Timothy McCall
General Psychology I – H111
Instructor: Peter Boyle
October 10th, 2007
Fall 2007 Semester
Assignment # 3:
Task: Read Chapter # 3 in our textbooks.
Task: Conduct Interviews with (5) five people, of varied age, gender, ethnicity and
background, and pose the question “What would you consider to be your ideal age and
why would you consider that age to be your ideal?”
Task: Create written transcripts/summaries of interviews.
Task: Relate each interview subjects responses to the associated “Theories of
Development” and/or “Stages of Development”, detailed in Chapter 3 of our textbooks.
Chapter 3 Summary:
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Description of Stage - Sensorimotor
Developmental Phenomena - Experiencing the world through senses and actions
(looking, touching, mouthing, and grasping). Object permanence. Stranger anxiety
Description of Stage - Preoperational
Developmental Phenomena - Representing things with words and images; use intuitive
rather than logical reasoning. Pretend play. Egocentrism. Language development.
Description of Stage – Concrete operational
Developmental Phenomena - Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete
analogies and performing arithmetical operations. Mathematical transformations
Typical
Description of Stage - Formal operational
Developmental Phenomena - Abstract reasoning, Abstract logic, Potential for mature
moral reasoning
Typical Age Range Early Adulthood through Old Age
Description of Stage - Formal operational
Developmental Phenomena – Physical, Cognitive and Social Development
Interview Subject 1:
Name: XXXXXXXXXXXX (student’s mother)
Age: 70
Gender: Female
Residence:
Marital Status: Married (3rd Marriage, 15 Years. Prior Marriage(s), 10 Years and 16 Years)
Spouse – XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Children: (4) Four. (2) Two males, age(s) 40+. (2) Two Females, age(s) 40+.
Ethnicity: Caucasian – Dutch-German
Educational Level: Associates Degree
Profession: Administrator – Assisted Living Facility
Interview Summary:
Q: What would you consider to be your ideal age and why would you consider that age to
be your ideal?
A: The age I am now, Seventy Years (70).
Follow-up Questions:
Q: What is it about the specific age which you selected that you find appealing?
A: Because I am going to retire soon. My health is still good. My children are grown-up.
I have very few responsibilities. I have enough money and time to do what I want.
Q: Can you remember any negative experiences from that time of your life?
A: My friends are passing away and moving away from this area. I have been losing
interest in some of the hobbies that I have had for most of my adulthood.
Correlated Lifespan Stage of Development: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Observations:
Interview subject chose the Lifespan Development Stage related to Piaget’s “Formal
Operational” stage of development. Stage of life associated with abstract reasoning,
abstract logic and potential for mature moral reasoning.
Interview Subject 2:
Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (student’s step-father)
Age: 68
Gender: Male
Residence:
Marital Status: Married (2nd Marriage, 15 Years. Prior Marriage, Widower)
Spouse: XXXXXXXXXXX
Children: Biological – None. Step-Children, (5) Five. (3) Three males, age(s) 40+. (2)
Two Females, age(s) 40+.
Ethnicity: Caucasian - German
Educational Level: Bachelor’s Degree - Engineering
Profession: Retired Engineer (35 Years, Dictaphone Corp., 38 Years, US Naval Reserve)
Interview Summary:
Q: What would you consider to be your ideal age and why would you consider that age to
be your ideal?
A: Sixty-Five (65), my current age, because that’s where I am right now, and I am happy
Follow-up Questions:
Q: What is it about the specific age which you selected that you find appealing?
A: That I am still here and retired and I get to work when I want to and play golf when I
want to.
Correlated Lifespan Stage of Development: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Observations:
Interview subject chose the Lifespan Development Stage related to Piaget’s “Formal
Operational” stage of development. Stage of life associated with abstract reasoning,
abstract logic and potential for mature moral reasoning.
Interview Subject 3:
Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXX (student’s high-school friend’s spouse)
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Residence:
Marital Status: Married (1st Marriage, 25+ years)
Spouse: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Children: (3) Three, (1) one male, 22, College Senior. (1) one female, 21, College Junior.
(1) one female, 16, High School Senior.
Ethnicity: Caucasian - Irish
Educational Level: Bachelors Degree (pursuing Masters Degree)
Profession: Communication Facilitator – Autistic Children
Interview Summary:
Q: What would you consider to be your ideal age and why would you consider that age to
be your ideal?
A: My late thirties (30’s).
Follow-up Question:
Q: What is it about the specific age which you selected that you found appealing?
A: I was in better physical health in my late thirties. I had more of a sense of who I was
instead of doing things for everyone else, i.e.: my children, husband and family. I had
more of a sense of me. Being young (teens and twenties) was great but I was very active
in my early 30’s. I was emotionally and mentally happy and that was the time in my life
that I stopped worrying about what everyone else thought.
Correlated Lifespan Stage of Development: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Observations:
Interview subject chose the Lifespan Development Stage related to Piaget’s “Formal
Operational” stage of development. Stage of life associated with abstract reasoning,
abstract logic and potential for mature moral reasoning.
Interview Subject 4:
Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (student’s former co-worker/friend)
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Residence:
Marital Status: Married (2nd Marriage, 11 years. 1st Marriage, 5 years)
Spouse: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Children: (3) Three, (1) one male, 12, from 1st Marriage, resides in
Mother. (1) one Male, 10. (1) one Female, 8.
Ethnicity: Hispanic – Cuban-Puerto Rican
Educational Level: Associates Degree – Construction Management
Profession: Management – General Contractor
Interview Summary:
Q: What would you consider to be your ideal age and why would you consider that age to
be your ideal?
A: Early twenties (20’s)
Follow-up Questions:
Q: What is it about the specific age which you selected that you find appealing?
A: I was in the United States Navy. Traveling all over the world. I had no cares or
worries.
Q: Can you remember any negative experiences from that time of your life?
A: There were times when being far away from home, friends and family were difficult.
Correlated Lifespan Stage of Development: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
Observations:
Interview subject chose the Lifespan Development Stage related to Piaget’s “Formal
Operational” stage of development. Stage of life associated with abstract reasoning,
abstract logic and potential for mature moral reasoning.
Interview Subject 5:
Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXX (student’s co-worker/friend)
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Residence:
Marital Status: Married (2nd Marriage, 14 years. 1st Marriage, 4 years)
Spouse: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Children: (1) One female, 25, from 1st Marriage
Ethnicity: Caucasian – English-Italian
Educational Level: High School Graduate
Profession: Municipal Employee
Interview/Summary:
Q: What would you consider to be your ideal age and why would you consider that age to
be your ideal?
A: When I was around 9 or 10 years old.
Follow-up Questions:
Q: What is it about the specific age which you selected that you find appealing?
A: It was before my Father passed away. It was a happy time of my life. My whole
family would get together and have good times. I had no real worries.
Correlated Lifespan Stage of Development: CONCRETE OPERATIONAL
Observations:
Interview subject chose the Lifespan Development Stage related to Piaget’s “Concrete
Operational” stage of development. Stage of life associated with thinking logically about
concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations and
mathematical transformations.
Interviews Summary:
Most of the subjects interviewed, surprisingly, chose ages that correlated to Formal
Operational Stages and mature adulthood as the choice for their optimal phase and stage
of their life development. All subjects took a few minutes to become comfortable with
the concept of choosing a specific time-frame of their lives to characterize as optimal.
Subject’s answers generally lacked cohesion and fore-thought. I was left with the
impression that almost none of the interviewed subjects had ever really comprehensively
contemplated a question of this nature. None of the interview subjects chose either
Sensorimotor stage of development (from birth to 2 years old) or the Preoperational stage
of development (from 2 to about 6 or 7 years) as an ideal and/or optimal age of their
lives. I found it more difficult to interview people than I had anticipated. I believe this
was due to the interview subjects each being someone who I was personally acquainted
with and believe interviews with subjects containing some level of emotional separation
would have been less difficult. Overall. I personally found this assignment to be an
interesting and in some ways, eye-opening experience for myself. I could not help but
feeling that in some small way that the specific phrase brought up in our previous
discussion regarding the use of deception in research “inflicted insight” was not in fact
visited upon some of the interview subjects questioned.
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