Life Span Interview

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Lifespan Interview with a Focus on the Affect of Distonic Outcomes in Erickson’s Stages from Infant to Adolescent on later Lifespan Development The Lifespan Interview The lifespan interview was conducted with a single female, 70 years of age. The purpose was to document the subject’s lifespan history with recollections of important or significant events in her development. Focus of the Interview The focus was to identify any distonic outcomes during any of the 1st five stages of Eric Erickson’s 8 stages of personal development. (Muuss, 1996:42) leading to his fifth stage, the establishment of identity (See Appendix for complete list of focus questions). It was hoped that the questions could isolate specific areas and incidents that may have hindered any one stage of development thereby influencing the subject’s later view of adolescence. This focus is inspired by Erickson’s emphasis on the identity crisis as the “psychosocial aspect of adolescing.” (Erickson, 1968:91) This taxonomy of adolescence requires the active coalescing of previous stage outcomes to form an identity or identity confusion, which would form the basis for future physiological growth and social responsibility. All the stages that precede this stage end with some degree of a resolution of conflict, however, the degree and quality of identity established in adolescence is important because it the first experience of identity. The interview structure was designed to test the theory that later year views of life and recollections of adolescence would be influenced by any identified distonic outcomes in Erickson’s first four stages. Method The interview was conducted by telephone in one interview lasting approximately 2 hours. The request for approval to interview was completed by e-mail. The subject was informed that the purpose of the interview was to obtain her recollections

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