Encouraging Responsible Aging Through Pedagogy: The Future Self Exercise

Abstract

Introductory gerontology courses have the potential to enhance student appreciation of aging issues. The effectiveness of such courses for informing views about individual aging is little studied. This study, using a quasi-experimental design, examines the impact of participation in an introductory course in aging on 158 undergraduate students in a Midwestern state. The course used an instructional device, the Future Self Exercise, to help students acknowledge and plan for their own future aging. A pre- and postcomparison of student self-ratings and descriptions supports the efficacy of introductory courses using this instructional approach for educating student views about their own aging.

KEYWORDS:

• anticipatory socialization
• individual aging
• future self
• undergraduate students
• projecting aging

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous journal reviewers for their suggestions and recommendations of an earlier version of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Dr. Karl Kosloski, Dr. Christopher Kelly, and Professor Jan Boyer for their invaluable input. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to our students on the Omaha and Lincoln campuses of the University of Nebraska for participating in this project.

Notes

1. A popular paraphrasing of Bacon's original (1597) quote from his essay “Heresies.” The original quote refers to the heresy of placing larger limits on God's knowledge than on God's power, “or rather that part of God's power (for knowledge itself is a power whereby he [sic] knoweth,[sic]).”