Adult Development & Aging Process Plan Essay

Adult Development & Aging Process Plan

Paper #1: Adult Development & Aging in the Movies

This paper asks you to look at images of adults (young, middle-aged, old) in movies and to compare these images to findings from scientific studies. This packet contains a list of movies and journal articles that you can use for comparisons. Your paper should address the connections between the research articles and images of adult development and aging in the media. Your paper should also address the places where the images of adult development shown in the movies differ from the research findings in the journal article.

This is the assignment:

1. Read the journal article carefully.

2. Then, go back and take notes on the people who participated in the study. There should be a section of the article labeled: Participants, sample, subjects, etc. Consider factors such as their age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, etc. How many participants were included in the study? When you watch the film, compare the sample to the people portrayed in the movie. It could be that the movie portrayal and the research findings do not agree – on how adults of a certain age, gender, etc should behave, think, act, or feel.

3. Look carefully at the questions the researchers asked and at the findings reported (including tables and graphs). Write down what you consider to be the 2 or 3 main questions of the study. Then, write down the main findings with respect to each question.

4. When you watch the movie, ask:

a. How similar (e.g., age, gender, etc) were the study participants and the characters in the movie?

b. Are there scenes in the movie that illustrate the study findings? If not, what are possible reasons?

c. What aspects of adult development or what possible research questions do you think the movie addresses that were not the focus of the research article?

Be sure you address these three questions (a,b,c) in your paper and 2 and #3 above (i.e. what are the characteristics of the study participants, what were the main research questions, and what are the findings from the study).
5. Then write the essay.

a. Make a list of comparisons of key points between the research article and the film

b. Use an outline to write the paper

6. Avoid the first person pronoun “I” in the paper. Write as an “objective” narrator.

7. Write more than one draft of the essay. Use spell check and grammar check AND print out your paper and proof read it. Rewrite it.

8. Don’t wait until the last minute – even best selling authors write multiple drafts!

Paper #1

SOME IDEAS FOR HOW TO APPROACH THIS ASSIGNMENT

In the Fingerman (2000) article that you will read for this class on mother/daughter conflict, it was reported that nearly 90% of older mothers and daughters get along very well, but the daughters (more than mothers) still experience some conflict with their mothers. Approximately 10% of mothers and daughters have highly conflicted relationships. The conflict usually involves the mother feeling excluded from the daughter’s life and daughter feeling the mother is critical and intrusive. You should also know that the study was based on a sample composed primarily of European American women with high education levels.

You might then watch The Joy Luck Club. You would notice that the women portrayed in the movie are Asian and the mothers are recent immigrants to the U.S. You would also note that the film portrays the mothers and daughters as having a fair amount of tension in their relationship. You could compare the 4 different mother/daughter pairs in the movie to the types of mother/daughter pairs in the research article. If the mothers and daughters in the film described conflicts not reported in the research article, you should consider reasons why this is the case. Perhaps the movie exaggerates normal mother/daughter relations? Perhaps these patterns reflect difficulties unique to women who immigrate to the U.S. and their daughters? Finally, what other issues related to adult development are addressed in the movie and might be the focus of research – but were not addressed in the assigned research article?

Paper # 1: List of Journal Articles and Films

Below is a list of films to view and related journal articles. For Paper #1 you are to view one movie and read the related article.

Note: Magazines and newspapers are periodicals, not journals. Examples of journals include: The Journal of Marriage and the Family, Family Process, Family, The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychology and Aging, The Gerontologist, The Journals of Gerontology, The International Journal of Human Development, and Health and Aging.

Film: About Schmidt

Utz, R. L., Carr, D., Nesse, R., & Wortman, C. B. (2002). The effect of widowhood on

older adults’ social participation: An evaluation of activity, disengagement, and continuity theories. The Gerontologist, 42, 522-533.

Film: American Beauty

Wethington, E. (2000). Expecting stress: Americans and the “midlife crisis”. Motivation

and Emotion, 24, 85-103.

Film: Iris

Gallagher-Thompson, D., Dal Canto, P. G., Jacob, T., & Thompson, L. W. (2001). A

comparision of marital interaction patterns between couples in which the husband does or does not have Alzheimer’s disease. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 56, S140-S150.

Film: Because I Said So

Fingerman, K. L. (1996). Sources of tension in the aging mother and adult daughter

relationship. Psychology and Aging, 11, 591-606.

Film: Soul Food

White, L. K., & Riedman, A. (1992). Ties among adult siblings. Social Forces, 71, 85-

102.

Film: The Bucket List

Holt-Lunstad, J., Uchino, B. N., Smith, T. W., & Hicks, A. (2007). On the importance of

relationship quality: The impact of ambivalence in friendships on cardiovascular functioning. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33, 278-290.

Grading Criteria for Paper #1

The following criteria will be considered in grading Paper #1

Understanding and Use of Journal Article
1. Factual understanding of journal article.

a. Able to describe major characteristics of the sample used in the study

b. Able to describe major research questions addressed in the article

c. Able to describe major findings of the study

Comparison of article and film and integration of ideas
1. You need to go beyond summarizing the article and summarizing the film. You should compare and integrate material from the article and material from the film.

2. Compare similarities and differences between participants in article and characters in the film.

3. Discuss how and why findings from the study are apparent (or not apparent) in the film. Discuss why the film reflects (or does not reflect) findings from the study. In answering this question, consider characteristics of study participants vs. film characters, types of issues portrayed in film, and contexts in which the people are portrayed.

4. Identify at least one other aspect of adult development and aging that was portrayed in the film but was not a major finding in the research article.

Clarity of Writing
1. A well-organized essay requires a tight outline. These are short papers and thus each paper needs to be well organized and well written. You could attach a copy of the outline for the paper (will not be counted in word count) – to show organization of paper

2. Each paragraph should have one clear thesis statement.

3. Write in an impersonal form; do not use “I” or personal pronouns.

4. Clearly state at the beginning of the paper the article and film that you are discussing.

5. There should be a title page. Be sure that your name is in a header on each page. Number the pages.

Appropriateness of Assignment
1. Late papers will lose points

2. Grading will consider sentence structure, grammar, & spelling. Proofread your paper

3. Grading will consider guidelines for paper length, double-spaced, margins, title page, etc.

Creativity, Sophistication, Hard work
ADULT DEVELOPMENT & AGING

GERO 44030

Grading Criteria for Paper #1

Name: _____________________________________

Date:

Assignment: Adult Development & Aging in the Movies

Total: ____ /40

1. Understanding and Use of Journal Article: ___ / 10

___ / 5 Able to describe major characteristics of the sample

___ / 5 Able to describe major research questions/findings

2. Comparison of article and film and integration of ideas ___ / 14

___ / 4 More than a summary of the article and film. Compares and integrates material from the article and material from the film.

___ / 5 Compare similarities and differences between participants in the article and characters in the film

___ / 5 Discuss how and why findings from study are apparent (or not apparent) in the film. Discuss why film does/does not reflect findings. Consider study

participants vs. characters, types of issues in film, contexts in which people

portrayed.

3. Clarity of Writing ___ / 12

___ / 4 Organization (paper is logically organized with an introduction and conclusion)

___ / 4 Clear thesis statements

___ / 1 Written in impersonal form

___/ 3 Sentence structure, grammar, and spelling

4. Creativity, Sophistication, Hard work ___ / 4

Comments:

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