Interview To Gain Insight Into Aging Experience And Adult Development

Running head: UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 1

Unexpected Live Event of a Child

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 2

Unexpected Live Event of a Child

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to focus on an interview of an 82-year adult on unexpected

live events from childhood through old age. The paper seeks to gain insight into the unique

experience of adult development as well as aging life. The interview shall, therefore, involve

asking specific questions regarding life events and lifestyle activities based on social, physical,

and cognitive development of a person. The interviewer shall also aim to understand the

developmental growth of the interviewee from childhood to aging life. Finally, the interviewer

shall explore various theoretical perspectives to understand the developmental changes and

experience of the interviewee on aging and adult development.

Interviewee: James Scott

Age: 82 years

Introduction

Every person usually experiences growth and development from childhood to adulthood

and aging life. Essentially, the experience is characterized by various major life events and

activities that shape the nature of the environment within which people grows (Cavanaugh &

Blanchard-Fields, 2018). The aging experience is, therefore, different from one individual to

another, and everyone has a different feeling on the experience. There are remarkable events that

one experiences that becomes a habit and hence difficult for one to stop. A person is, therefore,

unable to adjust and change from childhood events to adulthood. However, in most cases, the

aging factor forces one to abandon certain characters/behaviors and activities. The overall

changes that one experiences are based on the emotional, physical, social, and cognitive aspects

of individual life. The expectation of the researcher, in this case, is that adulthood and aging

UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 3

come unexpectedly through different life events and experiences. Also, aging limits a person

from certain life events and activities, and hence, one has to abandon certain things that he or she

used to do in childhood (Mehrotra & Wagner, 2018). James is therefore expected to either

celebrate upon having achieved certain successes in life or regret on certain issues on life. The

case shall analyze the case of James theoretically through evaluation of Cellular and

programmed theories to understand the perspective of adulthood and aging.

People usually have different feelings about the aging event in their lives. While some

feel that they have aged successfully, others may feel that they haven’t (Mehrotra & Wagner,

2018). The belief is, however, based on whether someone has achieved certain goals in life or

not. For instance, an elderly may feel he or has aged successfully for having brought the children

up successfully, educating the children, being productive, good health, among others. Health is a

major factor in aging (Bockting, Coleman, Deutsch, Guillamon, Meyer, Meyer III, & Ettner,

2016). Poor health facilitates aging and the physical inability of an individual to execute certain

routine duties.

On the other hand, a person with good health remains young always. In this essay, the

focus is to understand the individual experience of aging and adult development. We shall

evaluate the life events and knowledge of James Scott. The interview will be based on his

specific life events, habits, successes, and failures, his feeling on the aging aspect life of his life

as well as his advice to the young people.

Questions to Ask the Interviewee

 What do you feel successful aging is? Have you aged successfully?

 How did young life prepared you for the life you live today? What factors during your

childhood influenced what you are today?

UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 4

 Describe your understanding of aging in the perspective of emotional, social, cognitive,

and physical life. How has life transformed for you?

 What are the lifestyle issues that are most critical to you? How have these issues changed

over time?

 What are the things that have been difficult for you to change from childhood the

adulthood and aging life? What is doing to help adjust?

 What advice could give to young people and those approaching adulthood?

Interview Summary

James responds to aging successfully as aging up when one having achieved specific

goals in life. He says that successful aging up is getting old in good mental and physical

conditions. In his opinion, James feels to have aged successfully because of his current

conditions. He feels that having brought his family up, financially stable, and being in good

health conditions as well are enough to justify his successful aging. He remarks that the mental

and physical state of individual matters most during adulthood and aging stage.

James feels that his young years significantly influenced his adult development and aging

life. He says that the life activities he did at a young age influenced what he is today. His vision

and attitude towards life greatly shaped his life. He highlights that different factors such as

attitude, family, his social life, vision as well the different cultural and societal values also

contributed to his life growth and development. However, he insists on discipline and attitude as

the vital factors in shaping the future life of an individual.

He further explains that his aging life has influenced his social, emotional, physical,

cognitive, and social life significantly. Unlike in his younger days, he cannot attend to various

activities such as attending his orchard, feeding his livestock and other farming activities in his

UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 5

farm since his physical energy has been limited by old age. Emotionally he feels that he is being

restricted by his aging life to enjoy what life has to offer to him. He feels lonely that he cannot

interact with his friends and enjoy his social life. He often becomes emotional to the observations

he makes on the world today. He feels that things are not right always.

It is clear that James’ aging life has greatly influenced his cognitive life based on his

reason and how he addresses issues in life (Conover & Todd, 2017). He notes that it is becoming

difficult for him to interact with other people in the family and society at large. His behaviors are

cognitively changing as his age advances. He seems to miss the younger days since his aging

restricts him from physical activeness and movements to allow him to interact with his

colleagues along the streets. Since childhood, James liked dairy farming; he, therefore, kept

livestock on his farm, a lifestyle issue which seems to matter to him a lot. However, due to the

aging factor, he is now finding it difficult to maintain large livestock. James now keeps an

average farm with an average number of cattle for his dairy business. He also likes farming

vegetables for his family and commercial purposes. However, he lacks physical energy for these

activities and hence finds it difficult for him to adjust with time and age. He has therefore hired a

house help to assist him in improving and manage his dairy farming as well as horticulture.

James advises young people to be disciplined, hardworking, and remain focused on the right

attitude in life for excellence. James insists that kind of adult and aging life one would have is

dependent on the youthful one’s life. What you do today dictates the nature of one’s aging life

(Mehrotra & Wagner, 2018).

Theoretical Perspective

The response of James to the interview on his aging life can best be described by the

cellular theory, which accounts the cellular aging leading to aging in human beings. It states that

UNEXPECTED LIVE EVENT OF A CHILD 6

the cell proportion reaches the terminal stage (senescence), where there is no further division of

cells, thereby eliminating the body’s ability to respond to stressors or injuries (Ziegler, Wiley &

Velarde, 2015). His aging condition can also understand through the program theory of aging.

This theory suggests that aging programmed naturally in the body of human beings such that no

one can live forever. It suggests that aging is usually joined to the three main systems of the

body, including the immune system, our genes as well as the hormonal system. The change in

the systems leads to significant symptoms and signs of aging. These theories are evident in the

responses that James shows during the interview. He is not physically active and cannot engage

in activities he used to do when he was younger. The changes in the body systems are

responsible for his physical appearance showing the aging factor (Conover & Todd, 2017).

Conclusion

Conclusively, the interview has explored the aging experience of Mr. James Scotts. The

interview has obtained exposed various changes and experiences in life from childhood to adult

development as well as aging. It is evident that experience changes with age. The aging

phenomenon can be best understood using the cellular and programmed theory in our bodies.

Aging also impacts significantly on individual cognitive, social physical, and emotional life.

Overall the interview has sufficiently provided insight on the James’ experience of his adult

development and aging life.

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References

Bockting, W., Coleman, E., Deutsch, M. B., Guillamon, A., Meyer, I., Meyer III, W., ... &

Ettner, R. (2016). Adult development and quality of life of transgender and gender

nonconforming people. Current opinion in endocrinology, diabetes, and obesity, 23(2),

188.

Cavanaugh, J. C., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (2018). Adult development and aging. Cengage

Learning.

Conover, J. C., & Todd, K. L. (2017). Development and aging of a brain neural stem cell

niche. Experimental gerontology, 94, 9-13.

Mehrotra, C., & Wagner, L. S. (2018). Aging and diversity: An active learning experience.

Routledge.

Ziegler, D. V., Wiley, C. D., & Velarde, M. C. (2015). Mitochondrial effectors of cellular

senescence: beyond the free radical theory of aging. Aging cell, 14(1), 1-7.

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Interview to Gain Insight into Aging Experience and Adult Development

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