Interview with Older Adult

This paper is based on an interview with an older adult, the author's mother, who is 84 years old. The interview covers topics such as childhood, teen years, young adult years, and history. The paper evaluates the differences and similarities between consensus in the field and a single person’s experiences. The evaluation is anchored on the thought about and explanation of how such individual differences dictate the interactions with others, beliefs, and values.

Running head: INTERVIEW WITH OLDER ADULT 1
Interview with Older Adult
Name
Institutional Affiliation

INTERVIEW WITH OLDER ADULT 2
Interview with Older Adult
Introduction
The following discussion is premised on assignment that required each student to produce
a paper anchored on the interview I completed with my mother as an adult age 60+ years. My
interviewee is mother, person who is my relative. Therefore, I conducted the interview with my
mother, who is 84 years of age. Our interview was narrowed about the family. The main topics I
covered with my mother included her childhood, at teen years, young adult, and history. The
purpose of this assignment is to undertake an evaluation of the differences and similarities
between consensus in the field and a single person’s experiences. Therefore, this paper critically
considers aspects of history-graded events, age-related events, alongside non-normative life
events. The evaluation is anchored on the thought about and explanation of how such individual
differences dictates the interactions with others, beliefs and values.
Interview Results
The following topics were covered in the interview and the results are as explained
below:
Childhood
Under childhood, I sought to inquire about many things to know about my mother’s
childhood. I got to understand that my mother was the last born in a family of 8 children. She
had two brothers and five sisters who are all deceased. My mother also explained that she had a
very close knit family and she loved all of her siblings and parents. She constantly thinks about
all of her siblings and usually wonder how her life would be in case her parents and siblings were
still with her. I got to understand how my mother and her siblings had a strong bond as witnessed
in her explanation of always ever being together.

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My mother also explained to me how they worked in the fields from sunrise to sunset, but
she did not care since she was always with her sisters and brothers who protected her. She also
told me how she loved school and she and her sister were in same grade. She told me how she
and her sister stood inseparable and they always did everything in unison as her sister was her
best friend during their childhood.
Teen Years
I also got to know much about the first person my mother dated or her first date. She
explained how she dated a handsome, sweet and kind man. She could not really express herself
during her first date well. This is because she had little time with her first man as her parents
gave her a curfew of 10.00 PM. Thus she had to get back home by that time or else and she
would make her parents unhappy, which she never wanted to be the case.
Further, I questioned my mother on what she would treat as the most challenging moment
about being a teenager. She explained that her teenage years stood was that every time she went
out, one of her siblings had to accompany her. While sometimes she never minded, she,
however, explained that she occasionally wanted to be alone with her friends, and hence such
accompaniments stood challenging.
Young Adult:
I also wanted to know about my mother’s first time she met her husband (my father) as a
young adult. She to me that she and my dad met when she was twenty years old. She was at the
church service and she was singing on the choir. My would-be dad was then a visitor that Sunday
and following the service, he introduced himself to my mother and told her that she had a
beautiful voice. She explained how my dad told her she wanted to get to know her. However,
my mother was surprised as she never knew my would-be dad was a friend with one of her

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brothers in high school. She explained how my dad asked her for her contact and wanted to know
if he could take her out on a date. She was excited and never hesitated to say yes and they dated
afterwards for one year and got married the following year. I also asked my mum regarding the
number of children they had with my father. She explained that she got pregnant nine times, and
she had eight living children because one of her child has succumbed to illness.
I also wanted to gauge her opinion about whether she thought she was a good parent as a
young adult. She never heisted but say that she was of course a good parent as she attempted to
be the best mother she could be. She explained further that she was a disciplinarian in her family
and she did much of punishing leading to all her children being disciplined. I further wanted to
know whether my mother thought parenting stood a hard task then than back when she was
rearing her children. She explained that being a mother currently is harder, as back in the days
the kids stood respectful and obedient to their respective parents and elders. The modern-day
children lack respect and manners.
History:
I wanted to know about the number of grandchildren my mother had. She explained that
she had twenty grandchildren with ages ranging from 15 to 44. She had a bunch of a great
grandchildren, great-great grandchildren. She was also expecting to have a great-great-great
grandchild in a couple of months. She further explained that her family would be a five
generation strong and that her family was still growing and she was thankful to God for his
wonderful blessings.
I also asked my mother whether she was driving and she answered that she had never
driven her car since she fell sick. She explained how she stood hesitant to regarding driving after
being sick and her children feel as if she should give up driving. However, she said that she was

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still thinking about whether to cease driving completely. When I asked her about her first car, she
indicated that she first possesses a 1957 Bel-Air and showed me how she loved that car as it
drove so smoothly.
I also wanted to know about the biggest change my mother had been through in all her
life. She indicated that the biggest change she experience in her 84 years of living was how the
world has altered fundamentally. She cited technology as one of the changes that has come up
with many things she does not understand as her children even tell her about Facebook.
However, when she hears about Facebook, she does know what in the world her children are
talking about. Also, she cites disrespect, people murdering one another for no reason, hate, envy
and jealousy as amongst significant changes she has experienced. She says that as she was
growing the globe stood so different and a better destination to live.
I also inquired about whom my mother thought was the most important people in her life.
She never hesitated but to tell me that the first phrase that comes to her mind immediately is a
family. She explained how she was grateful and appreciative to have shared such experience
with her mother. She said that her family is the greatest thing she has and that she was extremely
blessed and thankful to have her family in her life.
Evaluation of Similarities and Differences
The life-span developmentalist hold that a person’s development remains significantly
affected by age-graded, history-graded as well as non-normative factors. The relationships
between these three events or influences remains dynamic as well as reciprocal which means
they stay in continuous state of change and influence each other respectively. Such an
interrelationship between the three remains different in the course of distinguished life cycle

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phases (Hayslip, Patrick. & Panek, 2011). For instance, non-normative life events remain
specifically significant in the course of middle-to-late adulthood.
Normative Age-Graded Events
These are events within the life course which remain correlated with chronological age.
For instance, retirement and marriage remain two normative age-graded events. Such events are
due to either environmental or biological determinants or the interactions of both determinants.
Menopause and puberty would be typical illustrations of biological determinants; while
retirement and graduation would be demonstrations of environmental determinants (Hayslip,
Patrick. & Panek, 2011). Many of the environmental determinants fall into either education,
family life cycle or occupational categories. Age-graded influences remain regarded as
normative whenever they take place with significant frequency and remain identical in terms of
timing and duration for a great proportion of population within a culture (Hayslip, Patrick. &
Panek, 2011). It must be observed that every culture/subculture has its individual set of age-
graded normative events. Therefore, for a young girl to get pregnant at fifteen years of age might
be non-normative in much of American culture but normative for additional cultures.
Applying the age-graded events/influences into my interview with my mother,
specifically her family life cycle, will help me demonstrate the age-graded influences on my
mother. This info will be found under the topics “childhood, teen years and young-adult” which
are linked to age. For instance as a child, I asked my mother about her childhood. She explained
how her childhood was shaped by her siblings who always loved and protected her. She had a
sister to whom she loved most and did everything together and a best friend. Another age-graded
event that comes into play is marriage. This was evident when as asked my mother during her

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teen years to describe her first love or dating. She demonstrated that she loved a handsome,
sweet and kind man. However, it is also clear that the parents still controlled her by being
demanded not to delay getting back home before teen. As a young-adult, we also see from the
interview findings that my mother was influenced age-graded event of marriage when I asked her
to describe about first time she met her husband.
Another age-graded event which comes from the interview is pregnancy and subsequent
birth and keeping rearing children. This was clear at the young adult era where my mother
explained how she had nine pregnancies and lost one child. As seen above, these age-graded
events that my mother went through remain normative age-graded event. For example, my
mother was married at twenty-years and this is a frequent and similar age at which many people
get married in our culture. Thus, there is a great similarity in terms of marriage in this culture as
witnessed by the interview outcome about my mother’s family life cycle. This shapes age-graded
events shapes my mother belief, values and how interacted with my would-be dad when they met
at the church.
Another instance of the age-graded events can be seen when my mother was asked to
explain the number of grandchildren she had. As expected, there is a similarity in these case
because this is normative age-graded event as it is expected that an old woman like my mother
should indeed have many grandchildren and even great-great-great grandchildren as she
explained. Being such an old woman at 84, it is expected that her family life cycle or her lineage
should have many generations like my mother expected her fifth generation in couple of months.
This is widespread in our culture as many other old people expect or already have their fifth
generations. Thus, this is based on age-graded influences which has made my mother to have so
many grandchildren and even great-great grandchildren.

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History-Grade Events:
The normative history-graded events remain the influences or events experienced by a
specific culture at some point of time. The phrase normative here implies that the greater
proportion of a culture experiences such events rather than small cohort of people. Such events
establish generational variations in the culture (Hayslip, Patrick. & Panek, 2011). For instance,
baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) have extremely distinct outlooks from the
Millennial (born between 1981 and 1998). The main events including epidemics, war and famine
have distinguished effects on a range of societal age groups as they dictate the passage of each
life stage-from the phase at which a child leaves home to where she retires (Hayslip, Patrick. &
Panek, 2011). The effects of such normative history graded events might make it infeasible for a
person to distinguish between impacts triggered by age, and those triggered by cohort status. Put
differently, normative history-graded events remain often confounded with age-graded events.
The normative history graded events might be narrowed down into environmental and biological
influences linked to a specific historical events. The biological determinants include 1918 flu
epidemics, malnutrition because of rationing in World War II, declining age of puberty whereas
environmental determinants include 9-11, the telecommunication age, the 1930s Great
Depression, and the Vietnam War as well as WWII.
Applying history-graded events to the interview results I completed with mother, it is
clear that indeed these events influenced my mother. This can be observed where I asked my
mother about what she would perceive as the biggest change in her life experience throughout
her lifespan. She mentioned that technology has changed the world to a great extent and her
children mentions Facebook to her yet she knows nothing about it. This is a history-graded event
because it indeed shows that it technology has established a generational variation in the culture

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between my mother who is a baby boomer and the Millennial who now use and understand
everything about Facebook. This is also a normative history-graded event because it is true that
there is a variation between baby boomers like my 84-year-old mother and myself who is a
Millennial who can understand the use of Facebook. Thus, there is a similarity because such a
variation is true in our culture as old adults do not have knowledge of some of the technological
adjustments as opposed to young people. This is an environmental normative history-graded
event and it implies that the greater proportion of a culture experiences such events rather than
small cohort of people. Many old people like my mother will experience such events caused by
technological advancement as well as the young people. Put differently, the effects of
technological advancement and its consequential influences on both young and old people is
massive in the society. This is because whereas my mother believed and valued a world without
such technological development, the young people like her children believe the technological
advancement stay necessary as it shapes the way people easily interact.
Non-Normative Life Events
The phrase “non-normative life events” describes the substantial, unanticipated, and
unpredictable events, for a specific person, which never follow the predictable development life-
cycle pattern (Hayslip, Patrick. & Panek, 2011). Non-normative life events happen unexpectedly,
like natural disasters, loss of family member as well as war. Even in instance of illness and
demise, in particular ages, are considered statistically normative, they remain non-normative.
They are unanticipated and unwanted events, liked to severe effects (Hayslip, Patrick. & Panek,
2011). Non-normative events might be composed of both positive and negative events, like death
of beloved one or winning a lottery. Nonetheless, in either case, they are all unanticipated and
somewhat linked to chronological age.

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Applying the non-normative life events into our interview, I realized various instances of
non-normative life events. The first one is where my mum explains how she has lost all her
siblings and the effects this has had on her. For instance, my stated that she always wondered
how her life could have been if she were to have all her seven siblings and she also said that she
always thinks of her siblings, especially her best friend sister with whom they were inseparable.
This is a non-normative event because death of her siblings occurred unexpectedly hence ripping
my mother of her beloved family members.
Another instance of non-normative life event is when my mother explained how she lost
one of her children despite having had nine pregnancies. These two examples demonstrate the
negative non-normative life events that affected my mother. The third instance of non-normative
life events is when my mother explains why she no longer drives a car because she had fallen
sick. Sickness remains a non-normative life event because it occurs unexpectedly and it is
undesirable. It is apparent that my mother stopped driving due to undesirable sickness and hence
this has affected to date and she is still thinking of whether to drive again while her children want
her to stop driving completely.
Conclusion
The discussion reveals the differences and similarities regarding the consensus in the
field and the single person’ experiences (my mother in this case). As observed in the evaluation,
various similarities have been cited between the beliefs, values and even interactions with others
as evident in the case of my mother’s experiences and the consensus in the field. For instance, it
is shown that our culture treats most of women to be married at age twenty and even my mother
was married at age twenty (Hayslip, Patrick. & Panek, 2011). Also, it is also a consensus in the
wide field that being an elderly person (84 years for mother), she should be seeing her fifth

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generation and this was true in the case of my mother’s own experiences. Also, there is a
consensus there baby boomers and young people different outlooks of the world and this
explains why my mother had no understanding of what Facebook was all about and yet young
people (her children) knew it and its usage. This why my mother has a different belief and value
of the world since she says that the world has changed a lot including where people just murder
others for no apparent reasons. She believes that this has been caused by undesired changes in
the world.

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References
Hayslip, B., Patrick, J. H. & Panek, P.E. (2011). Adult Development and Aging (5th ed.),
Krieger Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1-57524-245-3