Aging in America
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LESSON 4.2 Paid and Unpaid Work, Retirement & Leisure Required Readings
Chapters 11 & 12
Written Assignment
Anticipatory socialization prepares us for changes in role or status. Remembering that
unanticipated changes are more stressful, discuss, in a 3-5 page paper, how you would undertake
anticipating age-related changes and planning for your own well-being as you age. Include the
following:
1. At what stage of adulthood, based on Super’s description, are you now? When do you
think you will be at the last stage he lists, “retirement?”
2. If and when you retire from work, how much money will you need? You need not share
detailed personal information with the instructor, especially if you feel this question
intrudes on your privacy. Just an estimate will do, and you might want to estimate as a
proportion of your current or anticipated (at mid-career) income now. Where do you think
the money will come from? Do you believe that Social Security will provide part of what
you can expect as income?
3. Define leisure activity for you now. Explain why you see these activities as leisure rather
than work. How do you see your leisure activity changing as you age? What will determine
any changes you expect might happen?
4. What type of environment would you seek out to live in as you get older? This may be a
very broad question, but since environment is defined in so many dimensions by people,
just identify your picture of a place you’d like to live in when you get older (i.e.
geographical region; proximity to family; age-integrated community...). Describe how you
would go about deciding this.
5. Discuss any other areas that you think should be included in your anticipatory socialization
plan.
6. Define productivity for you. Estimate how productive you believe you will be and what
your productivity will consist of, when you are in the last stage of Super’s stages of adult
life.
As usual, please write the paper and cite all of your sources using APA or MLA format.
PLEASE NOTE: All graded assignments for this Unit should be grouped together and
submitted using the Assignment Submission form accessed from your course homepage or
http://www.sjcme.edu/gps/assignments.