Life Span Interview-Part 2: Narrative Analysis
Throughout the HSBE I and II courses, you have explored the biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of different phases of the human life span. You have explored life-span development theories that help to explain human behavior. You also have considered how the social environment influences individuals and their behavior.
This week, you apply your learning of the person and the environment to an analysis of an individual's life span. Last week, you conducted a Life Span Interview with one of your colleagues. This week, you complete a narrative analysis based on your interview notes.
A narrative is a story. As you interviewed your colleague last week, several of the experiences your colleague shared may have struck you as being especially pertinent to his or her life story. For this assignment, you transform your interview notes into a narrative-that is, a life story-of the colleague you interviewed. You interweave within this narrative an analysis of the life story by applying person and the environment concepts to your understanding and interpretation of that story. For example, you may identify a life-span development theory that, when applied to your colleague's narrative, helps you to understand his or her development and behavior at that point in the life span.
Submit a 3 page narrative analysis of the Life Span Interview
The interview notes are below:
Stage 1: Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust
- When you were an adolescent, did you trust your mother?yes
- When you were an adolescent, did you trust your father?yes
- When you were an adolescent, did you trust your female friends?yes
- When you were an adolescent, did you trust your male friends? She did not have any male friends
• Did you trust your own abilities? It depended on the circumstances. Shetrusted my ability to make good grades and good friends. She did not trust her ability not to do something stupid to embarrass herself. She was very subconscious about how other people thought of her.
• How do you describe what your identity was as an adolescent?She was not a nerd but not a jock either. She was on the outside looking in for much of high school. She was definitely not popular. Some might say she was moody and had mood swings as she was in my senior year in high school (due to personal issues). At home she was very quiet and withdrawn.
• If you requested something from your mother, what were your expectations? What type of response did you expect?She did not always get what she wanted, but her mom always tried to do her best. Her response was usually they will have to wait and see or she needed to talk to her dad depending on what the request was. It was the type of response she had come to expect.
• Can you remember during adolescence any examples of "giving" in the altruistic sense to someone else?The only thing she can think of was during every Christmas holiday. Her father owned his own business while she was growing up and each year he had an employee Christmas party on Christmas Eve. Her mom baked cookies for the employees every year and she always helped bake them.
• How do you describe your relationship with peers during adolescence? Did you trust them? Was there mutual recognition (versus isolation)? As an adolescent, did you have trouble going to sleep at night?Her relationship with peers was tricky. She had a hard time being herself except with her closest friends. She was the awkward person whom everyone seemed to want to make fun of or exclude from things. She trusted her close friends, but no one else. She would say there was more isolation than anything. She felt that she was different and she remembered crying herself to sleep many nights because she felt misunderstood. She has always slept easily though. Her family often says that she have no trouble sleeping and once she was asleep a tornado could come through my room and she would not wake up.
Stage 2: Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt
• As an adolescent, describe how you felt about affection, time, and money. She always craved affection and time from my family. They always had time for each other except for her father. He worked long hours and was often gone when she got up and she was often in bed when he got home. She craved his time. They always had his money because he paid the bills and such, but what she really wanted sometimes was just him.
• Did you tend to hoard things or discard them? Did you throw stuff out of car windows?She has always tended to hoard things. She had a bad habit with papers and junk that she really did not need and still does to this day. She has never felt the need to throw things out car windows.
• When you did projects or other work as an adolescent, did you prefer to do it by yourself or get help from friends or peers? she preferred to do them by herself because she was a perfectionist and always seemed to be doing most of the work any way so if she did it herself she knew it would be done right and she wouldn't be waiting for others to do it for her.
• Did you get the most respect through cooperation or insistence?Shenever got much respect, but when she did it was often through insistence.
• In high school, did you tend to answer questions freely or wait until you were called on?Wait to be called on. She was afraid to give the wrong answer.
- Were you proud of your accomplishments?Yes
• When you made personal decisions, were you certain you were doing the right thing?No, she always second guessed her decisions and wondered if she was doing the right thing.
• Were there times during adolescence when you were ashamed?Yes, she was sexually abused as an early teenager and that left her feeling very ashamed. She was also ashamed of the way she looked. She was overweight and hated herself for being that way.
• Were you ever afraid of being in an exposed or vulnerable situation?It was one of her biggest fears. She wanted to hide and run away most of her childhood.
• Did you ever try to get away with things if you could not get caught?Sometimes.she think it is natural for a child to try and get away with things. she usually got caught though.
• With regard to your progress through adolescence, did you feel you were behind time? Needed more time? Yes. She was a very awkward adolescent. She developed early, but she was never quite comfortable in her body. She always felt one step behind everyone else when it came to fashion, friends, and school.
Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt
- Did you enjoy and look forward to new initiatives?No, she has always been a follower not a leader.
• As an adolescent, were you curious? Were you ambitious?she was curious to a point, but never ambitious. She wanted to not be noticed and that is hard to do and be ambitious at the same time.
Stage 4: Industry Versus Inferiority
• As an adolescent did you seek and get recognition for work well done?Yes, she always wanted someone to notice if she did something right. She just didn't want them to notice if she screwed up.
• Did you have feelings of inadequacy or inferiority?All of the time.she was not the most popular or the most well liked even within my her family.
Stage 5: Identity Versus Role Confusion
• When you were an adolescent, did you remember assessing your strengths and weaknesses? Not really. She knew she was not the best at anything.
- What did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut and then a lawyer
• Did you have a lot of peer group involvement? Not really. She had a group of about 5 friends she hung out with. She would consider them 2 close friends. Beyond them she was shy and did not fit in.
- In adolescence, what were your goals for adulthood?Graduate college and be anywhere other than where she was.
- Did you have a love relationship as a teenager?No. She did not even date.
• When you were an adolescent, what was so important in your life that you are willing to commit to it?There really was not anything. she was just along for the ride hoping she would survive.
• When you were an adolescent if I asked you to consider the question "Who am I?" what would you have said?An awkward, shy and emotional person who does not want to stand out and is always afraid of doing the wrong thing.
- When you were an adolescent if I asked you to consider the question "Where am I going?" what would you have said?Nowhere.
• As an adolescent, were you preoccupied with the opinion of others?Definitely.she was always afraid people would think the worst of her.