Adolescence from a Cultural and Historical Perspective

Purpose
This assignment will encourage you to explore adolescence from a cultural and historical perspective. It will enable you to gather data like a developmental psychologist. It will deepen your critical thinking skills.
Directions
Part 1
To learn about the lives of adolescents in previous decades, interview two people-- someone who is 40-50 years old and someone who is 70-90+ years old. In your interviews, find out how their experiences of adolescence were different from the experiences of today's adolescent. Following is a list of some questions -- however, feel free to add in some of your own!
Did you attend high school? Did you want to? What kinds of subjects did you study? What kind of homework did you have?
What was your cultural background? What were the traditions that your family celebrated? How did your cultural background influence you?
What was your family life like during your teenage years? What were the expectations for teenagers with their relationships with their family (e.g., mother, father, siblings, grandparents)?
Did you work as an adolescent? If yes, where did you work? How many hours a week? Did you contribute to the family income? Did you want to work?
What kind of clothes did you wear? What were the "in" styles at that time? Were you concerned about fashion?
Who were your friends? How did you and your friends spend your free time? What were the popular teen "hangouts?” Were you allowed to date? What were romantic relationships like?
What were the problems you confronted as a teenager?
What do you think are the critical issues that distinguish teenagers today from teens during your time? What do you think of today's teens?
Make sure to keep notes of all interviews (these are called transcripts) as you will submit them as attachments to your assignment.
Part 2:
Now that you have all of your "data" in hand, you will write a summary of your findings and a reflection paper. In your paper:
try to paint an accurate and vivid picture of what adolescence was like for each of your interviewees so that the reader has a clear understanding. It's a good idea to include direct quotes from the interviewees as appropriate.
compare and contrast the differences between the adolescent experiences
discuss how the interviewees' adolescence was different from your own
connect and relate your interview findings to material from Chapters 8 & 9 such as information on reasoning, risk-taking, or moral values, ; in particular, mention at least two specific ideas, theories, research findings, or concepts from Chapter 9 that you can relate to your findings, but feel free to bring in more from the book if you'd like.
Make sure to include your interview transcripts with your assignment submission.
To submit your work: Click the Submit Assignment button (top right of screen).
Grading
This assignment is worth 20 points. Late work is not accepted.
Your essay is worth 20 points and will be graded on the depth and quality of your answers to the questions above. The instructor will consider your descriptions and comparisons of each adolescent period. Adequate summaries and explanations are needed for full description and understanding. Further, the instructor will look to see if chapter material is used to connect to the interviews. Failure to include chapter concepts will result in a lower grade.
Failure to attach interview notes will results in a 5 point deduction.
Additionally, assignments are always graded on the quality of writing. You are encouraged to spell check and proofread your work as poor writing will result in up to a 10% (2 pt) grade reduction.
Written assignments (in any discipline) require both in-text and full reference citations. This is how you let the reader know where you obtained your information and is an important component to include in all college written work. Quoted material and paraphrased material require the use of in-text and full reference citations. For assistance with this requirement, please see the APA folder. Failure to include proper citations will result in a 10% grade reduction (1-2 points) on each assignment.