Age & Identity

Question 1

What age group are the most negatively effected?

Answer 1

Young people and old people due to lack of status and power.

Question 2

How can age be described as socially constructed?

Answer 2

There’s no start and end to stages and it will differ depending on the individual.

Question 3

How is childhood socially constructed?

Answer 3

• In some cultures, ‘childhood’ is not seen as a period of innocence, dependence or vulnerability.
• Some children will be working, fighting or married at the age of 12/13.
• In the UK kids used to work in factories.

Question 4

What did Postman say about childhood?

Answer 4

• It emerged when the spread of literacy enabled adults to better shield their children from aspects of adult like like sexuality and horror like death.
• The ‘innocent’ child was created.

Question 5

What did Postman say about the media and childhood?

Answer 5

It has brought about the decline in childhood and threatens to bring its disappearance.

Question 6

What is youth?

Answer 6

• People between ages 12 and 25.
• Seen as a transition stage.
• It’s a time of rebellion and resistance.
• Some cultures have no concept of youth. (e.g Hamar tribe)

Question 7

What does Mead argue about youth?

Answer 7

The ‘storm and stress’ associated with youth is culturally specific.

Question 8

What is young adulthood and middle age characterised by?

Answer 8

Career and family
People often form relationships, have kids, and establish their careers.

Question 9

What age is ‘middle age’?

Answer 9

40s/50s

Question 10

Who says middle age has high status than youths?

Answer 10

Bradley

Question 11

Why do middle age people have higher status than young and old people?

Answer 11

They run the country and hold power at work

Question 12

How can middle age be seen negatively?

Answer 12

Youth is lost and old age comes closer
Associated with ‘mid life crisis’

Question 13

How does UK culture view old age?

Answer 13

Aging bodies represent ugliness and degeneration. Older people have socialised this view.

Question 14

Who talks about the language used to describe the elderly’s own identity?

Answer 14

Corner

Question 15

What did Corner find when studying old age?

Answer 15

The language used by old people to describe their own identity was mostly negative, and it reflected what was used by the media and popular culture
They were concerned about becoming a burden and feared the stereotype of old age becoming a time of ill health and dependency

Question 16

Who talked about ‘infantilisation’ of the elderly?

Answer 16

Hockey and James

Question 17

How did Hockey and James link old age and childhood?

Answer 17

• They are socially constructed in a similar way to loose their ’personhood’ status
• Enforcing the ideas of helplessness, innocence, dependency and vulnerability
• Said they were treated like children in care homes and had their privacy taken away (’infantilisation’)

Question 18

How is age changing as an identity?

Answer 18

• Postman (Innocent child decline)
• Palmer (toxic childhood)
• Hepworth and featherstone- Comeback tours, retro fashions bluring boundaries of life course.
• Statham- elderly changing roles through age. Become childcare.
• Can be seen as a positive time ‘silver surfers’ and how age can bring status, wealth, and time for hobbies. Link to Hepsworth and Phillipson who discuss how many ignore the role of wealth in the elderly’s life experiences.
• *Other stuff in age and identity paper 2 Postmodernism (Turner, Stathan,

Question 19

Who discussed how the comeback tours of bands and retro fashions blur the boundaries of the life course?

Answer 19

Featherstone and Hepworth

Question 20

Who talks about ‘toxic childhood’?

Answer 20

Palmer

Question 21

What does Palmer discuss about childhood?

Answer 21

• A toxic mix of technological and cultural changes are having a negative impact on the development of a growing number of children.
• Includes: decline of outdoor play, commercialisation of childhood (exploited by advertisers), decline in communication skills due to shortened attention spans, tests (which increase anxiety), and screen saturation.

Question 22

What sociologists discuss childhood?

Answer 22

Palmer
Postman

Question 23

What Postmodernist sociologists can you apply to old age as an identity and how its changing?

Answer 23

• Laczko & Phillipson: Researched early retirement & found that the inequality faced was due to wealth, not aging itself.
• Hepworth & Featherstone: More positive media images of aging can occur. The popularity of retro fashions & comeback tours from 70s/80s bands help blur boundaries of the life course.
• Blaikie: Discussed positive aging, agreeing with the idea of a fourth age filled with active, leisure-based pursuits.
• Powell & Biggs: New technology & cosmetic surgery allows some to continually re-create themself.

These works led to the idea that traditional explanations of age inequality focus too much on invisible boundaries of age.