Age And Disabled Identities Flashcards
What are the two ways age can be defined
Chronologically (measure of time of existence), or stages within a ‘life course’
Socially constructed
Concept constructed or created with society
Rite of passage
Ceremony and ritual which may accompany the changes of status that occur in course of life
Parsons
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
In all societies, childhood is a period when socialisation into society’s culture takes place. Children learn norms and values associated with different social roles
What does parsons say the family’s two main functions are?
Primary socialisation of children
Stabilisation of the adult personalities of the population of society
Griffin
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
The media may portray youths as a social problem in 3 ways:
Dysfunctional, suffering a deficit, deviant
Dysfunctional
Doesn’t function effectively
Suffering a deficit
Hard-done-by, angry about education
Deviant
Norm and law breaking
Heintz-Knowles
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
Conducted a content analysis to study the way children are portrayed in entertainment television = children motivated by peer relationships and romance, engage in anti-social behaviour, minority groups are under-represented
Brannen
MIDDLE AGE IDENTITY
Researched informal care responsibilities and roles and suggested that for many people, middle age is a time when they shoulder many caring responsibilities. Caring for children + elderly parents
-pivot generation
Pivot generation
Middle aged people carry the responsibility of caring for children and their parents = swing between the two
Dual burden
Caring for both children and parents is a double responsibility suffered by the middle age population
Mc Robbie
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
Suggests bedroom culture where females feel a sense of security when in their bedrooms and choose to spend leisure time there
Sewell
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
Suggests the peer group is the main reason why young African Caribbean boys under achieve in education and are often involved in crime.
Willis
CHILD / YOUTH IDENTITY
12 working class young boys identify as the ‘lads’, anti-school subculture influenced by home backgrounds, defined themselves as manual workers
Saunders
MIDDLE AGE IDENTITY
Suggests that media targets middle age as they are the group with the highest disposable income and often define their identity by what they own.
Hodkinson
MIDDLE AGE IDENTITY
Studied goths and said looks and style are important parts of subcultures and that thus sense of belonging could continue into middle age
Mac an Ghaill
MIDDLE AGE IDENTITY
Said once manual workers had been made redundant, felt a loss of identity from their tight knit communities associated with their job. Their loss of role as a breadwinner led to them feeling a loss of status and identity
Disengagement
Refers to how people may leave social roles when they get older
Parsons (old age)
Suggests that elderly have less status in society and lose their most important social role within the family. Suggests the disengagement theory leading to the old age identity being socially constructed.
Carrigan and Szmigin
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggests that the number of older consumers in society has increased but they are less likely to be portrayed in advertisements than younger people.
Sontag
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggests a double standard of aging, especially in television whereby women are required to be youthful throughout their media careers and men are not.
Landis
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Supports the findings of Age Concern and identified a number of stereotypes in representations of older people. They were depicted as ‘one-dimensional’ and described as grumpy old man
Clarke and Warren
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggests that old age may be a time to make new friends and engage in new interests. Suggests active aging.
Johnson
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggests that ageism occurs in the workplace in the UK. Suggests this institutionalised and embedded in practices and society. Ageism expressed through stereotypical assumptions to do with jobs
Voas
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggested that older people are much more likely to identify themselves as being religious due to the generational effect and the aging effect.
Hockey and James
OLD AGE IDENTITY
Suggests that children are seen to lack the status of personhood, and are separated and excluded from the public, adult world and are confined to specialist places for children such as schools, nurseries and the family.
Featherstone and Hepworth
CHANGING AGE IDENTITIES
POSTMODERNISM
Suggests that the life course has been broken down due to de-differentiation and deinstitutionalisation. Also suggests the mask of aging and the baby boomer generation
Blaikie
CHANGING AGE IDENTITIES
POSTMODERNISM
Suggests attitudes to retirement have changed and stereotypes of old age have broken down partly due to consumer culture
The Medical model
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Sees disability as a medical problem focusing on the limitations caused by the impairment, and this has long been the prevalent approach taken by society. = leading to the defining of a disabled person by their disability or impairment, leads to victim-blaming mentality.
Shakespeare
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Suggests that disabled people adopt the ‘victim mentality’ and use this as a reason for their failure.
Social model
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Focuses on the social and physical barriers to inclusion that may exist, such as the design of buildings and public spares that deny access to those with disabilities. Can be linked to workplace and is
Ridley
DISABLED IDENTITIES
A comedian who suffers from cerebral palsy and has pondered the topic on people feeling uncomfortable talking about disability.
Barnes
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Suggests that in the mass media representations of disability have generally been oppressive and negative. People with disabilities are rarely presented as people with their own identities. Media representations include victims, villians, and a burden
Gill
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Understanding your identity as a disabled person with previously held notions about what being disabled means leads to a form of ‘learned helplessness’
Murugami
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Suggests a disabled person has the ability to construct a self-identity that accepts their impairment but is independent of it. = see themselves as a person first with disability as a characteristic. Also suggests few people are completely able-bodied in their life.
Scrambler
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Suggests disabled people in the media are portrayed as work-shy, scrounges or as a burden
Oliver
DISABLED IDENTITIES
Suggests official definitions attached to disability need to be reclaimed in a positive way E,g debates
Age boundaries
Social and legal boundaries which mark a particular age
Lifecourse
Socially defined “timetable” of behaviours deemed as appropriate for particular life stages within any one society
Moral panic
When something happens and is exaggerated to make the public panic more
Anti-school subculture
Academic success is disapproved and behaving badly is approved
Pro-school subculture
Academic success is approved, behaving badly is disapproved
Mid life crisis
Psychological occurrence often associated with the transition from early adulthood to middle age
Conspicuous consumption
Media targets middle age as they are the group with the highest disposable income and often define their identity by what they own
Active ageing
Period of life providing new opportunities and can be seen as active and engaged state of life
Disability
A physical or mental condition which has a substantial and long term effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities
Generational effect
Brought up in a more religious era and their socialisation into values was more intense
Aging effect
People become more spiritual the closer they get to death
What is meant by the statement ‘old age is infantilised’
Elderly seen as helpless and vulnerable, dependent and needing care. Retirement homes treat them like children
De-differentiation
Differences between different stages of the life course become less clear
Deinstitutionalisation
Institutions of society become less closely associated
Mask of aging
Stay young and delay the process of aging
Disability Discrimination Act 2005
Aimed to end discrimination against people with disabilities by preventing discriminatory practice in areas such as the workplace, education, transport, buying or renting properties
