Maximum of 5-6pages typewritten, double-spaced (approximately 250-280 words per page). Your paper must have 1-inch margins and use 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Follow the APA format(https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/). A title page, an abstract and references page should be included(and are not part of the maximum number of pages). Your aging narrative includes:1.Title Page(one page)2.Abstract(one page)3.Questions chosen(one page) Theme 1: -Question 1: -Question 2: Theme 2:-Question 1: -Question 2: Theme 3: -Question 1: -Question 2: 4.Aging narrative (5-6 pages) 5.Reference (no limit) Write and construct your aging story around these themes. Ask yourself these questions: ? What has influenced your timing (or the prediction of your timing) of these roles? ? To what extent have age norms played a role in your decision? Lastly, end your discussion with a thoughtful and reflective account on how you lived your life. As you begin to develop your life course narrative, choose from the following themes to describe your life story (see below). Each theme corresponds things learned in class. Choose 3 thematic discourses (20 points each) which will inform and substantiate your aging experience. Listed in each of the themes are questions that you need to answer. Choose ONLY TWO (2) questions from each of the themes you have selected. Choose the two questions that you see fit in telling your narrative. In answering these questions, weave/synthesize the questions together to compose a coherent whole. Be brief and succinct in relating these questions to your account of your aging in the coming years. Bear this in mind as you choose which themes fit your aging experience. Always relate these questions to YOUR aging experience as you answer the questions. You are given flexibility and creativity to identify which themes are most salient to you as you approximate and craft your personal story of your aging experience. Themes and Final Exams Questions: A. Psychological Perspectives on Aging 1. Would you like to know in advance if you are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease at some time in the future? 2. Can you think of ways to combat the challenges of depression in old age? 3. Does society take advantage of the wisdom and experience of older people? How might the aged be encouraged to share their wisdom with younger generations? Will you take advantage of this resource? 4. What stereotypes of the aged might be founded in the symptoms of age-related mental disorders? What do these stereotypes say about American society? How do you feel about this as you will be at old age over time? 5. Could failure to resolve a conflict that is central to adult development affect a person’s ability to cope in old age? What challenges to the self does a person face with age? Give some examples of what people can do to maintain self-esteem as they age. (in your aging experience) 6. What life events can lead to psychological problems in later life? What events will more likely affect women than men? How do men and women differ in their ways of coping with personal problems? Give examples as it relates to your aging experience. B. Family relationships and Social Support Systems 1. In your family, are adult children expected to care for their aging parents? 2. When you grow old, who do you think will take care of you? 3. In your family, has death, divorce, or remarriage of a parent of a separated the grandparents from their grandchildren? If so, how did the grandparents handle the situation? Should the legal system intrude into family relationships? If so, under what conditions? 4. Who provides most of the routine support for older people in our families? Who are the other family members or social support systems will older adults in your family will likely depend on? 5. What effects will changing patterns in family life today have on older people in the future? C. Living Arrangements 1. Would families be better off if several generations lived together? Identify the advantages and disadvantages of such arrangement for each generation? 2. Is it healthy for the aged to live alone? What health problems do you see that might worsened by living alone? What are some of the ways to address these problems? 3. Does the government have a moral obligation to prevent homelessness among the aged? What are your thoughts on this? 4. Many older people wait too long to adjust their living arrangements to their deteriorating health. What might be done to help them plan ahead? How would you prepare for this? 5. How do you see your living arrangements in your old age? What benefits does your preference provide? What risks does this present? D. Retirement and Work 1. How does your view of work and retirement differ from that of your parents and/or grandparents? 2. What is retirement for you and how can you assure a successful retirement, including enough income? 3. At what age do you see yourself retired, and what type of planning should you do to achieve this goal? 4. Will you even want to retire? How many careers do you anticipate having? E. Health and Health Care 1. Think about how you perceived your own health. To what extent do you compare your health to others of your age or gender? How does your ability your ability to perform various ADLs affect your ability to perform various ADLs affect your health perceptions? How does your day-to-day health affect your over-all quality of life? 2. Identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors in your lifestyle. Have you ever tried to modify these behaviors? If so, what techniques worked for you? What were some obstacles? To what extent do you think that lifestyle changes after age 65 can overcome the effects of poor health habits acquired earlier in life? 3. How important is health care planning for you? Have you thought about it? What are some of the steps that you will take to secure your health care plans in your aging experience? 4. How must the current health care system change to serve and accommodate the future needs of an aging F. Death and Dying 1. Which is better, the traditional way of dying at home or the modern way of dying in a medical institution? What does your answer say about the way your respective culture practice? 2. Many people say they would rather die young than waste away in old age from a degenerative disease. What do you think? 3. What would you say to a terminally ill person who wants to end his or her life? 4. Life-extending medical technology is extremely expensive. Should it be rationed depending on a person’s age? Why or why not? 5. If you were dying, what kind of care would you prefer to receive and where? Would you refuse life- prolonging treatments? Would you want help in ending your life? G. The Economics of Aging 1. What approach you might likely take as you strategize the best way to prepare financially for your retirement? 2. When should you start saving for retirement? How do you plan to invest your savings? 3. Are you for mandatory individual retirement accounts? What are your thoughts on its perceived benefits and risks in contrast to the government’s system? 4. Of the three ways to restore solvency to the Social Security trust fund—raising the retirement age, reducing benefits, and increasing revenues—which would you favor? Why? How will your choice affect your aging experience? H. Issues in and the Future of Aging 1. Will you engage in volunteer work in your old age? What activities will you likely do? 2. Do we become more religious with age? What does spirituality mean to you? What are your thoughts on this as you contemplate your aging experience? 3. What does leisure mean to you? How have your values, socioeconomic status, and culture influenced your definition of leisure? How is this different from your parents’ or grandparents’ definition? How do you see yourself spending leisure time when you are old? 4. Are you worried about an elder relative’s driving? If so, do you know how to deal with the problem? Do you favor age-related restrictions on or testing of drivers? For how long do you see yourself driving? What are your thoughts on this? 5. What benefits do you see technology plays in an older adults’ life? Give evidences. How will technology impact your own aging experience? How open are you to embrace a new technology in your later life? Now, after telling YOUR story, link YOUR personal account to the broader social structures embedded in your socio-political-economic environment. How does your life course story forwarding your later life intersect with the different layers in the society? Extend the ‘gerontological imagination”i and the social ecological perspectiveii to inform your discussion necessary to develop your aging story. Think about your older YOU nested in the several layers of the societal systems. Think about questions on how these societal layers will affect and impact your personal aging narrative. What is the society like today? Briefly describe the changing and dynamic demographic forces, both here locally and internationally that will impinge the quality of life among older adults. How will these translate to the quality of life in your aging experience over time? Reflect and critique on urgent and relevant issues in today’s society and your generation.
