GERO101: Introduction to Gerontology

Directions: For this assignment, you will be asked to interview two people; one person who is the age of your parents and another person that is the age of your grandparents. If you do not have parents/grandparents who are still living, please choose someone who is around the age that your parents/grandparents would be if they were still living. During your interview, you will ask questions based on the “Life Course Perspective.” The four stages of the life course are childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age.

You will ask questions regarding life events – childhood; life events – adulthood; identity; the present; aging; and life lessons and legacies. You will then compare these two interviews to your own experiences, using the Life Course Perspective. The life course perspective or life cycle (page 64 in your text) is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the mental, physical and social health of individuals, which incorporates both life span and life stages (e.g. think about the activity you completed for discussion #1 (biological, psychological etc. age)

Questions: How were your interviews similar and how were they different? How do they compare and contrast to your own life events? Referencing the “How Old Are You” activity from early in the semester, how old do you think each individual is based on their answers to the questions you developed?

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

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