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Using Older People's Life Stories to Teach

Developmental Psychology and Aging: Benefits
and Difficulties

Article in Educational Gerontology · December 2013

DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2013.767076

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University of Barcelona University of Barcelona
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Seniors’ involvement in older people’s organisations: A comparative study of participation
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Running head: LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND

AGING

Using older people’s life stories to teach Developmental Psychology and Aging: benefits and

difficulties

Feliciano Villar, Josep Fabà & Montserrat Celdrán

University of Barcelona

Authors

Feliciano Villar, Josep Fabà and Montserrat Celdrán, Department of Developmental and

Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona

Corresponding author: Feliciano Villar, Department of Developmental and Educational

Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

E-mail: fvillar@ub.edu
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 2

Abstract

The goals of this study were to design and implement an experiential learning assignment

in an undergraduate Developmental Psychology and Aging course and to explore students’

perceptions of it. One hundred and forty-three first-year students enrolled in an introductory

course on Developmental Psychology across the Lifespan recorded, transcribed and analysed the

life story of an older person. Afterwards, they wrote a paper that combined theoretical concepts

and reflections on this story and were asked about the benefits and difficulties of the task. The

answers to these questions were content analysed. The reported benefits were grouped into two

categories: benefits related to the academic objectives of the project (improving learning of

developmental concepts, research-related skills and attitudes towards old age) and personal

growth. The former were reported by approximately two-thirds of the participants, and in most

cases were related to the acquisition of theory. The latter were mentioned by 70.6% of students,

and learning some kind of life lesson was the most cited benefit. Students mentioned some

difficulties in interviewing, transcribing and analysing the interview, and in writing the paper.

Interviewing seemed to be the most difficult task. Collecting and analysing an older person’s life

story seems to have many positive effects, not only on students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes,

but also on their personal development. Thus, despite the difficulties posed by this experiential

learning assignment, it might be a useful tool to complement more traditional lecture-based

teaching methods in Developmental Psychology and Aging courses.

Keywords: experiential learning, developmental psychology, aging, life stories

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 3

Using older people’s life stories to teach Developmental Psychology and Aging: benefits and

difficulties

Lecturing is still a widely used teaching method in higher education. It has its strong

points and may be a method that boosts students’ learning, particularly when the information is

presented in an engaging way (de Winstanley & Bjork, 2002) and interaction with students is

promoted (van Dijk, van den Berg & van Keulen, 1999). However, one of its main disadvantages

is its tendency to be framed in a transmission model of learning, in which the lecturer’s role is to

provide knowledge and the student’s purpose is to passively store and reproduce a series of facts.

The implementation of experiential learning methods is a way to move from memorizing

to actively constructing knowledge. Such methods involve direct student experience in a setting

related to the field studied in the classroom (Moore, 2000). There are many reasons why

experiential learning might be a particularly suitable teaching tool in areas such as

Developmental Psychology and Aging. Firstly, development and aging are intrinsic features of

human life, and are therefore so pervasive that there are many possible settings in which a

student can directly experience such changes, starting with an examination of their own lifespan.

Secondly, theories and concepts in Developmental Psychology and Aging are supposed to be

based on people’s real life experiences, which in turn are described, explained and predicted by

theoretical frameworks. Therefore, the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of these

experiences is a way of promoting the link between abstract knowledge and concrete facts

(Neysmith & Kleisinger, 1997).

A number of experiential learning strategies have been proposed in the field of lifespan

development. For instance, service-learning promotes the involvement of students as volunteers

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 4

in a community agency relevant to the course (e.g. a day care centre, a centre for older people or

an assisted living facility). This involvement seems to increase academic performance and

measures of empathy (Lundy, 2007). Mentoring, which consists of encouraging students to

initiate and develop a relationship with an older person for at least the duration of the course, has

also been successfully applied to Developmental Psychology and Aging courses (Hamon &

Koch, 1993). As well as being an example of some topics discussed in the course, the mentoring

relationship help students to deactivate stereotypes towards older people and promotes personal

growth and an affective dimension of learning (Brown & Roodin, 2001; Zucchero, 2009, 2011).

The use and interpretation of life narratives is another popular method that brings

students into contact with real-life issues. Although some authors have used narratives extracted

from historical (e.g. Fernald, 1996) or literary (Boyatzis, 1992) sources to teach Developmental

Psychology and Aging, students’ motivation is deeper when their analysis is applied to a life

narrative that they have gathered from a person they know (Wellin, 2007). An alternative is to

instruct students to write and analyse narratives of their own lives. This approach promotes

personal insights and growth (Clinchy, 1995; Mayo, 2001), but has some limitations, the most

obvious being the emotional difficulty of dealing with some personal issues and the lack of

experience about most of the lifespan. The use of life narratives that students gather from an

external informant overcomes these limitations. In addition to first-hand contact with

developmental experience, students must use relevant research skills, such as managing the

interview situation, collecting reliable data or dealing with confidentiality and ethical issues.

Such skills are an important complement to class learning and key competences in many

professional fields, such as psychology, social education or gerontology (Camp & Brookover,

1997; Oggins & Whitlow, 2002).

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 5

For a number of reasons, older people appear to be the most obvious choice of informant

for life narratives. Firstly, their life stories are nearer completion and encompass experiences

spread throughout most of the lifespan. In addition, authors such as Erikson (1963) have

emphasized how reviewing your life could be a meaningful developmental task in older age. The

last stage of the lifespan is a time when people are faced with their own mortality and are prone

to take stock of their lives and come to terms with past successes and failures. Despite the

advantages, few studies empirically examine the benefits of using older people’s life stories to

study developmental and aging issues in university courses. A study by Neysmith-Roy and

Kleisinger (1997) showed that students found the use of life stories a valuable learning

experience that was academically challenging and interesting. However, the reliance on a few

quantitative items and the reduced sample size (35 students) limited their conclusions.

To sum up, previous research on experiential learning through contact with older people

has shown both academic and personal benefits to undergraduate students. It leads to better

integration of developmental and aging concepts and theories with concrete real-life examples

(Hamoon & Koch, 1993; Neysmith & Roy, 1997). In addition, it leads to personal growth,

reinforces both empathy and intergenerational bonds with older people (Lundy, 2007; Zucchero,

2011) and reduces ageist attitudes (Oggins & Whitlow, 2002). The use of older people’s life

narratives has these benefits and others: academically, life stories promote interviewing and

research-related skills (Camp & Brookover, 1997) and personally, older people can provide life

lessons and insights about aging and life stages that are yet to be experienced (Mayo, 2001).

Although there is interest in the benefits of this kind of experiential learning, there is little

empirical research on the difficulties involved in life story interviews and the feasibility of this
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 6

kind of assignment in relatively short academic terms (for instance, in Spanish universities terms

are normally four months).

The present study had two aims. Firstly, we described the design and implementation of

an assignment that consisted of gathering and analysing older people’s life stories in an

undergraduate Developmental and Aging course. Secondly, we explored how students evaluated

the assignment, taking into account both what they learnt and the difficulties of the task.

Method

Participants

Participants were 143 first-year social education students (128 women and 15 men)

enrolled in an introductory course on Developmental Psychology across the Lifespan at the

University of Barcelona. Students ranged in age from 18 to 37 years, with an average age of 19.8

years.

The course took one term (four months) and had nine credits assigned, which implies 90

hours of class, distributed in 6 hours a week for 15 weeks. Data were gathered from two groups.

Once the requirements of the life story project had been outlined on the first day of class,

students were given the option to complete an alternative assignment. However, none of them

chose this option.

Procedure

The life story project had three objectives, corresponding to the traditional knowledge,

skills and attitude dimensions of educational goals (Bloom, 1956): to improve the learning of
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 7

developmental concepts and theories involved in the course; to enhance research-related skills,

such as interviewing, finding references and writing a research paper; and to improve attitudes

towards older age and people’s stories and experiences.

To achieve these goals, the assignment involved four tasks: collecting the life story of a

person over the age of 70 by means of an open-ended interview; recording and transcribing the

interview literally; analysing its content by identifying its main themes and establishing relations

with theoretical concepts; and writing a paper that combined theoretical concepts and reflections

on the life story.

The conceptual and practical knowledge necessary to carry out the assignment were

explained in detail in specific sessions during the first four weeks of the course. These sessions

included an explanation of what a life story is, the functions it plays in development and its

relevance in older age, as well as training in interviewing techniques and strategies, including

how to present questions and gather life narratives, how to manage interviewer reactions and

emotions, how to avoid biases, and ethical issues regarding life story interviews. The interview

that students had to use was based on the model provided by Atkinson (1988), whose questions

were discussed in class. Students were told that these questions could be adapted to the

characteristics of the situation and to the interviewee. Some video-taped life story interviews

were used as examples in discussions of these issues. In the sessions, students were also taught

how to transcribe and analyse a life story interview, with an emphasis on dimensions such as

motives, locus of control, main themes and contexts of development, high, low and turning

points, etc. It was underlined that in any case, the analysis had to relate narrated experiences with
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 8

the concepts and theories explained throughout the course. A couple of full life story

transcriptions and their analysis were presented and discussed to illustrate these topics.

By the fifth week of the course, students were encouraged to meet an older person and

interview him or her. To make the task easier, family members were allowed as candidates for

the interview, as long as they met the age requirements and were cognitively intact. Although the

interviewing of relatives may be prone to bias due to excessive familiarity, it promotes the

motivation and curiosity of students, as their relative’s story is, after all, part of their own story

(Wellin, 2007). Seventy-eight participants (54.5%) interviewed a grandparent, whereas 33

(23.1%) chose a friend or neighbour and 13 (9.1%) a person who they had not met before the

interview. The rest of the sample interviewed other relatives. Most of the interviewees were

women (74.8%) and their age ranged from 69 to 91 years (M = 76.9; SD = 5.9).

The students had to complete a 10 to 15 page paper that included a brief literature review,

method, results (with brief excerpts of the interviews illustrating the main points), discussion and

references (at least five, following the APA format). The literal transcription of the interview was

also included in the annex. The paper accounted for 30% of the total mark for the course. Grades

were awarded taking into account aspects such as the quality and relevance of the literature

review and references, the level of detail in the method, the degree of integration between

theoretical concepts and interview content, the discussion of developmental processes, the

limitations of the paper, and the following basic guidelines for conducting an interview.

Ethical aspects of the project were emphasized in particular. Students had to explain the

aims of the project and obtain the informed consent of the interviewee before starting the

interview. Once the transcription had been completed, a copy had to be given to the interviewee,
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 9

who could delete any fragment they considered inappropriate for analysis. Any name of place or

person mentioned in the interview was deleted to preserve confidentiality. Transcriptions were

shredded after students had received their final mark.

Students estimated that, without taking into account classes, completing the assignment

had took them 27.2 hours as a mean (SD = 28.2).

Instruments and data analysis

Students had to complete an evaluation form made up of four questions and attach it to

their paper. Two of the questions were analysed in the present study: “What have you learned

from the project?” and “What were the main difficulties in completing the assignment?” No

indications were given about the length of the answers, but the instructions stressed that answers

should be sincere and complete and that they would not influence grades.

Once students’ responses had been transcribed and entered into a database, the answers to

each question were content-analysed separately with the help of Nvivo (version 2.0) qualitative

software. The researchers first read all the responses to the same question to become acquainted

with the data. Afterwards, ideas (or units of meaning) were identified in each response.

Responses might contain one or several ideas. The next step was to combine ideas into more

general categories, based on the repetition or similarity among threads of meaning or keywords

in the unit (Luborsky, 1994; Owen, 1984).

A hierarchically structured category system was developed for each question. On a

general level, broad categories were differentiated. Afterwards, second-order and more specific

categories were differentiated within broad first-order categories. The hierarchical structure of
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 10

the categories allowed for both fine differentiation and combination, depending on the number of

variables that the researcher wanted to examine. To increase the reliability of the results,

categorization was conducted independently by two researchers. The first- and second-order

categories obtained by each researcher were compared and differences were negotiated until a

consensus was reached. Answers were then codified using this category system: 1 was assigned

if the category was present, 0 if it was not.

The last step involved a third codifier who did not participate in the former process. A

random sample of 30 responses to each question and the final version of the category system

(including category definitions) were given to her, so that she could assign responses into first-

order categories. This categorization was compared with the initial codification to assess

reliability. Kappa’s indexes were calculated at 0.87 for the first question and 0.82 for the second

one. As such values indicate good reliability, the initial codification was used in the subsequent

analysis.

Results

Benefits

The analysis revealed two main types of benefit of the project: those in relation to the

academic objectives (as reviewed above) and those referring to changes that went beyond the

aims of the project and involved some kind of personal growth. Within each category, secondary

themes were differentiated. All the participants mentioned at least one type of benefit in their

responses, and 57 students (39.8%) included both.

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 11

Approximately two-thirds of the participants mentioned an academic benefit of the

project (see Table 1). The most commonly cited were benefits in terms of knowledge (46.2%),

which included the opportunity to review information presented in class, the provision of

concrete examples of concepts or theories, and improvements in the integration of theory and life

experiences (e.g. ‘I’ve understood that theories proposed by different authors in the field of

developmental psychology really correspond to reality’, BC Woman; ‘I had the opportunity to

reflect more on concepts, particularly on what kinds of influences determine a person’s life’, LC

woman). The improvement of academic skills was also mentioned as an academic outcome of

the assignment, although much less frequently. In this case, students described an improvement

in their interviewing skills (e.g. ‘I’ve learnt how to conduct an interview, and that I need more

practice’, NG Woman; ‘I’ve seen the pros and cons of interviewing, and how it is important to

adopt a listening attitude and reassure. I’m sure that the next one will be better’) and their ability

to analyse a life story (e.g. ‘I’ve learnt to tell the difference between key life experiences and

those that maybe are not so important’).

The attitudinal dimension of the course objectives also appeared as a benefit among the

responses. Specifically, for some students (21.7%) the assignment was an opportunity to change

their view of older people or older age, and reduce ageist attitudes or misunderstandings. Such a

change implied an improvement in their image of older age, and the perception that it is not as

negative as previously thought (e.g. ‘It has helped me to better understand a stage of life that

sometimes I used to fear so much’) or helped demonstrate the intrinsic value of older people (e.g.

‘I have discovered that older people are a source of knowledge and wisdom, they are like living

encyclopedias that we can learn many things from’).

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 12

INSERT TABLE 1

As for personal benefits, 70.6% of students mentioned at least one. The most frequently

described (35.7%) was the learning of some kind of life lesson. Such lessons are related to the

nature of human beings (e.g. ‘Now I’m aware that each person has a set of unique interests,

expectations and ways of coping with the difficulties that life poses’, AAM woman) and the

meaning of life (‘I’ve learnt that everyone’s life is an exciting and unrepeatable adventure’, AA

woman). It also included the change of values and life priorities (‘I value things now that I didn’t

take into account before, and I see now how lucky I am for everything I have’, LC Woman).

Getting to know a relative or their family better was a benefit mentioned by many

students (30.1%). For instance, one student said ‘Thanks to the interview, I know why my

grandmother acts the way she does, and the pain she’s suffering. I had no idea of all the things

she had to endure in her life’ (AA, woman). With less frequency (7.7%), students reported that

the assignment had increased their self-knowledge, making them reflect about themselves and

the life they want to lead. As an example, a student stated that ‘I have thought about my own

future, I mean, that when I am an older lady and look back, I’d like to find many nice memories,

and that if by any chance I have to live through any misfortune, I could have taken something

from it. It has given me reasons to believe in love’ (RV, Woman).

The assignment also helped some students (10.5%) to improve their social skills (‘I’ve

learned to put myself in somebody else’s shoes’, BP Woman). Finally, 4.9% of the participants

mentioned that the life story project had increased their knowledge of a specific historical period

(e.g. ‘I always liked social and political issues, particularly those that surrounded the Spanish
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 13

Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship. I have been able to find out more about how difficult those

days were and how people managed to get through’, EV Woman).

Chi-square tests were carried out to explore whether the interviewer’s age and gender or

the type of interviewee (previously known vs. unknown) influenced the benefits gained by

students. However, the differences were not significant in any case.

In order to know if the time devoted to the assignment had something to do with the

benefits extracted, we selected from the sample the 25% of students who had allocated less time

(<15 hours) and the 25% who allocated more time (>30 hours) to the assignment. Chi-square

tests indicated that the amount of time spent preparing the assignment was not significantly

related to first and second order categories.

Difficulties

Most students, when asked, were able to mention at least one difficulty in the assignment.

Only three students (2.1%) did not mention any difficulty. Difficulties were found in all phases

of the assignment: interviewing, transcribing, analysing and writing (see Table 2).

INSERT TABLE 2

However, interviewing seemed to be the most difficult task: 41.3% of the participants had

some difficulties in this task. Some students (14.0%) had problems finding a suitable older

person to interview (e.g. ‘I don’t have any grandparents, which made things quite complicated.

Until I found the person, I approached some people who didn’t want to be interviewed once they

knew what the interview was about’ MG, Woman). The interactive interview situation was also a

source of difficulties for almost one-fourth of the participants. They pointed out that there were
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 14

some tense or emotive moments in the interview (e.g. ‘When certain delicate issues arose, such

as losses, she cried and I was afraid of making her feel bad’, LF Woman), or how the lack or

excess of familiarity interfered with the normal flow of the interview, shortening the answers or

dragging them out with uninteresting information (e.g. ‘the most difficult thing was to get the

answers I expected to get. Before the interview, she told me many interesting things that I would

have liked to include, but once the recorder was on… she maybe felt intimidated, became shy

and only gave brief answers’, EA Woman). Other students blamed themselves for their

difficulties, due to their inexperience and lack of skill (e.g. ‘It was my first interview and I didn’t

know how to conduct it’, NA Woman). Finally, eight students had some kind of technical

problem (e.g. ‘When I was about to start the interview, the recorder didn’t work well and I got

very anxious until I could solve the problem’, GC Woman).

Transcription was also a difficult task for some students. Specifically, 21.0% of them

mentioned that they found the task tough and very time consuming (‘Transcribing was very

tedious, I couldn’t see the end. It takes many hours, listening two or three times to every answer’,

CM Woman). Sometimes, some characteristic of the interviewee (‘The interviewee’s vocabulary

was very hard to understand, sometimes I just couldn’t tell what he was saying’) or some

technical issue made the task ever tougher (‘I recorded the interview using an old tape recorder.

The conversation was recorded at a low volume and with many noises, so it was difficult to

understand’, CP Woman).

Analysing, structuring the analysis, giving meaning to what the interviewee said and

relating the content to concepts and theories was difficult for some students (20.3%). For

instance, one student said that ‘The analysis was the most complicated part. It was difficult to
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 15

make conclusions and find key point in my interviewee’s life… that’s difficult because you have

to interpret somebody else’s life, and I don’t know if I’m entitled to do so’ (SM Woman). Some

students claimed that their difficulties could have been lessened by more specific guidelines (e.g.

‘I didn’t know how to approach the analysis. Maybe with clearer instructions the task would

have been easier’, FJ man). Apart from a lack of personal skill or knowledge, technical issues

were also mentioned by a few students (5.6%), particularly when they tried to apply quantitative

strategies to describe the life story (e.g. ‘Designing the graphs to analyse the story was very

complicated. I didn’t know how to do it’, LS Woman).

The last stage of the assignment, writing the paper, was cited by 22.4% of the students as

the most difficult part. This category included general comments about how to start to write the

paper or knowing how to structure the information (e.g. ‘I had problems knowing what to do. I

had an interesting interview and many theoretical references, but I didn’t know how to put

everything together in a rational way. Until I begun to prioritize and deal with themes one by

one, I couldn’t get out of the mess I was in’, BP Woman). For some students, not having a clear

list of points they had to write, and the need to adapt their paper to the specific interview they

had, was also a difficulty (‘The assignment is too fuzzy and unclear. Maybe that’s good because

you’re freer to do your own paper and be creative, but at the same time it makes you feel

insecure when you are writing’ DP Woman).

Lack of time was mentioned by 9.1% of the students as their main difficulty. For them, it

was difficult to find time to do the many assignments set during the term or to combine this

specific assignment with other activities in their personal agendas (e.g. ‘It is an assignment that
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 16

takes many hours. I have many obligations outside the University, and the time I could spend on

the assignment was limited’, JV Man).

Finally, 11 students mentioned difficulties that did not fit into any category, such as not

attending classes or difficulties in setting the objectives.

A chi-square analysis revealed that interview-related difficulties were more frequent

when the students interviewed a previously unknown older person (χ2 (1) = 4.51, p = 0.034).

However, student’s age or gender did not make any difference to the types of difficulties

reported.

As in the case of benefits, allocating less (<15 hours) or more (>30 hours) time to the

assignment was not related to the first and second order categories which emerged from the

analysis of difficulties.

Discussion

The results seem to justify the academic value of an assignment based on collecting and

analysing an older person’s life story. In an open question, most students reported benefits that

were related to the intended aims of the assignment. Thus, many students stated that it helped

them to understand developmental concepts and integrate them with theory, to improve research-

related skills and to deactivate stereotypes and prejudices towards older age. Such benefits

appeared in previous research that evaluated similar learning experiences (e.g. Neysmith &

Kleisinger, 1997; Oggins & Whitlow, 2002). Therefore, using life narratives in developmental or

aging-related courses seems to have the potential to facilitate the attainment of three types of

learning objectives: knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 17

However, according to our results, the value of analysing an older person’s life story goes

beyond academic objectives, whatever their importance, as it has a positive impact on growth-

related dimensions of students. These kinds of personal, non-academic benefits were found even

more frequently than the intended academic aims of the assignment. In part, such personal

benefits are facilitated by interviewing a relative. The narration of a life story is an intimate

interchange that reinforces the emotional bond between the teller and the listener. Such an

emotionally tinged task could, in turn, increase the level of involvement of the student and

facilitate the attainment of academic aims (Zucchero, 2011).

Apart from their interactive and affective nature, life stories also convey a coda, a moral

lesson that encapsulates what we have learnt and links the story in the past back to the present of

the storyteller's life, which helps in decision-making and in guiding one’s life (Bluck, 2003) and

forms part of an enduring legacy to pass on to the next generations (McAdams, 2001). By

listening to their interviewee’s life story and reflecting upon it, students benefitted from these

factors and many of them reported having learnt important life lessons, which involved a

reappraisal of priorities and a better understanding of the meaning of life. In some cases, stories

helped students to reflect about themselves and their future. Therefore, working with life stories,

and particularly with older people’s stories, has a great potential as a growth enhancing

experience for students. For some students, the experience was even a kind of turning point, a

‘revelation’:

I have to say that this has been the most interesting assignment I’ve completed in

my whole life as a student. It has been extraordinarily enriching from a personal point of

view, and that’s why I interviewed a very special person for me, my grandmother. The
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 18

interview improved the trust and friendship we have always had, and now I feel that my

grandmother’s story is also mine. It has helped me to understand the true meaning of life,

what is worth something and what is not. I have the feeling that I have done the work for

my own sake, to look at myself. In unveiling her story, she has given to me an incredible

gift, her life philosophy and the truths that she has learnt throughout her life. I will

promise to keep them. Thank you, grandma.

However, previous research has underlined that mere exposure to life stories is not

enough to achieve such a personal impact on a student’s life: some kind of reflection on stories,

such as that proposed in the assignment analysed in this paper, is also necessary (Zucchero,

2009). As results suggest, such personal impact did not directly depend on the quantity of time

students invested in the assignment, what leads to think that the key has to do more with the

qualitative reflection on the story than with devoting more or less time to interview, transcript

and write the assignment.

Despite such potential, students also identified a number of difficulties in completing the

assignment. Most of them were due to a lack of experience in the tasks involved in completing

the paper, which suggests that the training activities carried out in class may not have been

sufficient and need to be improved. More specific guidelines, better training on interview-related

issues (using, for instance, role-playing techniques as in previous research on similar topics, e.g.

Wellin, 2007) and changing the criteria so that not all of the interview had to be transcribed are

recommendations derived from our students’ responses. To interpret the difficulties correctly, we

should take into account that the participants in the study were first-year undergraduates, so it is

understandable that they do not have some of the necessary skills and knowledge to complete the
LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 19

assignment, and consequently they find some tasks quite challenging. Completing the

assignment gives them direct training experience in the rather vague and somewhat unpredictable

task of collecting and analysing a life story.

Many of these difficulties could have been overcome if the course had been longer.

Although it was only mentioned by a few participants, a lack of time underlies many of the

students’ difficulties. For instance, it would take longer than this 4-month course to provide the

necessary training in interviewing. Some authors, such as Wellin (2008), have used role playing

as a training method, instead of the analysis of videotaped interviews that we used. However,

aside from the effectiveness of each method, it is not clear that interviewing can be trained in a

simple, brief and straightforward way. The high number of students per class in Spanish

universities (usually 70 to 90 in introductory courses) makes the training task more difficult.

Difficulties also arose with transcripts and the time restrictions, as many students found

that transcribing the interview was disproportionally time-consuming. However, some kind of

transcription seems necessary for an empirically based analysis of life narratives. Perhaps a

better balance needs to be achieved between the necessity of transcription and the opportunity to

omit some parts of the interview that are less relevant for analysis. In this way, we could obtain

data to ground the analysis and, at the same time, minimize the burden of the task.

Finally, there are several limitations to the study which need to be taken into account in

any interpretation of the results, and they could be avenues for future research. Firstly, there was

no control group to evaluate the benefits and difficulties compared to other types of assignments.

Secondly, since the benefits and difficulties were exclusively assessed in terms of students’

perceptions, we should be careful in our interpretations of the project’s impact on learning

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 20

developmental issues. Although it was emphasized that the answers did not have any relationship

with the final mark of the course and that they would be read after marking the assignment, the

influence of social desirability (or the tendency to give ‘politically correct’ answers) could not be

discarded. In addition, no longitudinal data were available to evaluate whether perceived benefits

were immediate and passing, or remained over time. Finally, most of the interviewees were

relatives. Although this has some advantages in terms of facility of access and motivation of

students, it may also produce biased evaluations of the assignment. Our study only analysed the

effect of life stories on the listener. An interesting issue to examine would be the effects of the

project on the narrator, as it is clear that the narration of their life story could help people to build

a more coherent and purposeful self, to get a sense of direction in life, and to pass on an

important legacy to other people (Linde, 1993; McAdams, 2001; Staudinger, 2001).

Despite these limitations, our results seem to justify the feasibility of collecting older

people’s life stories in developmental and aging courses, and their potential as a learning tool to

complement more traditional lecture-based teaching methods. Their value lies in both reinforcing

important academic skills and serving as a powerful growth-promoting experience.

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LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 23

Table 1

Categories Frequency

Course-related benefits 94 (65.7%)

Knowledge 66 (46.2%)

Skills 34 (23.8%)

Attitudes 31 (21.7%)

Personal benefits 101 (70.6%)

History-related knowledge 7 (4.9%)

Better knowledge of my relative/family 43 (30.1%)

Self-knowledge 11 (7.7%)

Life lessons 51 (35.7%)

Social skills 15 (10.5%)

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 24

Table 2

Categories Frequency

Interviewing 59 (41.3%)

Contacting the interviewee 20 (14.0%)

Technical issues 8 (5.6%)

Problems in interaction 33 (23.1%)

Personal issues 10 (7.0%)

Transcribing 46 (32.2%)

Technical issues 14 (9.8%)

Interviewee-related issues 4 (2.8%)

Personal issues 30 (21.0%)

Analysing 37 (25.9%)

Technical issues 8 (5.6%)

Personal issues 29 (20.3%)

Writing the paper 32 (22.4%)

LIFE STORIES TO TEACH DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING 25

Lack of time 13 (9.1%)

Other difficulties 9 (6.3%)

No difficulties 3 (2.1%)