28 Sep In interviewing the participant, be sure to tell him/her that the interview is for a project for your course in development.

PYCL512 Human Growth and Development

Assignment Middle Adulthood Interview

In interviewing the participant, be sure to tell him/her that the interview is for a project for your course in development. Assure him/her that he/she has the right not to answer any of the questions and may stop the interview at any time. Let him/her know that no one will see the answers to the interview questions and that their names will not be used. In giving the interview, write down as much of his/her responses as you can. You might consider tape recording the interview to avoid taking time to write the answers during the interview. Be sure to ask permission to use a tape recorder and assure him/her that the tape will be erased.

 

Feel free to add questions to the interview as appropriate while talking to the participant, but be sure to cover all of the issues included. Many of the questions are meant to have more than one or two sentence answers. You will need to practice using follow-up probes to get longer answers:

 

–Can you tell me more about that?

 

–I don’t understand. Can you give me an example?

 

–How does that make you feel?

 

–How important is that to you?

 

–using “uh-huh” and head nodding may also lead to more responding

 

Incorporate questions about culture as appropriate.  Culture includes religion, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, age, gender, etc.

 

– What is your occupation?

 

– How do you feel about your job?

 

– What would you change about it, if you could?

 

– How does your job or career look compared to the vision you had when you were younger?

 

– What do you do for fun?

 

– What does your level of physical activity look like?  How has this changed as you have gotten older?

 

– What does your internet/social networking involvement look like?

 

– What is your relationship status?

 

-Describe your family.

 

– How has your relationship with your children (if you have any) changed?  What are your thoughts about this?

 

– How has your idea of marriage changed across your life?

 

– Has there been any significant event that has changed your marriage/significant relationship? What was theevent? How did it change your relationship?

 

– If you have had children, how has your marriage/relationship(s) changed since you had children? How?

 

– How have your friendships changed since you were younger?  What activities do you do with your friends?

 

– How was dating different when you were young from how it is today?

 

– Are your friends more of the same sex or the other sex? Has this changed?- Did you and your partner have friends of the opposite sex? How did you feel about that?

 

– How do you feel about the relationship between love and marriage?  How has your idea changed from when you were younger?

 

– Howhave your feelings about your spouse/partner changed over the years?

 

– What are your views about divorce?  Have your views changed?

 

– What do you think are the guidelines for a successful marriage/relationship?

 

– Have you ever been through a time when you felt a void that needed to be filled bysomeone other than your spouse/partner?  What did you do?

 

– Do friendships differ from marriage relationships in your experience?

 

– If you could do your marriage/significant relationship over again, what would you do differently?

 

– Did friends and acquaintances go through affairs? Divorces? How did you react?

 

– Describe your dating and/or other relationships before marriage.

 

– When you have a personal problem, to whom do you turn?

 

– Do you think sex is appropriate before marriage? Have society’s views on this changed since you were younger? Have your views changed?

 

– If you were doing it all over again, would you do anything differently?

 

– Is there anything you’ve learned that you didn’t know 20-30 years ago?

 

– If your child were getting married and asked what you thought was the most importantthing you’ve learned about how to have a successful marriage, what would you say?

 

Student question. Based on what you’ve learned, ask at least one more question; what else

 

wouldyou like to know about this person’s life?

 

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After you describe the interview, discuss your reaction (three paragraphs).

 

1. What did you learn? Did anything surprise you? 

 

2. How did you feel during the interview?

 

3. What changes (if any) have occurred in your perception of the prenatal/first year? (What did you think before? What do you think now?)