SOCI1301 Ageing: Designing Interview Questions for Life History Paper

This assignment focuses on developing interview questions for a life history paper within the context of ageing and society. It outlines relevant macro-societal factors like gender, education, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and culture, and discusses stages in the life course such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. The assignment provides a set of open-ended questions designed to capture the experiences of elderly individuals, covering family, health problems, healthcare access, and attitudes towards geriatric care in Tanzania. It also discusses various interview techniques, including case history, ethnography, and oral history, while addressing potential ethical issues. This student-contributed solution is available on Desklib, where students can find more past papers and solved assignments.

Running head: AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

1
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
LIFE HISTORY METHOD, QUALITATIVE INTERVIEW AND LIFE HISTORY
RESEARCH
List of relevant macro/societal-level/social context factors (e.g., described above and include
such factors as gender, education, social class/socioeconomic, ethnicity, culture, etc.)
Ans. a.) Life history interviewing method is a type of qualitative interviewing method that is
concerned with the documentation of the period of life of the people over a period of time
(Novak, 2013). The relevant macro- societal level factor pertaining to the study using the life
history method would be studying the heads of household who belong to poor families in
Tanzania. Their economic location is below the poverty level and they find it difficult to make
both ends meet. They have attained schooling till 10th grade after which they were forced to leave
the job and help their family with farming. Another set of study would be conducted on women
who belong to the same economic strata. Unlike the men who will be interviewed for the study,
the educational qualification of the women is quite low. They have studied only until 5th grade.
The Tanzania society is characterized by a toxic patriarchal culture and therefore, the women in
the society are expected to demonstrate subservient behavior. The men and the women in the
study would belong in the age group between 60 and 65. The choice of the determination of the
powerful event is considered to be important in understanding the treatment, the cost and the
health events in the lives of these elderly participant.
b. stages in life course (e.g., childhood, adolescence, etc.)
Ans.) The different stages in the life history method is childhood, adolescence, adult life and old
age. The life stage was created through the special and complex eighteenth and nineteenth

2
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
century “discovery of childhood” (Bengtson & Allen, 2009). Children have been constructed as
innocent, deviant, agentic to the new thrust on the respect for the child in the during the
nineteenth century. The term adolescence is considered different from the puberty stage and has
a wider span than the adults have. Another life course stage is the old age that is delineated from
the rest of the society. It is imbued with negative connotations as well as sympathetic
connotations
c. possible major life events that may be experienced during the life course (e.g., marriage,
parenthood, retirement, etc.).
Ans. The life event that will be experienced during the life course is marriage, parenthood and
retirement. One might experience a blissful marital life whereas one might also experience a
troubled relationship characterized with intimate partner violence (IVP). The experience of
parenthood can make one realize about responsibilities that are important in understanding about
the dynamics of child rearing and socialization of the child.

3
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
2. Refer to Atkinson (1998) (on D2L) and construct a set of 10-15 questions that will capture:
Ans. ) Questionnaire
An open-ended questionnaire would be constructed that would seek to understand the following:
a. Who are the family members of the old people?
b. What is kind of health problems do they face? Who takes care of them during illness?
c. Is the health problem acquired or hereditary?
d. What have been the early symptoms of the problems?
e. Who used to take care during childhood during the occurrence of illness?
f. What kind of healthcare policies does the government of Tanzania for the healthcare of
the elderly provide?
g. Who face challenges in accessing healthcare, men or women? Why?
h. Are there healthcare measures that specifically addresses the concerns of women?
i. What is the attitude towards geriatric care in Tanzania?
j. Is there a class and ethnic dimension to healthcare in Tanzania?
3. Discuss the procedure and various techniques you will use during the interview
Ans.) The various procedures that would be deployed in eliciting would be as follows-
a) The case history method-this would be particularly important considering that the study is
related to geriatric care and healthcare services in Tanzania.

4
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
b) The second method that would be deployed for the research would be ethnography for
furnishing rich and insightful details about the plight of the elderly population and the
healthcare challenges faced by them.
c) The third method that can be deployed is oral history and oral narrative that focuses on
the reconstruction of the past incidents, in this case the history of health problems faced
during the childhood (McAdams, 2008).
The ethical issue that may emerge is the overflowing of emotions that may make the participants
feel emotional. The data collected would be transcribed through an interpretative reading and
reflecting on the raw data based on the emergent themes.

5
AGEING AND SOCIETY- LIFE HISTORY METHOD
References
Atkinson, A. B. (1998). Poverty in Europe:(Jrjo Jahnsson Lectures). Wiley-Blackwell.
Bengtson, V. L., & Allen, K. R. (2009). The life course perspective applied to families over time.
In Sourcebook of family theories and methods (pp. 469-504). Springer, Boston, MA.
Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
McAdams, D. P. (2008). Life Story. The Encyclopedia of Adulthood and Aging.
Novak, M., Campbell, Lori & NorthCott C. Herbert (2013). Aging and society: A Canadian
perspective. Nelson Canada.