Adulthood and Aging

Interview paper

For this assignment, you must interview two people and compare their experiences. You may either do a comparison of older-old (75+) and younger-old (60-75) or a comparison of a man’s experiences with aging to a woman’s experiences (make sure they are of a similar age).

The people may be family members or someone you are otherwise acquainted with. Do not provide identifying information about your interview subject in your paper – the subject’s identity should remain confidential. You can just use the person’s first name. Your interview should be conducted in-person. If this is impossible, you may conduct a series of phone interviews. Do NOT interview them together.

The primary focus of your reflection paper should be the connection of interviewee’s responses to course themes, issues, and terminology from the book. Your paper should clearly and knowledgably reflect at least 7 major topics from the course (please see attached syllabus under weekly course outline, topic section), making it a truly “comprehensive” project. When writing your paper, do not rewrite the interview word-for-word. Summarize what was said and use relevant quotes to support your ideas.

I strongly recommend that you approach your case study paper early. You will want to carefully prepare questions in advance to ensure that all relevant topics are covered. When interviewing your participants, be sure to discuss how they are living their lives on psychological (how they are feeling – emotionally), social (friendships, lovers…), cognitive (memory, disorientation…), and physical (physical ailments) levels. For most subjects, the interview process will take about an hour.

Projects must be typed with the following specs: 1,300 to 1,950 words, 1” margins, 12 pt. font, double- spaced. The last page of your paper will be your interview questions. Always spell-check and read it out loud for grammatical errors (helpful hint). Grade points may have been LOST due to poor writing and/or editing – lack of focus and/or organization.

Contemporary Issues in Adulthood and Aging

PSY 340.01

CUNY SPS, Online B.A. Psychology

Spring 2020

Instructor: Dr. Giselle Gourrier

Email Address: Ggourrier@sps.cuny.edu

Office Hours: Mondays, 2:00pm – 3:00pm

Required Text: Mason, Marion (2011), Adulthood and Aging. Allyn & Bacon. ISBN: 9780205433513

There will be additional resources posted online such as videos, articles, and blogs. These will be posted in the weekly assignments.

Course Description: Study of current theories and research on physical, intellectual and social-emotional growth and change across the adult years will be the central focus of this course. Key roles of family and friendship, work and retirement, as well as broader social, economic and legal factors are examined, along with race, culture, class, and gender differences. Implications of research findings for optimizing adaptation to normal development change and crises are considered. Psy101 is the prerequisite for this class. Course Objectives:

Students will:

1) Study current theories and research on physical, intellectual and social-emotional growth and change across the adult years will be the central focus of this course.

2) Explore key roles of family and friendship, work and retirement, as well as broader social, economic and legal factors such as race, culture, class, and gender differences.

3) Examine the implications of research findings for optimizing adaptation to normal development change and crises are considered.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will:

1) Clearly articulate and understanding of the main concepts and theories within the field of psychology and aging

2) Demonstrate how concepts and theories of aging are applied to “real-world” situations and current events.

3) Critically analyze, compare, and contrast seminal perspectives within the field of psychology and aging.

mailto:Ggourrier@sps.cuny.edu

4) Realize the unique experience of the aging individual and its multifaceted complexities that include such layers of identity as: race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, class, etc.

5) See how the ideas presented in this course overlap with many other courses and disciplines.

How This Online Course Works

This course is being offered in a fully online format. This means that all of your course activities will take place within the Blackboard course. There will not be any specific times when you will have to be online with your instructor or your classmates during the semester. This gives you the flexibility of doing your assignments at times during the day when you can be at a computer and work without distractions. For some students this is early in the morning and for others late at night. An advantage of online study is that your classroom is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Because of this schedule flexibility, time management is always a challenge for students in fully online courses. Be sure you set aside times to work online each week and wherever possible maintain a regular study schedule. Students are required to be at work in the course site at least three times each week and may be dropped from the course if they are absent for any extended period of time and have not contacted the instructor about any emergency.

Check immediately to make sure that you can access the CUNY Portal and the Blackboard course. If you have any difficulties, contact the SPS Help Desk immediately at 646-664-8592 (Monday-Thursday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM EDT) or helpdesk@sps.cuny.edu.

If you are new to online study using Blackboard, our course management system, there are User Guides for Students on the page you see when you log into Blackboard from the CUNY Portal.

Roles of Students and the Instructor

Your instructor is responsible for supporting your work in the course so you can complete all the required work, master the learning objectives and be well-prepared for more advanced courses in the Psychology program at SPS. However, the primary responsibility rests with you, the student, to use the course schedule in planning your participation, submit assignments on time, ask questions whenever something is not clear to you, and to take full advantage of the many support services SPS offers its online students through the library, tutoring center, and other areas. If you and your instructor communicate with one another often, especially by taking advantage of the Asking Questions links on the Discussion Board, you will be able to progress through your assignments and complete the course successfully.

Your instructor will be online in the Blackboard course site frequently through the week and will check in on the Discussion Board and other active work areas on at least 5-6 days each week. You will receive a response to Discussion Board posts and email messages within 24-36 hours. Homework and other assignments vary in their length and complexity, so the time to get feedback from your instructor may vary. However, you will receive a grade on each major assignment before the next one is due. All scores will be posted in the Blackboard Grade Center, so be sure you check there first before contacting your instructor.

mailto:helpdesk@sps.cuny.edu

Requirements & Evaluation:

Projects (3 @ 10 pts.) – 30pts. (30%)

Quizzes (2 @ 10 pts.) – 20 pts. (20%)

Group projects (2 @ 5 pts.) – 10 pts. (10%)

Interview Paper – (1 @ 12 pts.) – 12 pts. (12%)

Discussion Board participation (14 @ 2 pts.) – 28 pts. (28%)

TOTAL – 100 pts. (100%)

Projects: There will be three projects, one requiring you to conduct observations, another will be a media analysis, and the last will be to create a healthy living brochure.

Quizzes: There will be two quizzes that have around 5-7 open-ended questions requiring the student to write a couple of paragraphs for each answer.

Group projects: The online environment poses a real challenge to working in groups, however, the benefits one gets from working in small-group environments, even virtual ones, outweighs the drawbacks. The group projects will require more of your time and energy as you will be expected to log-on to your group more than you would for a typical week. If you stay patient, focused and involved you will learn a lot from these exercises!

Interview Paper: For this assignment, you must interview two people and compare their experiences. You may either do a comparison of older-old (75+) and younger-old (60-75) or a comparison of a man’s experiences with aging to a woman’s experiences (make sure they are of a similar age). The interviews will be grounded with links to theories, concepts, and ideas from the text as well as other, additional research. The paper will be typed with the following specs: 1,300 words, 1” margins, 12 pt. font, double- spaced. The last page of your paper will be your interview questions.

Discussion Board Participation: Because this is an online class, the discussions on the Blackboard discussion board takes the place of meeting in the classroom, therefore, your “attendance” is expected. The heart of this course, like most online courses, is the class discussion board. Your participation is measured by posting a minimum of 4 posts (one new thread and three thoughtful responses to other classmate’s posts). The first post must be made by Thursday; the rest should be posted on at least two other days in the week. You have the whole week to post, from Monday to Sunday. Late discussion board posts will not be accepted.

Online Etiquette:

1) Make sure you write a subject line that is reflective of the topic. 2) Keep your responses relevant to the topic presented. Posts will reflect your own experiences, your

knowledge in the topic, and concepts learned from the textbook or additional resources. 3) Posts will be clear, well-organized, and grammatically correct – these are not texts, do not treat

your posts as such. 4) Be respectful to your classmate’s comments in your language and…