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Interview Assignment
B.F. Skinner, in his book, Enjoy Old Age (1997), writes:
A good time to think about old age is when you are young, because you can then do much to improve the chances that you will enjoy it when it comes. If you were planning to spend the rest of your life in another country, you would learn as much about it as possible?old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go. (P. 20)
For this assignment you will interview a family member, neighbor, or acquaintance who is at least 65 years old. If you do not know someone in this age group, contact any local residential care facility or retirement home and ask if you might meet with one of the senior citizens there.
Procedures:
1. Select about 15-20 questions that interest you from the attached list. Use a variety of questions from each of the categories.
2. Set up the interview at the convenience of the interviewee. Allow about one hour for the interview, unless the participant is bedridden, in which case ? hour is a good time frame.
3. Conduct the interview, taking careful notes. Or you may use a tape recorder, if you have permission of the interviewee.
4. Write up your report. It should include the following:
a. Your questions, along with the subject?s responses (you may edit for length, but try to keep the unique style of the participant).
b. A brief description of your reactions to the interview, including any changes in your attitudes toward the elderly.
c. A discussion of how this relates to concepts you?ve learned in the course (apply specific concepts from chapters 17-19).
5. This assignment is due on ________________________
Helpful Hints: It is normal to feel a little uncomfortable doing this assignment. If the participant knows this is to help you with a class assignment they are usually very obliging. It will help to start the interview with easy questions, such as ?tell me when and where you were born,? and move gradually into the more difficult questions. Arrange your questions in order of most to least important. That way if you run out of time you will still have some useful information. Allow time for the interviewee to reflect before answering. Although the silence can be somewhat unsettling, it will yield more thorough answers. Once you get started you will probably find this to be an enjoyable assignment!
Interview Questions
LIFE EVENTS
1. When and where were you born?
2. What are your earliest memories?
3. Did you have any brothers or sisters? Tell me about them.
4. What were your parents doing then?
5. Tell me something else about your childhood.
6. How would you describe yourself during those years? How would others have described you?
7. Tell me about your adolescence/young adulthood.
8. What were you doing then? What were you?re your concerns? What was that like for you?
9. What happened next?
10. When you think of that time, what stands out in your mind now?
11. How would you describe yourself then? How would others have described you?
12. Tell me about your religious background/training.
13. Tell me about your marriage; first job; leaving home. What were your concerns then? What was that like for you?
14. Tell me about raising your children.
15. Tell me about your career, occupation. What were you doing in your 30s, 40s, 50s? How would you describe yourself then? How would others have described you?
16. Who have been the most influential people at various stages in your life? Why? When? What were you doing at that time?
17. How do/did you feel about retirement?
THE PRESENT
1. Could you describe to me a typical day?
2. Who are the people you are closest to now? How often do you see them? How many friends would you say you have now?
3. Mutual aid/Reciprocity: To whom would you go for help with: financial aid, housekeeping, transportation, emotional support?
LIFE REVIEW
1. What do you feel have been the most important successes in your life? The frustrations?
2. I?m interested in what people see as important turning points in their lives. Could you describe any? What were you doing then? What were you like then?
3. What have been the most influential experiences in your life?
4. Are there periods of your life that you remember more vividly than others? Which ones? Why? What were your concerns at that time?
5. Have there been times in your life when you threw out a lot of stuff? What times? What stuff?
6. If you were writing the story of your life, how would you divide it into chapters?
7. What sorts of things frighten you now? When you were in your 60s? 50s? 40s? 30s? 20s? A child?
8. What kinds of things give you the most pleasure now? When you were in your 60s? 50s? 40s? 30s? 20s? A child?
9. If you could live your whole life over, what would you do differently?
IDENTITY
1. How are you like your mother? Unlike her? How are you like your father? Unlike him?
2. Do you feel differently about yourself now from how you felt when you were younger? How?
3. What is your best quality? Your worst quality?
4. Do you have a philosophy of life? If a young person came to you asking you ?What?s the most important thing in living a good life?? what would you say?
5. What do you think has stayed the same about you throughout life? What do you think has changed?
6. I held a hand mirror up to the informants? faces and asked, ?What do you see??
AGING
1. How can one prepare for old age?
2. 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?
3. How do you feel about growing old now?
4. If you were going to live 20 more years, what would you do? How would you like that? What plans would you make?
5. What is the hardest thing about growing older? The best thing?
6. Do you think about the future? Make plans? What are your concerns for the future?
7. What do you look forward to now?
8. Do you think about death?
Adapted from:
Kaufman, S. (1986). Ageless Self: Sources of Meaning in Late Life. Madison Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.
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