Public Policy Midterm-DOrs

GERO 5067 Programs and Public Policy

Mid-Term Exam Assignment Description

TOPIC & ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION: You will answer several comprehensive questions on gerontological public policy, emphasizing the foundation for aging policy in the US upon which we will use to understand programs and services focused in the second half of the course. Your paper will be research-based and contain absolutely no opinions or unsupported facts from personal experience.

CONTENT: This paper should include information covered in weeks 1-7. All information is relevant to completing this assignment. Use the guide below to construct your paper. This is to be a well-constructed and thoughtful paper. DO NOT just answer the questions below like they are short answer quiz items. You are to think about your answers to them, considering what was covered in class, and then put together an integrated and organized paper demonstrating an overview of what we mean by old age politics. You are NOT answer 4 separate questions. The 4 sets of questions below are meant as guides to major sections of the paper that came from the readings of the first half of the class. This is a single, coherent paper and NOT 4 separate questions to answer.

If you complete a paper where you simply list out 4 answers – one answer for each set of questions below – the best grade you can possibly receive is a C, which means “below average” for Masters level work. This assignment is to integrate the first 7 weeks of readings and not be constrained by the topics as separate topics as they might appear simply because they are in different book chapters. The topics are in separate chapter only so that they can be talked about a little bit at a time through a course. Now that you have read 7 weeks of separate topics, your task is to pull them all together so that we can think more thoroughly about programs and services in the second half of the course.

You should answer all of the questions below in depth. Be sure to use your readings, use class discussions, your own research, and supplemental readings to help you fully explore these topics. However, remember that these are guides on the topics you have read about. Go beyond the readings and demonstrate what you can add to them from your own research in the library databases of empirical literature on old age politics.

1) Describe the policy making process of the US system of government. Who are the major actors and what are their roles in the policy making process? What are the pros and cons of this system? What relevance do these characteristics have for gerontology as a professional field and for older adults?

2) How does “old age” make any difference when it comes to politics in the US? Why are politics not just politics regardless of age? How are politics different when one factors in older adults?

3 How does the field of gerontology look at the theoretical views of aging policy? How does theory play into how we understand the actual practice of public policy in the everyday lives of older adults?

4) How do different subgroups of older adults impact the picture of aging politics such as persons of different ethnicities? How has the continuously increasing average age of the older adult been changing the nature of old age politics?

LENGTH AND FORMATTING: The paper should be between 8-10 pages in length (not including your title page and references). Submit using the Moodle website. This is a single, organized paper that follows the standard “Introduction-Body-Conclusions” format for academic papers.

ALL papers in this class should be in APA (6th Edition) format (see: https://www.apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx). This means that you must have headings and subheadings and component parts (introduction, body, conclusions), and proper citations and references. Not being familiar with APA format is not an excuse to have a poorly presented paper. You must have proper grammar, paragraphs, punctuation, and spelling. Do not use lists. Do not use quotes. All papers should be in Courier, Times New Roman, or Arial font, 12-point size. Margins should be 1 inch all around, with no additional spaces in between paragraphs or sections of the paper. Use page breaks as necessary (e.g., after the title page and before the reference page). If you are unfamiliar with APA style, look it up.

You must include empirical references (in APA style) that are NOT solely Internet sites. Empirical means that your citations are from actual research studies and not just reviews of the literature or opinions that happened to be published somewhere. This is not to exclude other RELIABLE sources, but you need empirical publications as the majority of your sources. While I encourage you strongly to take advantage of all available technologies to locate these empirical sources, you are not to rely upon unreliable websites for information. Unreliable websites for this class are defined by any internet address that does not end in .edu or .gov. Some .org websites are very high quality (e.g., for Kaiser Foundation, etc.), but if you are not sure, do not use it.