Adulthood Interview Assignment: Cultural Influences on Development
STEP 1: Find a person between the ages of 40 and 68 who is from a different cultural background than yourself—someone who was born in another country or whose parents were born outside of your own birth nation. The person should be unrelated to you. Do not use a student in this class or in my other classes. Keep their information confidential by using pseudonyms.
Some students choose to record the interview since it might be easier to review the interview when preparing your written assignment. If you decide that is easier, please feel free to do so but do not submit the recording to the class or to me. However, if you record this person, you should obtain written permission and explain that the recording is only for your use and will not be shared with other individuals. Inform your interviewee that the recording will be deleted after writing your assignment.
Start with a short-written introduction detailing the person’s chosen gender, approximate age, education, name of the person’s typical occupation, and current occupational status (not working, working, retired, unemployed). Include the country where the person or his or her parents were born and the family’s cultural background. If the person’s parents were from two different cultures, including the cultural background of both parents.
The following questions are required in your interview.
What is your best childhood memory and why?
How does your culture view aging? (For example-is aging considered a bad thing or a good thing?)
How are the elderly viewed in your culture? (For example–are the elderly put in a special home or remain independent or live with a family member?)
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?
In what ways do you think your cultural background most affected your development?
What is a goal that you would like to accomplish in the next five years and why or what was a goal that you accomplished in your life that you are most proud of?
Who is the first person that comes to mind when you think of a role model?
What is a piece of advice that you would offer to someone younger than you?
How is life similar from when you were a teenager as compared with life for teens today? Would you want to trade places with today’s teenagers and live in the world they have grown up in rather than the way that you grew up? Why or why not?
What physical changes have you experienced since your 30s, 40s, 50s, and/or 60s?
In your opinion, how has society changed since your 30s?
Have you noticed a change in how you think since being 40 or after being 50 or after being 60? Do you believe your memory has changed? How has it changed?
Do you think more or less about what happens after death as you grow older?
STEP 2: Post the interview and responses to the discussion forum.
STEP 3: After looking at your own interview and the others posted, pick at least one other interview to compare with your own. Focus on these two as you write a post between 250 and 500 words discussing what you’ve learned from these interviews. Compare and contrast the two cultural perspectives. What did you learn? Were there any answers that surprised you? How do the responses in the interview tie in with or confirm the things you learned about in this module?
STEP 4: Return to the discussion to comment on at least ONE other post (in at least FIVE sentences). Expand on a classmate’s post in a value-adding, topic-related way. Promote a collaborative, supportive community, and advance the dialogue through follow-up questions. Reply posts cannot be one-liners, off-topic posts, vague statements, unsupported opinions, inadequate explanations, or simply saying, “I agree” or “good job.”