ASSIGNMENT 9 Middle Adulthood PURPOSE
The purpose of this assignment is to broaden your understanding of middle adulthood by interviewing a person in middle adulthood with a cultural background different from your own.
STEP 1
Find a person to interview between the ages of 40 and 65 who is from a different cultural background than yourself. To ensure that the cultural difference is big enough, this person should have been born in a different country than yourself or have parents who were born in a different country. Also, they should be unrelated to you.
Let your interviewee know that you will record and analyze their responses to questions about their personal experiences for a course assignment, but that their identity will be kept anonymous and personally identifiable information will not be shared.
Below are the questions you will be asking them:
- What physical changes have you experienced since your 30s?
- How has your thinking changed since your 30s? Do you think more or less about certain things compared to when you were younger?
- How does your culture view aging, including biological changes such as menopause?
- How are marriage and divorce viewed in your culture?
- How would you describe the relationship between parents and children in your culture? What is parenting like?
- What is a goal that you would like to accomplish in the next five years and why?
STEP 2
Conduct your interview. Let your interviewee know that they are only being asked to share to the extent that they are comfortable. Allow at least 15 minutes for the interview, so each question can be explored in depth.
Use the form below to record your interviewee’s responses.
You can record the interview on your phone or other device and then transcribe it afterwards by playing and pausing the recording as needed. Or you can use technology to automatically generate an audio to text transcript. Below is information on how to use technology to generate a transcript using Microsoft software, which you have access to as a WCC student.
Microsoft: Transcribe Your Recordings
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transcribe-your-recordings-7fc2efec-245e-45f0-b053-2a97531ecf57
STEP 2
Write a short analytical paper that compares your interviewee’s experiences with your own cultural understanding of middle adulthood. Use the following structure for your paper.
Paragraph 1
Introduce the stage of middle adulthood by identifying the age range and briefly describing normative milestones and developmental changes that take place during this stage. Provide a citation to the source you used. Then introduce your interviewee by identifying their demographics (i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity, etc.) and explain the purpose of this assignment, which is to analyze your interviewee’s responses to develop a deeper and broader understanding of middle adulthood.
Paragraph 2
Discuss how your interviewee’s understanding of and experiences with middle adulthood relate to theory and research on middle adulthood as discussed in the readings. Apply at least two specific concepts or information from the readings and connect the concepts/information to specific quoted statements from your interview transcript. Provide citations to the sources used.
Paragraph 3
Discuss how your interviewee’s understanding of and experiences in middle adulthood are similar to and different from your own understanding and experiences or expectations of middle adulthood. Identify at least two similarities and/or differences and quote specific statements from your interview transcript when discussing these points.
Paragraph 4
Reflect upon which responses shared by your interviewee surprised you the most and why. How did these statements shape your understanding of middle adulthood? What more would you like to know about this aspect of middle adulthood?
Submit your interview form with the complete transcripts and your paper.
Make sure to carefully proofread your paper and run both a spell check and a grammar check. Your paper should be about 2 pages in length, with 1-inch margins, 12-point font, and double spacing.
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