Lifespan Developmental Psychology Discussion

 

 

Interview someone you know in middle adulthood (40-65) or late adulthood (65-125) and have a conversation about how parts of their personality have changed or stayed the same over time from childhood until adulthood. Based on the responses, submit a profile of where your interviewee is on each of the Big Five factors of personality, and provide a behavior that illustrates each.

Remember not to use jargon when speaking with you person (e.g. don’t ask “How neurotic are you?”); instead try to get at the ideas that would suggest those factors based on a pattern of feelings and behaviors using everyday language. Try to learn more about the influences that shaped individual behavior.

Upload a Microsoft Word document here with your responses to the following questions. Files with a .doc or .docx will be accepted. Remember to use details to fully explain your responses, showing what you have learned. Paraphrase (rather than quoting class material) by putting ideas into your own words and demonstrating how concepts apply in each case to demonstrate you really understand. In-text citations and reference lists are not required for this assignment.

1. What is the age and gender of your interviewee?

2. (You may change the name of your interviewee to protect his/her/their privacy.) Describe the interviewee’s level of each trait based on your conversation:

a. Describe the interviewee’s level of Neuroticism. What components make up this trait? Has the trait changed over his/her lifetime? Use at least one specific behavior of the interviewee to illustrate the trait.

b. Describe the interviewee’s level of Extraversion based on your conversation. What components make up this trait? Has the trait changed over his/her lifetime? Use at least one specific behavior of the interviewee to illustrate the trait.

c. Describe the interviewee’s level of Openness based on your conversation. What components make up this trait? Has the trait changed over his/her lifetime? Use at least one specific behavior of the interviewee to illustrate the trait.

d. Describe the interviewee’s level of Conscientiousness based on your conversation. What components make up this trait? Has the trait changed over his/her lifetime? Use at least one specific behavior of the interviewee to illustrate the trait.

e. Describe the interviewee’s level of Agreeableness based on your conversation. What components make up this trait? Has the trait changed over his/her lifetime? Use at least one specific behavior of the interviewee to illustrate the trait.

3. Explain how nature and nurture interact over time to influence personality by revealing your understanding of each term separately and illustrating how they work at the same time to impact an individual’s personality development.

4. Do your findings support the idea in the lesson about the stability of personality from early development to later development? Be specific in describing any terminology.

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Although you are welcome to discuss ideas with your classmates, please work independently on your assignment.

Strong responses will create a well-written independent argument supported by evidence. Evidence should show a clear understanding of the materials assigned (and, when relevant, the lessons that apply). A single response should use complete sentences in paragraph form and should be edited for clarity. Answers among different questions, however, do not relate to one another, and an essay format is not required.

For the assignments in this course, students are not required to use parenthetical in-text citations or create a reference list of materials already in the module; however, students should make efforts to paraphrase ideas used as evidence by changing words, phrasing, or structure (but not meaning). In addition, students only need the sources provided in the module to complete assignments, unless otherwise specified. Most Homework Assignments will take about 60-90 min to complete well, although we know that every individual is different!