A Life Review Interview

Life Review Growing old to many people can be very frightening and intimidating. The key to addressing these feelings and minimizing the fears is to review one’s life and put into perspective the obstacles they overcame and the tasks they have accomplished. A life review interview is very beneficial for both the elder being interviewed and the interviewee. The elder being interviewed benefits from this experience because they get the opportunity to reflect on past events and discuss import concepts they learned as they aged. The interviewee benefits from this experience by improving their active listening and therapeutic communication skills. With that being said, I interviewed a seventy-five year old women who is currently living in Topeka,

This stage starts from eighteen months to three years. In this stage the child should be taught the basic ways of taking care of themselves, including changing their clothes and feeding themselves. If the child is unable to perform these task they may feel shame and doubt when they witness other children performing these tasks in a successful manner. The elder did not elaborate much on this developmental stage. She did say her parents, grandparents and neighbors always said she was very smart and advanced for her age. The elder did mention that for as long as she could remember she was very independent and high functioning. From what little information I could gather from this stage, I would say that the elder successful mastered the Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt stage. The stage the elder is currently residing in also supports my

This stage starts from three years old to five years old. In this stage children are starting to learn by exploring the world around them on their own terms. In this stage it is likely children will learn new concepts from attending school or through observation. Children then are expected to apply these lessons they learned in school or witness to real life scenarios. Children often are aware they can accomplish these tasks on their own, but know if they fail to do so and end up asking for assistance from others, they may feel a sense of guilt. This is the stage the elder I interviewed remembered the most. She remembered living in Atchison, Kansas and walking to her neighbor’s house every day for tea and cookies. By doing this she was exploring the world. Her parents were also giving her some space to see if she was able to recognize boundaries. When the elder made it to the neighbor’s house for tea and cookies she was to practice her ABC’s and numbers. Every day she got further and further until she completed the whole alphabet and made it all the way to 100. By doing this it motivated the elder to be better without making the feeling of doubt so dominant. The elder elaborated on times where she pushed her boundaries too far and failed such as trying to ride a bike when she was not ready, not telling her parents where she was going, sneaking into the cabinets and not finishing her