METHODS AND TECHNIQUES Using Biographies of Adults Over 65 Years of Age Understand Life-Span Developmental Psychology

Students in an undergraduate life-spun deuelopmnttal psychology course either wrote a traditional term paper or conducted a pmject that required interaction with a mentally akrt adult over 65 years of age (senior citizen). Those who chose the project assisted a senior citizen in writing his or her own life stop. Along with the life log, students submitted a paper demonstrating how their particular senior citizen experienced and worked through each of the life stdgs. Ry assisting their senior cit i~m to organize m m ' e s and interpret decisions that had shoped his or her Life, the young adult students experienced those stqes that they themselues had not yet lived through. Students evaluated the project positively as a theo-rerical learning experience and as a personal growth experience. Developmental psychology is informative in understanding not only the interrelations of the major life stages but also the process of learning. Individuals develop from concrete t