Life Span Development: Elderly Interview Insights
This paper presents findings from an interview conducted with an 87-year-old man, examining how key life events and social influences shaped his psychological and sociological development across the life span. Focusing particularly on the interviewee's life after age sixty, the paper explores themes of self-worth, peer pressure, alcohol abuse, family responsibility, and aging stereotypes. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from Carl Jung and Abraham Maslow, as well as scholarly research on elderly life satisfaction, the paper argues that social norms and cultural biases can obstruct personal growth, while later life may paradoxically offer new opportunities for self-actualization and identity formation.
- Introduction and Interview Overview: Interview method, scope, and subject background
- Early Life Influences and Developmental Challenges: Financial hardship, absent father, and low self-worth
- Self-Actualization, Identity, and Peer Pressure: Peer pressure, crime, alcoholism, and family responsibilities
- Life After Sixty: Stereotypes and Renewed Growth: Aging stereotypes overcome through late-life self-actualization
- Conclusion and Areas for Further Exploration: Summary findings and suggested further research directions
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds abstract developmental theory (Maslow's self-actualization, Jung's concept of wholeness) in a concrete, first-person interview, making theoretical claims feel tangible and credible.
- The interviewee's own quoted words — "I was free from the need to prove myself" — provide a compelling, humanizing anchor for the paper's central argument about late-life identity development.
- The paper moves logically from early hardship to adult struggles to late-life flourishing, creating a satisfying narrative arc that also mirrors life span development theory.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective integration of primary qualitative data (an interview) with secondary scholarly sources. Rather than using theory as decoration, the author uses it to interpret and validate what the interviewee experienced — for example, connecting the subject's late-life sense of freedom to Maslow's self-actualization framework and Ashman's research on aging stereotypes.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by framing the interview method and scope, then moves chronologically through the interviewee's development: early financial hardship and absent father, peer pressure and alcohol abuse in young adulthood, family responsibility in the thirties and forties, and a striking developmental renewal after age sixty. A summary section synthesizes these findings against theoretical and empirical literature before ending with suggested areas for further research.
Introduction and Interview Overview
Interviewing an elderly person proves a very effective way to gain insight into life span development. By posing appropriate questions, one can elicit information about how certain aspects and influences shape life development over time.
The interview I conducted was with the grandfather of a close friend. He is 87 years of age. Although I had some prior knowledge of the interviewee, I was astounded by the amount of information concerning life development that could be gleaned from a well-structured interview.
The focus of my interview was on the way that certain aspects and events had affected the life development of the individual. In other words, my aim was to ascertain through the interview questions which events and circumstances had been "life-changing," in both a psychological and sociological sense. In order to limit the interview to a reasonable length, I decided to focus more heavily on socio-cultural developmental aspects and on the interviewee's later years — specifically developmental issues after the age of sixty. Aspects that were highlighted during the interview were also researched to determine whether they are referenced in the scholarly literature.
The questions I asked fell into the following main categories:
Questions about his earlier life and influences on development — such as environment, family, and friends. Questions relating to central developmental factors that had influenced him as an adult. Questions relating to life after sixty.
My central approach in the interview was to allow the interviewee to expand on certain important aspects and to direct the conversation in areas of his own choosing, without limiting his self-expression. I wanted to focus on issues he himself saw as central to his life development.
References
Ashman, O. Lifespan Development: A Social-Cultural Perspective (abstract). Retrieved November 9, 2008.
Boeree, C. Abraham Maslow: 1908–1970. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
Wynne, R. J., & Groves, D. L. (1995). Life span approach to understanding coping styles of the elderly. Education, 115(3), 448+. Retrieved November 11, 2008, from Questia database.
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