Adult development and aging is about your life – your hopes and dreams, goals and aspirations, and how they play out across the life course. But most people have difficulty imagining their future. In fact, Dr. Daniel Gilbert states that the “ease of remembering” the past and the “difficulty of imagining” the future encourages us to mistakenly think that we are not likely to change (Ted Talk, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to imagine the possibilities of change (and stability) in your future by applying the knowledge you gain in this course.
Specifically, you will write about your life from your present age up to, and including, your death. Changes in your psychological makeup (personality, mental health, & cognition), social roles (friends, family, career), and health are the focus on your writing. The paper is not entirely fiction – it should draw upon the scientific literature that may be relevant to your life trajectories.
Upon successful completion of this paper you will be able to:
- identify factors that are important to psychological, social, and health trajectories in adulthood.
- explain how aspects of these various trajectories influence each other.
- support your explanations with scholarly and research-based information.
General Instructions
This paper will initially be written as four, individual papers (sections 1-4) to help you to focus on a single topic, such as your personality, across adulthood. Feedback on your paper will help you to refine your work for the final paper.
In the final paper, you will weave these four sections together to illustrate how changes in one area of life influence changes in other areas. You may need to make adjustments to the trajectories that you described in earlier drafts in order to have a coherent narrative. By the end of this course, you will have gained knowledge that can further deepen the content of your paper. Also, we encourage you to be creative in your presentation of your final draft – more on this below.
Paper Requirements
- Each section should be approximately 2 pages (375 – 500 words).
- The final paper should be 9 – 11 pages plus one additional page for references.
- Each section should include at least 2 references from scientific or scholarly research (see Module 3 for tips on how to find articles). Include these references at the end of your paper as a separate page.
- APA style is required for citations and references
- Grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage will be graded. Please consult with the Writing Center if assistance is needed (see Start Here module for information)
1nstructions for Section 1: Identify a curveball and how it impacts your life
Objective: You are to choose a curveball in life that affects the various trajectories (i.e. psychological, social, and health) in your life, and write about its impact.
Step 1. Choose a non-normative life event. These may be positive or negative, but must be life changing in some way and forces you to come up with new ways of coping. Normative events, like marriage, retirement, death of parents, etc. should not be used; rather, this should be something that you are not anticipating.
Step 2. Find two scientific journal articles (1 journal article and 1 government website are acceptable) to help you understand this curveball event. In Module 3,your assignment/discussion post asks you to find journal articles about your curveball and Module 3 provides resources to guide you in your search.
Step 3. Use these articles and your imagination to describe the immediate consequences of your curveball on your psychological state, your social world, and your health. You can include some long-term effects but you’ll cover this in the others sections. You are encouraged to be creative and to write with a more personal voice than the typical term paper.
Step 4. Check your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and use of APA style for in-text citations and a reference page. This paper should be approximately 2 pages(375 – 500 words). Please review the grading rubric.
Instructions for Section 2: Psychological Trajectories
Objective: You will describe about your psychological trajectories from your current age and describe how aspects of these trajectories change or remain stable across your adulthood.
Step 1. Personality (Module 4), mental health (Module 4), and cognitive health (Module 8) are parts of our psychological trajectories. Before you being to write, sketch out on paper how these main areas might change in each decade in adulthood. Make notes on how these trajectories might influence the course of another domain.
Step 2. How would you characterize your personality? Do you think your personality will be stable or do you think it will change? If the latter, how and why? How did your personality influence your choice of college, career or partner? How is your personality affected by your curveball?
Step 3. How do you think your mental health will change or remain stable across your lifespan? Did you have an issue that you gradually transformed? How is your mental health affected by your curveball both immediately and in the long-term? How do you address these issues?
Step 4. How are your cognitive abilities? Does dementia run in your family? Do you have other risk factors that might affect the course of your cognitive functioning in late life (e.g., heavy alcohol use, diabetes, etc.)? Or do you have protective factors (e.g., education, cognitive complexity, emotional stability, etc.)? How does your curveball affect your cognitive abilities in the long-term? How do you cope?
Step 5. Find two scientific journal articles (1 journal article and 1 government website are acceptable) to help you understand and develop psychological trajectories that are grounded in research. Step 6. Use these articles, the life experiences of yourself and others, and your imagination to describe your various psychological trajectories and the impact of your curveball.
Step 7. Check your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and use of APA style for in-text citations and a reference page. This paper should be approximately 2 pages(375 – 500 words). Please review the grading rubric.
Instructions for Section 3: Social Trajectories
Objective: You will write about your social trajectories from your current age and describe how aspects of these trajectories change, or remain stable, across your adulthood.
Step 1. Our relationships, families, and work life (Module 5) are domains of our social trajectories. Consider how these major areas of life influence each other overtime? Before beginning to write, sketch this out and be sure to consider the impact of your curveball on your social trajectories.
Step 2. What sort of career do you think you will have? What type of health (or other) risks will your career entail? What is the probability that it will have a pension that will allow you to have a comfortable retirement? Will your career put a strain on your marriage? Would you have a career in one occupation or might you change careers? When do you want to retire? How does your curveball affect your work life and retirement plans? What adjustments do you make to cope?
Step 3. What type of spouse do you have or do you plan to have? Would you marry? What about divorce? How will the age of your spouse affect your probability of being widowed, or your longevity? How does your curveball impact your relationships? What do you do to cope?
Step 4. What will your family be like? Are you planning to have children? How will the timing of the parental role affect your health, career, or marital relationship? How might caregiving to your parents impact your career and your relationships with children, spouse, and friends? How might your curveball affect your family relationships? How do you handle this?
Step 5. After you have a sketched out your trajectories, find two scientific journal articles (using 1 journal article and 1 government website is acceptable) to help you further understand specific issues in your social trajectories (e.g. the experience of stay-at-home dads, implications of postponing parenthood). Ground your trajectories in research. For example, the resources in the practice section of Module 5 can be used to obtain fact-based information on salaries and necessary retirement savings.
Step 6. Use these articles, the life experiences of yourself and others, and your imagination to describe your various social trajectories and the impact of your curveball on these trajectories.
Step 7. Although you are asked to focus on your social trajectories for this paper, your psychological and social trajectories also transact (i.e. influence one another).For example, let’s say you’ve always wanted to have a large family of 4 children and also work as a teacher. But because your spouse has a job that requires a lot of travel and time away, your mental health suffers, and this in turn negatively impacts your effectiveness as a parent, spouse, and teacher. You get the picture. This starts to get complicated and begins to resemble real life. The focus of the final paper is on how these trajectories are woven together but this is a good time to start thinking through these ideas and making those links.
Step 8. Check your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and use of APA style for in-text citations and a reference page. This paper should be approximately 2 pages (375 – 500 words).
Instructions for Section 4: Health Trajectory
Objective: You are to write about your health trajectory from your current age and describe how aspects of this trajectory changes or remain stable across your adulthood.
Step 1. Current health status, family histories of disease, and health behaviors influence our health trajectory and longevity (Module 7). Include these factors as you map out your health trajectory. Be sure to consider the impact of your curveball on your health over time.
Step 2. How’s your health? Do you have any current health problems that might affect the rate of aging of your organs? For example, does having asthma affect the likelihood of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in late life, with the attendant rapid decrease in pulmonary function? Does your social status (e.g., ethnicity, gender, education, socioeconomic status) make you susceptible to any type of illness? Have you been expose to environmental toxins? How does your curveball affect your current health?
Step 3. Do any diseases run in your family? For example, hyperlipedemia (very high cholesterol) could place you at risk for an early heart attack. Completing the Family Health Survey might be of use. Does your family history and curveball put you at risk for changes in your health trajectory?
Step 4. How are your health behavior habits? Are you a couch potato, a moderate exerciser, or an elite athlete? If you are a football player or gymnast, what are your chances of developing severe musculoskeletal problems in midlife? Does your physical activity (e.g., dancing, wrestling) put you at risk for eating disorders? What are the probable long-term effects of your patterns of consumption of food, alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs? Do you do anything to mitigate risk factors in your background? Does your curveball influence your health behavior habits?
Step 5. Please note that you must have a specific and plausible cause of death (NOT just dying in your sleep). We understand that this might be an uncomfortable subject for some individuals. Try to keep in mind that this is an exercise in applying your knowledge gained through this course and nothing more.
Step 6. Find two scientific journal articles (1 journal article and 1 government website are acceptable) to help you obtain research-based information about your health issues.
Step 7. Use these articles, your observations, and your imagination to describe your health trajectory and the impact of your curveball on this trajectory.
Step 8. Focus on your health trajectory but begin consider how changes in health can impact other life domains such as relationships, and also how relationship issues can affect an individual’s health.
Step 9. Check your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and use of APA style for in-text citations and a reference page. This paper should be approximately 2 pages (375 – 500 words). Please review the grading rubric.
Instructions for the Final Paper: Integration
You’ve already completed the hardest part of this project, and now it’s time to have fun! In the final paper, you’ll weave together your psychological, social, and health trajectories to tell your story as a complete, coherent narrative. You’ll demonstrate how changes in one area of life influence changes in other areas, especially when your curveball shakes things up. You will draw from what you’ve written in Sections1-4, incorporate the feedback you received, and add new insights. Do not simply resubmit Sections 1- 4.
First, the frame:
Any good story needs a storyteller. Who’s talking? If you are reflecting on your life then how will you talk about your death? Is a child or grandchild reading your diary? Is this your obituary? Or is your whole life flashing before your eyes at the moment of your death? This is where you can be most creative – one student’s frame was that she survived a plane crash but was marooned on a desert island with nothing but a spiral notebook and pen so she wrote the story of her life.
You can use your creativity and “color outside the lines” (within reasonable limits). Figure out how, within the framework of your narrative, you’ll incorporate the information you found in journal articles, reputable websites, and the course material. Feel free to alter what you submitted in Sections 1 – 4 (except for the curveball event) as you make adjustments to an integrated story. In fact, we expect that you will need to do so.
The paper should have 4 – 6 scientific journal articles and information from 4-6 reputable websites such as those sponsored by the government. You will need to integrate this information in a manner that fits with your creative frame. For example, maybe you hear a broadcast on the evening news or had a meeting with a physician who tells you about your increased risk of heart disease because of your fast food diet. You’ll still need to cite the articles and include a reference list according to APA style.
Here are a few other suggestions:
- Focus on the interplay between the domains over time. Choices made in one area of life don’t happen in a vacuum, and the effects can take time to emerge.
- Write about issues of social cognition – how do you come to your view of the world, of yourself, and others?
- Dig deeper to go beyond the superficial reporting of what’s happened to include your thoughts, feelings, worries, expectations, and joys.
- You have the option to create the final paper as an e-portfolio in Canvas where you can integrate images and other media to your text.
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