Age Identity

Question 1

Parsons ( youth )

Answer 1

Youth
- in all societies childhood is a period when socialisation into society’s culture takes place (children learn norms and values which are associated with different social roles - enables them to contribute to society as adults

Family has 2 main functions
• primary socialisation of children
•Stabilisation of adults personalities
Adolescents - time when children develop independence and shift their primary socialisation from parents to marriage partners

Question 2

Griffin

Answer 2

(Media)
- believes that the media portrays youths as a problem in 3 ways
• dysfunctional (not fully adult)
• suffering a deficit (unable to cope on own)
• deviant (breaching codes of behaviour - young people creating a ‘moral panic’

Can also use Sewell and McRobbie

Question 3

Brannen

Answer 3

Middle age identity

• through responsibility and expectations
• researched informal care responsibilities and found that for many middle aged people - it’s a time when they shoulder many caring responsibilities
• caring for children and elderly parents - ‘pivot generation’ as swing between looking after kids and parents

DUAL BURDEN - double responsibility suffered by middle aged population

Question 4

Saunders

Answer 4

Middle age identity

• conspicuous consumption
• media targets middle aged group as they have the highest disposable income and define their identity by what they own

Question 5

Willis

Answer 5

Middle age identity
(Workplace)
- is a dominant source of identity
- was interested in the types of jobs the ‘lads and Earoles’ went into and how these were related to their fathers jobs.
For many of them - manual labour jobs were a key source of their identity - called themselves ‘manual workers’ - membership to this occupation was the defining source of their mc identities.

Question 6

Mac an Grail

Answer 6

(workplace)
Found that once they had been made redundant from their steel works jobs, the men in his study felt a loss of identity from their community associated with their jobs
•loss of role as breadwinner
• loss of status

Question 7

Parsons (old age)

Answer 7

Noticed that the elderly have less status in society once their children have grown up and men have retired
- lost their most important social role within the family -isolated

DISENGAGEMENT THEORY - when elderly people disengage from previous social role and enjoy recreational activities

Suggests that old age identity is socially constructed to be a period of disengagement so that society can function harmoniously

Question 8

Carrigan and Szimgin’s

Answer 8

(Media- OAI)
Studied old people in the media and advertising and suggest that whilst older consumers have grown in numbers and affluence in the U.K, research shows that they are less likely to be portrayed in advertisements than younger people - negative images (smell and in content)
HOWEVER older people today are more likely to be fit and active.

Question 9

Sontag

Answer 9

(Media - OAI)

- double standards of ageing in TV (women required to be youthful throughout their media careers and men are not)

Question 10

Clarke and Warren

Answer 10

(Peer groups - OAI)

• old age may be a time to make new friends and engage in new interests - to define and old age identity
• ‘active ageing’ - period of life, provides new opportunities and can be seen as an active, engaged stage of life
• studied pensioners - most respondents identified this phase as ‘active’ - taking up leisure activities.

Question 11

Johnson

Answer 11

Workplace - OAI
- suggests that ageism occurs in the workplace and in the U.K. and is expressed through stereotypical assumptions about a persons ability to do a job in relation to their age

• older people find it more difficult to get jobs as they often face discrimination

Question 12

Voas

Answer 12

Old age identity
- older people are more likely to identify themselves as being religious because of the
•generation effect - bought up in a more religious era and their socialisation into values was more intense
• ageing effect - people often become more spiritual when close to death

Question 13

McKinsley

Answer 13

(Religion -OAI)
Would agree with Voas’ theory of the ageing effect

Studied nursing homes and residents said that religion was the most important factor in enabling them to cope with their problems

Question 14

Hockey and James

Answer 14

Link old age and childhood - both are socially constructed in a similar way
- having lost their personhood status- helpless/ vulnerable (infantilisation)

STUDY - retirement home - clients treated like children - no privacy, not allowed to keep own money
Can resist this identity
- male residents exert power over female staff (mock)
- children who pretend to be older to gain more status and older people who act younger

Question 15

Blake

Answer 15

OAI

• attitude to retirement have changed and stereotypes of old age identity have broken down - partly due to ‘consumer culture’
• retired - now an important consumer group - targeted with a range of products
• people no longer restricted by age - too soon to talk about the ‘end of old age’ as class/gender and ethnicity still shape the experience of old age