee resides in or grew up in another country, you should be sure to familiarize yourself with the relevant history.

Interview Questions and Guidelines:

*Within ANY (or several) of the sections below, describe and give examples of normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and nonnormative influences in your interviewee’s life (defining and providing examples of each). Describe the importance of “cohort” events in their life.

*Within ALL of the sections below, describe your subject’s resolution of each of Erikson’s stages throughout their lifespan (providing examples for each).

*Within ALL of the sections below, integrate your interview with what you learned from the textbook (theory and application) as much as possible (please be sure to provide appropriate in-text citations in your paper, identify specific theories and concepts and define them in your paper, and give many examples).

Section One: The past– Beginning Questions:

When and where were you born? (And how old are you currently?)
Where did you live most of your childhood? Where else did you live?
Please tell me about your family growing up.
1. Did you have any brothers or sisters (how many)?
2. Was there anyone in your family you were particularly close with?

What was your relationship like with your parents? What was their discipline style? (In your paper, be sure to compare this to the parenting styles discussed in the textbook).

What did your parent(s) do for work?

What was your early schooling like?
What did you do for fun?
What are your earliest memories (describe one memorable experience from your childhood)? (Tie this in with the concept of autobiographical memory in your textbook.)
How would you describe yourself during your childhood?

Section Two: The Teen Years and Young adulthood:

Tell me about your adolescence/young adulthood (In your paper, describe whether the concept of “emerging adulthood” is applicable to your interviewee, and if so, how).
1. What were you doing then?
2. What were dating practices like?
3. Describe the first person you dated or your first dance.
4. What did you do for fun? What kind of hobbies did you have?
5. What were your concerns? What was the most difficult thing about being a teenager or young adult?
6. How would you describe yourself during that time or how would others have described you?
7. What were your plans for the future? What stands out in your mind from that time?
How much education did you complete?
What was it like to first leave home?

Section Three: Adulthood and the present

Did you get married (if so, tell me about that)?
Tell me about raising your children (if any). What was that like for you when they left home?
What were you doing in your 30’s? 40’s? 50’s? How would you describe yourself during this time, or how would others describe you?
What have been the best years of your life and why?
Could you describe to me a typical day now?
Who are the people closest to you now? How often do you see them? To whom would you go for help with anything if you would need it?

Section Four: Jobs/Hobbies

What was your first paid job and how old were you?
Tell me about your career or, occupation (if any). What kind of pathway did your career take? Was this the pathway you had planned? What factors influenced your choice of career?
Are you currently retired? If so, at what age did you retire? What is retirement like for you?
What were your hobbies as a younger adult? Have they changed over the years? If so, why?

Section Five: History

Were there any major historical events while you were growing up that you remember? What kind of impact do you think they had on you, your family, or society?
What are the two most important changes you have seen in the world in your lifetime?
How do you think “family life” has changed over the years (not their own family in particular but just family life in general)?
What is the biggest change you have seen in how people conduct their everyday lives compared to when you were growing up? How are young people today different from when you were their age? How are they similar?
What are the most important problems facing the world today?

Section Six: Identity

How are you like/unlike your mother/father/siblings? Do you feel differently about yourself now from how you felt when you were younger? How?
What is your best quality? Your worst? If others could describe you in just three words, what would they be?
What has stayed the same about you throughout life? What has changed?
Do you have a philosophy of life?

*Within this section on identity, describe what kinds of “themes” seem to run consistently through your interviewee’s life. Also tie in what you learned about your interviewee with James Marcia’s identity status categories.

Section Seven: Aging

How do you now feel about growing older? What is the hardest thing? The best thing? Is there a specific point in your life where you started to notice the effects of aging?
What is the most important thing you have done to maintain your health? What do you wish you had done, if anything?
How can one prepare for growing old? What advice would you give younger people to prepare for growing older? If a young person asked you what’s the most important thing about living a good life, what would you say?
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?
What are your plans for the future? Any concerns for the future?
If you could live your life over, what would you do differently (if anything)?

*Did the interviewee conform to stereotypes about aging? In what way(s)? If not, speculate as to why. Did your interview support what you learned in the class about aging? Did anything surprise you? What changes (if any) have occurred in your perception of older adults? (What did you think before? What do you think now?)

*Compare your interviewee’s aging with aspects of “successful aging” or optimal aging described in section 18.8 in your textbook).

*Apply the social theories of aging discussed in section 18.5 that are relevant to your interviewee.

*What was the most surprising piece of information you learned about your interviewee? What did you learn in general about interviewing an older adult?

Final Section: Answer the following questions YOURSELF (to the extent that you are comfortable) and compare your answers to the responses from your interviewee. Discuss why you think your answers were different or similar.

What was it like to grow up in your hometown or neighborhood?
What were the dating practices like? Describe the first person you dated or your first dance.
What was the most difficult thing about being a teenager? Young adult?
In your younger years, what did you do for fun?
What are two of the most important changes you have seen in the world in your lifetime?
How do you think “family life” has changed in the U.S. over the years?
What major events in history do you remember? In what ways did these have an impact on you (if any)?
What are the most important problems facing the world today?
If you could give one piece of advice to younger adults to prepare them for being an older adult, what would that be?
What was the most surprising thing you learned about yourself in comparison to your interviewee?

Handout—Historical Context

Before beginning the interview, you should familiarize yourself with national events, trends, and presidents of the 1900s. This is not an exhaustive list of historical events, and there may be more that your interviewee remembers than I have listed here. Also keep in mind these events are most applicable in the United States. If your interviewee grew up elsewhere, discuss the historical events that were important in that country.

Important Events:

1900-1920

Development of big business

Development of transportation

Panama Canal

Airplane invented

One room schools

First automobiles

World War I in Europe

U.S. entry into World War I

Flu epidemic

Armistice Day

1920-1930

Women vote

Prohibition

Flappers

Progressive Era

Stock Market Crash

1930-1940

Great Depression

New Deal

Radio popular

1940-1950

Pearl Harbor

Draft and World War II

Atomic bomb

V-E Day and V-J Day

Cold war and anti-communism

1950-1960

Sputnik

Fear of nuclear war

TV becomes common appliance

Elvis Presley popular

1960-1970

Vietnam

Civil rights

Great Society Programs

John F. Kennedy assassinated

Martin Luther King assassinated

Neil Armstrong first man on moon (Apollo missions)

Beatles popular

1970-1980

Arab oil embargo

Inflation

Gas Shortage

Drug use more widespread

Computers become more common

Watergate

Richard M. Nixon resigns as President

1980-1990

John Lennon shot and killed

Bell telephone system divided into smaller companies

Sally Ride-first female astronaut

Space shuttle Challenger explodes

AIDS virus

Ruptured Exxon tanker spills oil

Texas elects first woman Governor since Reconstruction

1990-2000

Nelson Mandella-apartheid ends in South Africa

Persian Gulf crisis

East and West Germany reunited-Berlin Wall taken down

Soviet Union dissolved

First wave of “baby boomers” turns 50

Y2K Scare

Columbine shooting

2001-2013

I-pod

9/11 Collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City

War with Iraq, Afghanistan

Tightened airline restrictions

Hurricane Katrina

American Idol, reality TV, YouTube

Massachusetts becomes first state to legalize gay marriage

Housing bubble burst

Bank bailout, automotive industry bailout

Recession

First African American President

Healthcare reform

Sandy Hook Elementary, Colorado theater shootings; gun laws revisited

2013-Present

Boston Marathon bombing

The U.S. Supreme Court makes same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states

Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement

Me Too Movement

Apple-iPhone

Netflix

Climate change concerns increase

Las Vegas Shooting

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

President Trump impeached; acquitted by Senate; elected back into office for a second term

COVID-19

George Floyd killed during arrest; protests and riots ensued

Massive inflation

War in Ukraine

U.S. Presidents

1897-1901 William McKinley

1901-09 Theodore Roosevelt

1909-13 William H. Taft

1913-21 Woodrow Wilson

1921-23 Warren Harding

1923-29 Calvin Coolidge

1929-33 Herbert Hoover

1933-45 Franklin D. Roosevelt

1945-53 Harry Truman

1953-61 Dwight D. Eisenhower

1961-1963 John F. Kennedy

1963-1969 Lyndon B. Johnson

1969-1974 Richard Nixon

1974-1977 Gerald Ford

1977-1981 Jimmy Carter

1981-1989 Ronald Reagan

1989-1993 George Bush

1993-2001 Bill Clinton

2001-2009 George W. Bush

2009-2016 Barack Obama

2017-2021: Donald Trump

2021-2025: Joe Biden

2025—: Donald Trump

Struggling with where to start this assignment? Follow this guide to tackle your assignment easily!

Step-by-Step Student Guide for Writing Your Interview Paper

Step 1: Plan and Prepare for the Interview

Select your interviewee: Must be at least 65 years old (55–64 is acceptable if needed).
Obtain informed consent: Explain that the interview will help you apply concepts from your Lifespan Development course.
Discuss and arrange voice recording: Secure permission to record the interview using Zoom or your preferred audio tool. Recording is mandatory for submission.
Familiarize yourself with historical context: Review the “Historical Context” handout and research key events from your interviewee’s country or region.
Prepare your questions: Use the provided list of interview questions. You may add your own, but avoid omitting any unless the interviewee is uncomfortable.

Step 2: Conduct the Interview

Take detailed notes and voice record the entire session.
Ask all the questions from each of the seven sections.
Make sure to observe and take note of emotional reactions, emphasis, and themes.

Step 3: Organize Your Paper Follow APA format:

Title page
Essay format (not Q&A)
Double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins
Use APA-style section headings
Paper length: 8–15 pages (excluding title and references)

Suggested Structure:

1. Introduction

Briefly introduce your interviewee (use an alias if necessary)
State the purpose of the paper
Mention that this is based on a personal interview with integration of course concepts

2. Section One: Childhood

Summarize interviewee’s early life, family, schooling, fun activities
Compare parenting style to textbook theories (cite with APA format)
Include a discussion on autobiographical memory
Define and give examples of:
- Normative age-graded
- Normative history-graded
- Nonnormative influences

3. Section Two: Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Explore teenage years, identity, education, early relationships
Discuss “emerging adulthood” if applicable
Integrate Erikson’s stages and other theories
Reflect on personal identity and Marcia’s status categories

4. Section Three: Adulthood

Examine relationships, parenthood, and career development
Describe psychosocial development through the decades
Highlight course concepts and Erikson’s middle and later adult stages

5. Section Four: Career and Hobbies

Trace career trajectory and retirement
Connect to course theories on work and aging
Discuss change in hobbies/interests over time

6. Section Five: Historical Influences

Link personal memories to broader historical events
Analyze cohort effects and how major events shaped their views
Relate to concepts of history-graded influences

7. Section Six: Identity

Compare traits with family members
Discuss stable and changing identity aspects
Apply James Marcia’s identity theory
Identify life themes and philosophical outlook

8. Section Seven: Aging

Summarize views on aging, health, and life wisdom
Compare to theories of aging (section 18.5) and successful aging (section 18.8)
Reflect on stereotypes and perceptions of aging
Analyze how interview supports or challenges what you’ve learned in class

9. Final Reflection: Comparing with Your Own Life

Answer the same set of questions for yourself
Make comparisons—discuss similarities and differences
Reflect on what you learned from this process about development and aging

10. Conclusion

Restate the significance of the interview and what you’ve learned
Offer any final insights into lifespan development based on this real-life example

11. References

Only include your textbook as the source (APA format)
Include section numbers in in-text citations (e.g., Author, year, section number)

Final Tips:

Use third person throughout except in the reflection section
Check APA formatting carefully—refer to D2L resources
Submit voice recording, typed paper, and interview notes to D2L
Turnitin similarity score must be 20% or less
No AI-generated content is allowed for this paper

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