Developmental Analysis of Older Adult
For this assignment, you can either interview someone over the age of 55 or you can share about a former client who was over the age of 55 at the time that you treated them. Please change identifying information to protect confidentiality.
Do NOT format the paper like a dialogue or submit anything that reads like a transcript. The interview would just be for the purposes of you collecting information needed to complete the analysis.
Instead, submit a paper that discusses the individual's experiences moving through Erikson's adulthood stages of psychosocial development:
- Identity vs. Confusion (adolescence)*
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)*
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)*
- Ego Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)**
Make each of these stages into a section of the paper (level 1 heading) and within each section first explain the stage and corresponding crisis.
Then, describe how you believe this person resolved that crisis (where did they land between the two poles). You are welcome to discuss in terms of a ratio since it is rare for a person to resolve 100% in one direction.
*NOTE: The topics of the first three adulthood stages (identity, intimacy, generativity) are applicable throughout adulthood. For example, a person's identity is not stagnant and continues to evolve as they age and an adult does not stop caring about intimacy once they mature into middle adulthood. Instead of focusing on the ages of these stages, instead focus your analysis on how you believe the person resolved the crises based upon what you know about them at the age in which you interacted with them. You could also discuss how these different qualities evolved should you have access to information about different time periods of their adult life.
**ALSO NOTE: If the subject of your paper is not yet in the final stage of Ego Integrity vs. Despair, instead of analyzing how they seem to be resolving the stage, you can give a prognosis of how you believe they will experience that stage based upon how they seemed to resolve the other three adulthood crises.
Write the analysis in third-person. You can refer to the interview (or archived data) but you do NOT need to cite it beyond the introduction paragraph (otherwise you would have citations for an interview on nearly every sentence). However, you do need to properly cite your textbook or any other sources utilized, such as in describing each stage.
There is no minimum word count because everyone will have varying amounts of information to share based upon their subject. Just be sure to include examples/details to support your analysis and present a doctoral-level analysis using Erikson's theory (i.e., this analysis should demonstrate your clinical experience and level of expertise in the field).
SUGGESTED FORMAT:
Title page
Level 1 heading: Title of paper
Introduction paragraph that introduces the subject, identifies Erikson's theory, and ends with thesis statement
Level 1 heading: Identity vs. Confusion
Explain the stage and corresponding crisis from Erikson's theory - a paragraph
Describe how the individual resolved the crisis, including examples/details as evidence/rationale- a paragraph
Level 1 heading: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Explain the stage and corresponding crisis from Erikson's theory- a paragraph
Describe how the individual resolved the crisis, including examples/details as evidence/rationale- a paragraph
Level 1 heading: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Explain the stage and corresponding crisis from Erikson's theory- a paragraph
Describe how the individual resolved the crisis, including examples/details as evidence/rationale- a paragraph
Level 1 heading: Ego Integrity vs. Despair
Explain the stage and corresponding crisis from Erikson's theory- a paragraph
Describe how the individual resolved the crisis, including examples/details as evidence/rationale OR if the person is not yet in this stage, give a prognosis of how you believe they will experience that stage based upon how they seemed to resolve the other three adulthood crises- a paragraph
Level 1 heading: Conclusion
End with a general analysis of how this person is developed according to Erikson's stages (i.e., did the person seem to develop "normally" or do you have any concerns?)
References