Interviewing an older adult. Social Sciences Essay

Interviewing an Older Adult
Write a paper based upon a one-hour interview with an older adult (55 or older). You may choose to interview a family member, friend of your family, or even someone served by the organization you're working with this semester (for instance, a regular participant at the Active Adult Center or a resident at Foxdale Village). This interview will cover the adult's lifespan and a discussion of their current living conditions. Based on the interview, students will write a paper that examines the life events and life course of this person referencing ideas about development and aging previously discussed in course materials and in class readings.

In your interview and the assignment address the following questions in essay form. Do not use bullets or incomplete sentences. Writing should be coherent and thoughtful responses to the issues raised by the questions. The questions below are meant to be conversation starters so be sure to ask follow-up questions to gather more detail from the person as needed. Please be sure that all of the parts are addressed in your paper!
Physical Aging and Health:
How is their current health? What changes have they noticed about their bodies over time that we would consider natural aging processes? Do they have any chronic illnesses or ongoing health conditions? If so, can they attribute any previous behaviors or family factors that may have contributed to these illnesses or conditions? (For example: if this person has COPD, did they smoke? If so, for how long? Do lung issues run in their family? What are they doing to manage their health? Are they functional, or do they need help with their ADLs?)
Going along with our theme for the course, please also discuss whether this person has aged in a healthy and successful way. How does this person feel about whether they've aged in a healthy and successful way? Be sure to include information from the course in your answer.
Social Roles:
How has the individual's social roles changed across their lifespan? How did social and cultural changes affect their individual role changes? How has this individual’s work and professional goals evolved over their adult life? Describe these changes from a developmental perspective (i.e. from late adolescence/early adulthood into later adulthood) so that we understand what has changed over time and what has been relatively stable.
Psychological and Personality Development:
Addressing Erikson’s theory, in what ways does this individual feel that they have contributed to their family, community, or society? In other words, in what ways do they feel generative? Or do they feel somewhat stagnant and unmotivated. Looking back on their life, to have they made peace with the positive and negative events in their lives? In other words, do they feel a sense of integrity about their life well lived? Or do they feel a sense of despair, wishing they could do things differently. How is their cognitive functioning, e.g. memory, attention, etc.
How do they feel their personality has changed (or remained stable) across adulthood - have any specific experiences shaped their approach to the world?

Integration with Course Material:
Given what you have learned in this course, assess this person’s aging. Is it considered as successful aging? Why do you think it is? In what ways is he/she achieving successful aging? What might you suggest to this person to improve the quality of their lives?
The paper should be typed, double-spaced and 12-point font, 1-inch margins. Please refer to the rubric below for a breakdown of the points in this assignment. Please note that the paper requires connecting their life experiences to the course material, so you should consider what you might want to learn from them based upon what you've learned from the course.