Assignment:  Arrange to meet and interview an elder family member, friend or other individual. In order to successfully complete the assignment, may need to meet more than once. Use the interview guide listed below. Use a system to guide a few notes (do not write verbatim) so that you can write narrative review under the headings from the guide. Use the person's initial (s) rather than name.

Brief Biographical Paragraph:  Include the age, gender, and distinguishing characteristics of the individual, your relationship to the individual.

Childhood

1. What is the very first thing you can remember in your life?  Go as far back as you can.

2. What other things can you remember about when you were very young?

3. What was life like for you as a child?

4. What were your parents like?  What were their strengths and weaknesses?

5. Did you have any brothers or sisters?  If so, tell me what each was like.

6. Did someone close to you die when you were growing up?

7. Did someone important to you go away?

8. Do you ever remember being very sick?

9. Do you remember having an accident?

10. Do you remember being in a very dangerous situation?

11. Was something that was important to you lost or destroyed?

12. Was religion a large part of your life?

13. Did you enjoy being a boy or girl?

Adolescence

1. When you think about yourself and your life as a teenager, what is the first thing you   can remember about that time?

2. What other things stand out in your memory about being a teenager?

3. Who were the important people for you (parents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers,      those you were especially close to, those you admired, those you wanted to be like)? Tell me about them.

4. Did you attend church or synagogue and youth groups?

5. Did you go to school?  What was its meaning to you?

6. Did you work during those years?

7. Tell me of any hardships you experienced at this time.

8. Do you remember feeling that there was not enough food or necessities of life as a child or adolescent?

9. Do you remember feeling left along, abandoned or that you did not have enough love or care as a child or adolescent?

10. What were the pleasant things about your adolescence?

11. What was the most unpleasant thing about your adolescence?

12. All things considered, would you say you were happy or unhappy as a teenager?

13. Do you remember your first attraction to another person?

14. How did you feel about sexual activities and your own sexual identity?

Family and Home

1. How did your parents get along?

2. How did other people in your home get along?

3. What was the atmosphere in your home?

4. Were you punished as a child?  For what?  Who did the punishing?  Who was "boss"?

5. When you wanted something from your parents, how did you go about getting it?

6. What kind of person did your parents like the most?  The least?

7. Who were you closest to in your family?

8. Who in your family were you most like?  In what way?

Adulthood

1. Now I'd like to talk to you about your life as an adult, from when you were in your 20s up to today. Tell me of the most important events that happened in your adulthood.

2. What place did religion play in your life?

3. What was life like for you in your 20s and 30s?

4. What kind of person were you?  What did you enjoy?

5. Tell me about your work.  Did you enjoy work?  Did you earn an adequate living?  Did            you work hard during those years?

6. Did you form significant relationships with other people?

7. Did you marry?

         [Yes]  What kind of person was your spouse?

         [No]  Why not?

8. Do you think marriages get better or worse over time?  Were you married more than once?

9. On the whole, would you say you had a happy or an unhappy marriage?

10. Was sexual intimacy important to you?

11. What were some of the main difficulties you encountered during your adult years?

         a. Did someone close to you die?  Go away?

         b. Were you ever sick?  Have an accident?

         c. Did you move often?  Change jobs?

         d. Did you ever feel alone?  Abandoned?

           e. Did you ever feel needy?

Summary

1. On the whole, what kind of life do you think you have had?

2. If everything were to be the same, would you like to live your life over again?

3. If you were going to live your life over again, what would you change?  Leave unchanged?

4. We have been talking about your life for quite some time now.  Let's discuss your overall feelings and ideas about your life.  What would you say have been the three main satisfactions in your life?  Why were they satisfying?

5. Everyone has had disappointments.  What have been the main disappointments in your life?

6. What was the hardest thing you had to face in your life?  Please describe it.

7. What was the happiest period of your life?  What about it made it the happiest period? Why is your life less happy now?

8. What was the unhappiest period of your life?  Why is your life happier now?

9. What was the proudest moment in your life?

10. If you could stay the same age all your life, what age would you choose?  Why?

11. How do you think you have made out in life—better or worse than what you hoped     for?

12. Let's talk a little about you as you are now.  What are the best things about your age   now?

13. What are the worst things about being the age you are now?

14. What are the most important things to you in your life today?

15. What do you hope will happen to you as you grow older?

16. What do you fear will happen to you as you grow older?

17. Have you enjoyed participating in this review of your life?

Reflection

1. This interview experience was/was not an enlightening experience. Why?

2. Describe the most significant point of the interview to you.

3. Describe a difficult/anguishing part of the interview, if any.

4. In what way might you change your general approach to elders in your clinical practice after this experience, if any?

5. Describe the degree of ego integrity reached by the elder. Support this with information from your interview and at least 2 references.

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