Gender Identity and The Sandwich Generation Discussion Questions
please answer the 6 different Parts separately:
A. Gender Identity:
Would you describe your own gender identity as “feminine”, “masculine”, or “androgynous”? What biological and social factors might have influenced your gender identity?
B. Storm and Stress:
Was your adolescence a period of storm and stress or was it relatively peaceful? Why do you suppose some teenagers move through adolescence with relative ease, whereas others find it a difficult period?What made adolescence easy or difficult for you?
C. Cognitive Development:
The more years of higher education and life experience a person has, the deeper and more dialectical that person’s reasoning becomes. Give a specific example of how your thinking about an issue today is deeper than it was when you were younger, or before you started college.
D. Cognitive Decline in Middle Adulthood:
Many people have inaccurate perceptions of cognitive development in middle adulthood.
Create a pamphlet on cognitive changes in middle adulthood that could be displayed in a doctor’s office. Using research in the text as a guide, outline the information you would include in your pamphlet. For instance, what cognitive changes often accompany middle adulthood? How is information processing and problem-solving affected? How can middle-aged adults maintain good cognitive health? What positive cognitive changes occur in middle adulthood?
E. The Sandwich Generation:
Please watch this brief video on the growing “sandwich generation” in American families.
Couples are starting their families later, so children are often still living at home when the couples are in their 50s. More children return to live at their parent’s house after finishing college. At the same time, grandparents are living longer, with greater physical needs, so they are also moving in with their middle adult-aged children. Often the task of caring for everyone falls on the shoulders of the middle-aged woman in the household.
Briefly discuss three ways in which a middle-aged woman’s social and emotional development may be uniquely stressed in this situation, and offer some suggestions on how she can avoid feeling over-burdened.
F. Widowed:
An elderly relative has just been widowed. List three things that might indicate that this person is at risk for having a difficult time. In a sentence or two, describe the best approach for discussing this relative’s loss.