Research Project Ideas
Interviews about Middle Adulthood Most of your students will not be in the middle adulthood period of development yet. One way to get them to think about what kinds of issues they will deal with in their forties and fifties is to get them to ask their parents and grandparents about the experiences they are having, or did have, during their midlife transition.
There is considerable debate about whether there is such a thing as a midlife crisis. Some investigators argue that socioeconomic, cultural, and historical events may combine to determine whether the midlife period is one of transition or one of crisis. Students will develop a better understanding of the influence of cohort factors on the experiences associated with middle adulthood by collecting intergenerational data.
generate a list of biological, cognitive, emotional, and social changes that commonly occur during middle adulthood. Once the list is generated, set up a 7-point Likert type scale for each item. Use “had an impact” and “did not have an impact,” or some other comparative terms, as poles. You may also want to put a couple of open-ended questions on the form, such as, “What did you like best about being 40?” and “What did you like least about being 40?”
Ask the students to administer the questionnaire to their parents and their grandparents or take it themselves if appropriate. If a sufficient sample size cannot be obtained this way, ask the students to find at least one 40-year-old and one 60-year-old who would be willing to complete the questionnaire, anonymously of course.
Compile the data and discuss the results. Students should be able to draw some conclusions about the possibility of cohort effects. They, by now, should also be able to point out flaws in the design and suggest ways to make it a better study. At the conclusion of the discussion, ask the students what, if anything, the data contribute to the debate about the existence of a midlife crisis.
Middle Adulthood in the Movies Have students watch two movies that have middle-aged people as the main characters (e.g., The First Wives Club, As Good as it Gets, or Thelma and Louise). In your class discussion, ask students to describe the portrayal of the characters. Do the moviemakers do a good job of characterizing what people in midlife are typically like? Compare and contrast the movie portrayals with information presented in chapters 16 and 17. If the students were to make a movie to accurately reflect what people in midlife are like, what characters would they have?
This exercise will get students to tune in to the portrayal of middle-aged individuals in the media. The media is a huge influence in societal thinking and perceptions—about anything and everything! Through movies, television shows and advertising, and magazines, it can positively or negatively mold our thinking about individuals of different age groups, including those in middle adulthood.
· Instructions for Students: Begin paying attention to the media portrayals of individuals in middle age and note what you see. How are they portrayed in movie roles? Do these roles reflect what you’ve learned about adults in this stage of life, or are they unrealistic? If so, in what ways? How about appearances on talk shows and news programs—what issues are they concerned with? There are numerous commercials featuring adults in middle adulthood—how are they presented and for what products or services? What magazine articles address issues of middle adulthood, and what do they generally have to say? Does the media present an overall positive or negative view of this stage of life? How accurate is it? Does it make you feel good when you think about growing older and reaching this time of your life? Why?
My Hero The purpose of this exercise is to have students think about the generativity aspect of Erikson’s midlife stage, generativity vs. stagnation. Erikson believes that generativity encompasses adults’ desire to leave a legacy of themselves to the next generation. They can develop generativity in numerous ways with the result being that the adult achieves a kind of immortality.
· Instructions for Students: Write about several of your middle-aged “heroes.” Identify adults who have or are doing something particularly inspiring during this stage of their life. Talk about what they’ve done that represents their generativity. Can you see how this reflects their perspective of experiencing this stage of life? In what ways? What have you learned from these individuals? Do they motivate you to do more with your life, particularly as you get older? (Hint: you can choose someone you don’t know personally, such as an athlete, politician, activist, or well-known individual.)
Personal Application 3: Generation Gap The purpose of this exercise is to have students think about the intergenerational relationships they have been a part of. With each new generation, personality characteristics, attitudes, and values are replicated or changed. The relationship between parents and their adult children have been found to be related to the nature of their earlier relationship.
· Instructions for Students: Reflect on the aspects of your relationships with individuals in middle adulthood. What characterizes them? What is the nature of your interactions? On what things do you see eye-to-eye? Where do you disagree? How effective is your communication with one another? What things do you wish they could or would try to understand? What would make your relationships better and closer? For each area you discuss, provide reasons as to why you believe your relationship works that way. Use the information in your text to guide you.
Have students address topics, such as religion, politics, gender roles, lifestyle, work orientation, and child rearing) with regard to their views and those of the middle-aged others in their life. Have them present where they agree and where the discrepancies lie.
Personal Application 2: I’m Not Old, I’m “Chronologically Challenged!” This exercise can help connect students with the physical characteristics of late adulthood through real-life experience. Despite an increase in longevity, the human body still undergoes a great deal of decline in its physical functioning and appearance late in life.
· Instructions for Students: Think about any individuals you currently know and occasionally see who are in late adulthood, or reflect on time you spent with your grandparents when they were alive. What do/did you notice about them physically? What aspects of their physical functioning are affected by their age? What physical abilities appear to still be intact? What disabilities do you think are most difficult to adapt to and live with? Can you recall when you noticed the beginning of the decline in aspects of their functioning? If you can’t, ask them to share with you when they did. What is most difficult for them about their physical functioning at this time in life? Use the issues presented in your text to guide you.
Have students share their observations and experiences with elderly people and their physical characteristics. As you notice that not all people in this stage of life suffer from apparent limiting decline in each area, what aspects of their lifestyles might contribute to this?
Personal Application 3: It’s Never Too Early… The purpose of this exercise is to have students consider what aspects of their current lifestyle may ultimately effect their experiences when they reach late adulthood. As researchers learn more about how the human body ages and what it experiences during the later years of life, the more we can prepare for what is to come, by living healthy, positive lifestyles now.
· Instructions for Students: Describe your current lifestyle—both physically (your eating habits, exercise routine, bad habits, scheduled doctor and dentist visits, etc.) and mentally (your tendency to become stressed, how important leisure activities are to you, how you perceive yourself, your current life circumstances, how you view the future, etc.). How do you believe each of the factors of your current lifestyle will effect what you will experience when you reach late adulthood? What aspects of your life might you change to improve the possibility that you will live a healthier, more positive and productive life in late adulthood? How critical do you think it is that you begin these changes now, rather than wait until you reach middle adulthood?
· how able are students to see the connection between what they do now and the end result with regard to their existence late in life and, ultimately, their longevity? What aspects of personal functioning now do they see as related to those later years, and which ones do they feel will not influence what will determine their elderly physical characteristics? Make sure they are able to back up their responses with reasoning and evidence.
Media and Late Adulthood This exercise allows students to examine how older adults are portrayed in the media. Two interesting films related to late adulthood are Grumpy Old Men and Cocoon. Consider showing one of these films in class. Encourage students to apply concepts fr to the films. Have them think about how accurate the portrayals are of older adults. What impact do these images have on society? Do they impact older adults differently than they impact younger adults?
What a Geezer! This exercise is a great way to expose students to the ugly reality of ageism. Ageism is proof that no stage of life is immune to the harshness of stereotyping, even old age. In fact, the elderly are prominent targets for negative attributes—regarding their driving, understanding the latest technology, and even just thinking and communicating. Imagine living a full and substantial life only to be reduced to a negative generalization by people less experienced and less wise than yourself!
· Instructions for Students: Be honest. Write about your ageist thoughts. In what ways do you view elderly people in general? How often do you find yourself frustrated when behind them in line at the grocery store, or predicting someone who is driving poorly is old? Do you think that ageism is a legitimate issue that needs to be addressed in society, or is it just a “politically correct” concern? How might such stereotyping effect those in late adulthood? How might your own responses to such generalizations have affected an older individual?
· Are there any positive generalizations about older people that are embraced in our society? Is it different to look at the cross-cultural attitudes towards society’s elders, particularly in Asian cultures. Have students comment on the differences, including why they think they exist and what our society might do to begin the shift toward a more positive view of individuals in this stage of life.
It Will Be You Some Day The purpose of this exercise is to get students thinking about social policies related to late adulthood. As students are now of voting age, they too will have a say on such issues, even though they won’t directly affect them. In most cases, voter apathy works to prevent people from being aware of, and understanding, issues that are not relevant to them. This, of course, can then backfire when they face these issues themselves one day.
· Instructions for Students: Read through the policy issues related to late adulthood described in your textbook. Take a moment to really think about one day facing such aspects in your own life. What issues really move you now? What policies do you feel very strongly about for those who are currently in late adulthood? What social problems make you angry? Which ones make you fearful of facing when you reach this stage of life? What issues are of the least concern? What could you do personally now, as a young person, to make an impact on the lives of elderly people? Remember, it will be you some day.
· How apathetic are students about these issues? Have they changed their interest and involvement since studying this stage of life? Who do they know that it affects? Would they be willing to write a letter to their congressman to let their voice be heard? What issues might be present when they are in this stage that are not an issue now? What do they hope to see younger generations do for them?
Personal Application 2: Stretch, 2, 3, 4… Use this exercise to get students thinking about the state of their personal health. Early adulthood is the healthiest time of life. We are the strongest physically, are the least prone to disease and infections, and studies show that young adults are highly aware of what it takes to be healthy (Turk, Rudy, & Salovey, 1984).
· Instructions for Students: Present your lifestyle profile. Include descriptions of your eating habits, exercise, substance use (and/or abuse), and health risks. Assess your functioning in all areas. Where are you succeeding in living well? What areas do you need to work on? What is your worst health-threatening habit? How might you improve these things to live a better and more healthy life?
· Weinstein (1984) found that although college students know what it takes to prevent illness and promote health, they report they would never have a heart attack or drinking problem, but that other students would. Assess your students’ realistic awareness of how their current habits truly affect their well-being. Are they aware of the potential consequences of getting very little or no sleep on a regular basis? Do they know about the diminished capacity of their functioning when they don’t eat healthy, well-balanced meals? If they report not regularly doing things that promote healthy living, find out what is preventing them from doing so. Have the class brainstorm ideas for ways to overcome the obstacles faced by college students for living a healthy life.
Personal Application 3: Get Those Juices Flowing! The purpose of this exercise is to encourage students to think about their own creativity. Csikszentmihalyi coined the term “flow” to identify a heightened state of pleasure we experience when we are engaged in mental and physical challenges that absorb us. It is also his belief that everyone is capable of experiencing flow.
· Instructions for Students: Ponder your creativity. Read the section in your text on creativity and expand your concept of what constitutes creativity. In what ways are you creative? Give some examples of your own creativity. If you don’t consider yourself creative, address each aspect of flow and your experiences with it. Can you determine that you have experienced at least some of what it takes to be creative? What might you do to try to expand your creative potential? Remember, it’s in all of us!
Personal Application 4: Dream Job This exercise offers an opportunity to get students thinking about their future careers. It is no surprise that when individuals find a job they feel personally well-suited to, they enjoy it more and are more successful at it. It is important to explore what personal characteristics match well with particular occupations in order to successfully pursue a satisfying career path.
· Instructions for Students: Read about John Holland’s career-related personality types. Which ones describe you? Give examples as to how you match particular ones. Do these match the career you’re pursuing? Do they match a career you’ve considered, but for whatever reason are not currently exploring? Where do your personal values fit in? Does your career path reflect what’s most important to you in life? Why or why not?
Case Study and Religion. Students will interview an older person about the role religion has played across their lifetime. For example, they could ask about religious customs, practices and beliefs in childhood (e.g., what religious days did you celebrate as a child? how?); do they practice the same religion that they were reared in; what are the important symbols of their religious beliefs (e.g., a particular place of worship, favorite hymns, specific rites or symbols used in prayer); what changes have been experienced in their religious beliefs and practices; what role does religion currently play for them. Ask students to describe their interviewee's responses, to summarize the role of religion in this individual's life, and to compare what this person said with their own experiences.
Classroom Activity 4: Write Your Own Obituary One of the most challenging and productive activities for the chapter on death and dying, involves confronting our own deaths. This is not as frightening as it may sound, if approached carefully. You may want to begin by pointing out that none of us will get out of life alive. We will all die, some sooner than others. In the newspaper each day we read of people who died; the death notices and obituaries try to capture the essence of their lives for us, a sort of summary of their existence. Most students who have read obituaries know how unsatisfying they are, but few have thought to do anything about them. You might point out to students, if you hear such dissatisfaction, that most newspapers charge for the printing of the obituary, and small ones can easily cost $35 to $50 per day. Nonetheless, students should enjoy certain benefits without paying extra, and today they will. They will have a chance to write their own obituaries. Each student should write two: one as though he or she died today, at their present age; the other worded in such a way as though the student has lived through adulthood and has died at an old age, for example, at age 90.
The first obituary is realistic; it forces the confrontation with the possibility of death but is not typically very frightening. After all, we feel good, so why worry. The pain begins when the student starts listing the survivors or specifies the place of service or burial. Then it is real. However, this obituary has real value by showing how the student has already had significant impact on those they have known and cared about and how they will be missed.
The second obituary is idealistic in a sense, in that it permits the student to anticipate many years of life. On the other hand, obituaries are rather brief. It is difficult to capture 90 years in 3 column inches. Students will have to select carefully the accomplishments they include, and this is the value of the exercise. It focuses their attention on the fact that life is finite; we simply do not know the borders. If the class is small enough, have students read their obituaries (either one) aloud. A point to stress is that we should try to live our lives to the fullest.
Classroom Activity : Funerals The purpose of this exercise is for students to research the costs of funerals. The Federal Trade Commission mandates a general price list for services to protect the consumer. Have your students look up the cost of various components of a funeral to determine the potential cost. Itemized lists should be provided for funeral director, embalming, transferring the remains, limousine, visitations, funeral services, casket, flowers, burial clothing, register book, organist, clergy, etc. Have them bring the information to class for a discussion. Were they surprised at the total cost? What components of the service would they want at a funeral? Would the cost of the services alter their desires for various services?
Personal Application 2: The Loss of a Loved One The purpose of this exercise is to help students recognize the differing view and understanding of death at various stages in the life span. Very young children view death quite differently than older children, who vary still, from adolescents, young adults, and older adults. At each stage of life, death is understood and approached from a very different perspective.
· Instructions for Students: Share the experiences you have had with death thus far in your life. There is no need to go into difficult detail, just focus on the stages in your life during which someone you knew passed away, and try to recall your perception of it. What were your thoughts when you found out? Did you fully comprehend what was going on? Did you understand how it would affect your life? What was your emotional reaction? How did others around you act? Did their actions affect you? Do you think about the experience differently now that you are older? How do you think your experiences have affected the way you view your own death? Are you more apprehensive or more comfortable with the idea? Why?
· Have students comment on the notion of whether or not there is a singular view of death in our society. Do we all tend to fear it? Are people becoming more daring in their behavior due to a lessening of fear of dying? What factors might contribute to the attitudes of individuals who are highly risky in their behavior—those who appear to tempt fate often. What factors contribute to a fear of death? Are there any consistencies in responses, or do these issues seem to have a great deal of individual variation? How might developmentalists’ knowledge of people’s views of death at various stages help to develop a more “positive” or healthy view of death and dying?
Research Project 1: Hospices in Your Community Most people die in hospitals, but that increasingly people are turning to hospices as a context in which to die. Is this happening in your community? Have students find out by determining whether there are hospices in your community (Handout 5). These may be located within hospitals or adjacent to them; or they may be found in nursing homes or nursing care centers.
Once they have selected a hospice, students should learn as much as they can about it. One line of inquiry concerns social policy that affects the hospice. For example, hospitals cannot be reimbursed for providing long-term care for dying patients. Thus, important questions to ask concern the impact of Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance payments. Some questions to ask are listed below.
Questions:
· What is the nature of the group that runs the hospice?
· How does the hospice serve the needs of the dying person and the person’s family?
· Does the hospice do anything to teach about the meaning of death to the person who is dying and people close to that person?
· What services does the hospice provide for the survivors?
· How does this relate to who can afford hospice care?
· Who uses the service?
· What type of hospice care would local groups provide if the governmental policy and financial constraints did not limit them?
Students should summarize their findings in a brief paper in which they answer at least the questions listed above. Also, they will want to comment on how well what they learned coincides with what the text reports about attitudes toward death in the United States. If they can, they should determine how well the hospice or hospices they located implement what we know about how well people cope with their own or other individuals’ deaths.
Have the students make recommendations for how these hospices can improve the care they give to dying people.
Research Project 2: Experiencing Others’ Deaths Commentators have observed that Americans have remarkably little direct experience of death compared to people of other nations. You also may have concluded this from information in the text (for example, most Americans die in hospitals). But is this true? This project will give students information about the nature and extent of their own and their peers’ knowledge of, and experience with, death.
Students will need to have at least five of their peers answer the questions below (Handout 6). They may have them respond in writing or in an interview. In either case, they will want to allow up to an hour for each person to respond.
Students should summarize their findings by constructing an appropriate table or tables showing how people responded to the questions they asked. Then they will write a brief report in which they at least indicate the purpose of their project, describe the people who participated, summarize their results, and draw appropriate conclusions about their peers’ knowledge of and experience with death. Instruct students to indicate whether what they learned illustrates points made in their textbook.
Questions about experiencing others’ deaths:
· Has anyone you have known died? How many people?
· Who was the person in relation to you (e.g., brother, aunt, friend)?
· How and where did the person die?
· Were you present at the time of death? What was your reaction?
· If you were not present at the time of death, how did you react when you learned of the death?
· Did you view the body of the dead person at some time after death (e.g., at a funeral home)? What was your reaction to seeing the body?
· How involved were you in taking care of practical matters concerning the deceased?
· How involved were you in mourning the deceased?
· How involved were you in caring for other people who were mourning the deceased?
· For how long did the individual’s death have a daily impact on you (e.g., thinking about the person every day)?
· Have you worked through any concerns the person’s death created for you?
· Has it been difficult for you to answer these questions?
· Based on these answers, attempt to draw some general conclusions about the knowledge of death, as well as their peers’ experiences.