Anthropology: Life History Guidelines.
Finding Someone to Interview
A life history allows us to learn about human development by interviewing someone and learning about the variety of experiences that have affected their life. A life history will not tell you how people generally change over a lifetime, but it will give you ideas about the complexities of a life, the highs and the lows, and both the normative and non-normative influences on life. Your objective in this project is to prepare a life history by interviewing another person on several occasions. To get started, think about who you want to interview. It is up to you, but try to find someone who is at a different stage of life than you are.
That is, if you are 18-25, choose a grandparent or a parent, or the equivalent. If you are older, choose someone either a generation older or a generation younger. Other guidelines for choosing your subject follow. Part of what makes this assignment valuable is how it allows you to explore difference among people, and generational differences are often quite significant. Choose an individual: who you believe is relatively open, honest and reflective about personal matters; who is interesting to you and who think would be interested in the project; who is accessible and available for repeated questioning; who has passed through several phases of life and has many life experiences; and who is a relatively good narrator and is able to talk about him or herself. An important issue is whether the person should have a prior relationship with you. It can be advantageous to choose someone you know since you already have rapport with them. They may be helpful precisely because you will get to know each other better through the interview process. But interviewing someone close to you also has significant drawbacks. It can be problematic if the person does not feel comfortable about revealing himself or herself within the context of your ongoing relationship. I strongly advise, for example, against interviewing your fiancée! Interviewing can create an asymmetry: You know more about them than they know about you because you have the license to ask questions. This can violate informal rules about building and maintaining relationships. Remember, too, that the purpose of the assignment is to learn about another life, not to judge or celebrate it. If you are repulsed by someone or in awe of him or her it can make it difficult to analyze the life history.