This assignment asks students to interview an older (65+, 75+, 85+) relative or acquaintance. Please make sure that the person understands fully the nature of the assignment and willingly agrees to participate. The instructor would encourage students to provide a draft of the interview to read before students submit it for evaluation. This assignment will provide an opportunity for the interviewee to reflect upon his/her life–an important adult developmental process. It will also provide students with an opportunity to get to know that person as an individual with a unique personal history. The interview and paper can also serve as a “legacy” that may be given to family members or others for posterity.
The first part of the paper, the interview summary, should be at least 12 – 15 pages long (typed, double spaced). Students may use direct quotations, or provide a summary of the information. Students have two different types of questions–topical and broad or specific and chronological (see the below guideline). Even though students may want to address many of the questions in the life review interview, Students will need to be selective in what students choose to include in the paper. It is expected that students will allow the person interviewed to choose which type of question he/she wants to answer.
The second part of the paper – about 3-5 pages long — should include students’ interpretation/analysis of the content of the interview. That is, how can students relate that person’s life to the material discussed in-class lectures, related readings, and the gerontological perspective, in general? Use the language and theories of gerontology in students’ write-up. This part of the assignment will be evaluated in terms of how students use the course content to interpret or explain the information obtained in the interview. Also, what did students learn about the person to be interviewed as a result of doing this project? What did students learn about their families? What did the student learn about self?
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Guideline for Life Review Assignment Download Guideline for Life Review Assignment
As described by Robert Butler, LIFE REVIEW is a naturally occurring, universal mental process prompted by the realization of a foreshortened life expectancy. Life Review potentially proceeds toward a reorganization of the self, including the achievement of such characteristics as wisdom and serenity in the aged. The process consists of reminiscence, thinking about oneself, and reconsideration of previous life experiences and their meaning.
Butler’s description of the life review process closely parallels Erikson’s last stage of development, the dynamic between Integrity vs. Despair. For some older persons, the process of thinking about the past may lead to depression and an obsessional rumination. The determining factors for the successful completion of this developmental task of later life can be traced to the earlier stages of growth described by Erikson. Erikson believed the person, no matter how old, always held the potential for not only meeting the challenges of the current conflict but resolving previous ones.
The life review process holds the potential for older adults to reach ever-increasing levels of self-awareness. The crucial task is to evaluate one’s life and accomplishments and to accept the whole, both the good and the difficulties, as all necessarily a part of one’s own individual life. This sense of integrity confirms that one’s life has been “a meaningful adventure in history.”
The life review process takes place gradually over the period of years of the older person. An interested other people can assist elders by taking an oral history. The history can be taken over a period of several sessions and maybe tape-recorded. The results may be given to the elder and may be shared with younger family members.
The following questions can be utilized in the review process:
Begin by briefly expressing your interest in learning about the elder’s life and recording it for him/her. Explain you will use this as a class assignment and obtain permission from the older person at this time. Interview in a quiet private location. Make sure that the interviewee is comfortable and you are seated in a position to be heard and maintain eye contact. Allow adequate time for an interview but do not prolong any one session.
Sample Life Review Interview Questions
1) When and where were you born?
2) Where did you grow up?
3) What was your community like growing up?
4) What kind of schooling did you have?
5) Tell me about your parents/stepparents?
6) Did you have any brothers or sisters? Tell me about them.
7) How would you describe yourself during your childhood?
8) What was it like when you were a teenager?
9) Did you marry? At what age? If not, why not?
10) Tell me about your marriage, about your first job, about leaving home.
11) Tell me about your career. What were you doing in your 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s?
12) Did you have children? Tell me about raising your children.
13) What was your relationship with your children over the years?
14) Do you have a close relationship with your children now?
15) Who else are you close to?
16) Who have been the most influential people at various stages in your life? Why? When? What were you doing at that time?
17) Who are the important people in your life now?
18) Do you keep in touch with any of your old friends?
19) If you had to pick one person who had a major impact on your life, who would it be? Why?
20) How have your friendships changed through the years?
21) How do/did you feel about retirement?
22) Describe your health and your feelings about it.
23) Could you describe to me a typical day?
24) What makes you happy now?
25) Who are the people you are closest to now? How often do you see them? How many friends would you say you have now?
26) To whom would you go for help with financial aid; housekeeping; transportation; emotional support?
27) What do you feel have been the important successes in your life?
28) What do you feel have been the disappointments?
29) If you could live your life over, what would you do differently?
30) What about your life would you change?
31) Could you describe any turning points in your life?
32) What have been the most influential experiences in your life?
33) What sorts of things frighten you now? When you were in your 60’s, 50’s, 40’s, 30’s, 20’s, a child?
34) What sorts of things give you the most pleasure now? When you were in your 60’s, 50’s, 40’s, 30’s, 20’s, a child?
35) What is your best quality? Your worst quality?
36) Which of your parents/stepparents do you think you are the most similar to? Why? How?
37) Do you have any 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?
38) What do you think has stayed the same about you during your life? What do you think has changed?
39) How do you see yourself?
40) 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?
41) How do you feel about growing older?
42) What is the hardest thing about growing older? The best thing?
43) What would you still like to accomplish in your life?
44) Do you think about the future? Make plans? What are your concerns for the future?
In addition to these questions about the individual’s unique life history, students are interested in questions about social history, about how individuals lived through various times such as the Great Depression or world wars. Another focus of questioning can be on policy and health care issues facing older people today. The interview schedule can include questions that gather data about these areas of shared experience.
Required TextbookRequired Texts
Hooyman, N., Kawamoto, K., & Kiyak, H.A. (2018). Social gerontology: A
multidisciplinary
perspective (10th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
