Discussion Topic
Adults in the last stage of their lives often prefer to spend time doing favorite activities and socializing with those who are close to them. By this stage, most adults are retired and living a life that can become complicated by new choices such as type of living arrangements or loss of freedoms (e.g., driving). Use the information from your Reading to respond to the following questions.
1. Using one of the theories in your Reading, why do you think an older adult might choose to live in the same house that she has occupied for most of her adult life, rather than moving into a smaller apartment? Explain.
2. Why do you think that some adults become bitter as they face death while others remain positive and active?
3. Propose a plan for addressing some aspect of bereavement for a group therapy session (e.g., stage of grief).

Assignment Details
For your final Assignment, you will write a 6–8 page case study paper that describes a hypothetical person in two stages of life development. View the person as a hypothetical client if you are studying Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) or Addictions or as a participant in a longitudinal research study if you are studying General Psychology. The goal of this paper is for you to present a developmental profile of a person in two consecutive stages of life (e.g., early and middle childhood), explaining their individual growth using biological, social, psychosocial, cognitive, and environmental theories. Select developmental periods that interest you and that correspond to your future career plans. For example, if you are studying to be an addictions specialist and want to work with adolescents, you might select adolescence and early adulthood.
To begin, select the scenario that corresponds to your concentration track; then, choose two successive developmental stages. Create an outline of the client’s different developmental features during each of the developmental periods. Write a paper that follows the sample case study format (see below the scenarios).
You must use at least five primary source references that are from peer-reviewed journals and the class text.
General Psychology
Participant: Patrick
Age range: you decide — example adolescence (12–17 yrs.) to early adulthood (20–40 yrs.). You are studying the development of people who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Your participants lost everything, including at least one close family member. Your particular interest is in studying issues faced by them (including possible developmental problems) related to moving away from New Orleans, loss of house, loss of a family member, and change in economic status. To study these effects, you are conducting a longitudinal study using the same population, interviewed annually over many years to collect data. The main interest is in gathering data related to the specific effects of experiencing a disaster on social, biological, psychological, psychosocial, and cognitive development of different-aged people. Patrick is one of your subjects who was forced to live in Texas temporarily and then moved to New Jersey before returning to New Orleans 3 years later.
Questions to guide your response:
1. What are the main features of Patrick’s cognitive, social, biological, emotional, and psychosocial development during two developmental periods?
2. What predictions would you make concerning the results of your findings for people in the two developmental periods? What interventions or strategies would you suggest for reducing the effects of exposure to disasters?
3. What further studies do you propose that could be created to explore your predicted findings?

Discussion Topic Adults in the last stage of their lives often pre...