Life Span Interview—Part 2: Narrative Analysis
Throughout the HSBE I and II courses, you have explored the biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of different phases of the human life span. You have explored life-span development theories that help to explain human behavior. You also have considered how the social environment influences individuals and their behavior.
This week, you apply your learning of the person and the environment to an analysis of an individual’s life span. Last week, you conducted a Life Span Interview with one of your colleagues. This week, you complete a narrative analysis based on your interview notes.
A narrative is a story. As you interviewed your colleague last week, several of the experiences your colleague shared may have struck you as being especially pertinent to his or her life story.
For this assignment, you transform your interview notes into a narrative—that is, a life story—of the colleague you interviewed. You interweave within this narrative an analysis of the life story by applying person and the environment concepts to your understanding and interpretation of that story.
For example, you may identify a life-span development theory that, when applied to your colleague’s narrative, helps you to understand his or her development and behavior at that point in the life span.