Platinum Learning Activity 3: Elder Interview
Project description
We can learn a great deal about how to live our lives by talking to people who are in the last season of their lives. This learning activity is an opportunity to interview an elder about his or her life, to participate in the persons life review, and to reflect on its connection to concepts we considered on late adulthood.Find someone who is 65 years of age or older and interview them. Ask them about the present: What is their current life like, including health, finances, family? What is their current state of mind, including satisfaction, vitality, and sense of purpose? Ask them about the past: When they reflect on their life story, what are their past accomplishments and regrets? Ask them to compare the past and the present: How would they describe themselves today? How does that compare with their previous selves? How have they changed, and why? How have they remained the same, and why? Ask them for any advice they might offer to others. Would the advice be different for 20-year-olds? 40-year-olds?
Reflect on what you have learned from the interview. How does it fit with what we covered in class and in the text about the life review process? About successful aging? Select the theory of successful aging that best maps onto the interview you conducted, and explain how the theory fits. Identify any places where it does not and explain why. What did you learn from the interview that you can apply to your own life? Now? In the future?