Age identities Flashcards
What are the 5 age categories?
- Childhood (0-12)
- Youth (13-18)
- Young adulthood (19-35)
- Middle age (36-65)
- Old age (65+)
What age categories carry a ‘stigmatised’ identity?
- Youth
- Old age
What are the characteristics of childhood?
- Dependency
- Immaturity
- Shaped by primary socialisation
- Blurring of boundaries
- Innocence and fun
- Vulnerable
- Need care and control
- Postman disappearing childhood
What are the characteristics of youth?
- Rites of passage
- Resisting and rebelling (social control and capitalism)
- Fun and excitement
- Self-development/self-realisation
- Style, body image
- Media and consumption
- Education
- Restrictions (due to laws)
- Storm and stress (Mead)
What are the characteristics of middle age?
- Work orientated
- Instability: empty nest syndrome
- Stability: finanical independence
- Relationships
- Fulfillment
- ‘Sandwich generation’ (Henretta and Grundy)
What are the characteristics of old age?
- Retirement
- Reflection
- Dependency
- New opportunities
- Relaxation
- Freedom
- Fearful of crime/getting old/ill health
- Loneliness
- Burden
What is age?
A contested concept (has different meanings, not in agreement)
How is age constructed?
- Chronological age= biologically determined
- Age= socially constructed
What is the life course approach?
During our lifetime, we will pass through the different stages of age
What does Braddeley say about age (youth) identity?
Still significant, BUT changing
- Chronological age is passive
- Age can also be active
- Youth and old age carry the most significant parts of age identity
What does Cohen (Albert) say about age (youth) identity?
Still significant, not changing
- (Functionalist subculturalist)
- Youth is a time, in which individuals experience ‘status frustration’
- This is due to deferred gratification- society values educational success (working class are frustrated that they cannot achieve this)
What do postmodernists say about age identity?
Changing, no longer significant
- Supermarket of style (Polhemus/Taylor)
- Pick n mix identity
- Media encourages us to engage in conspicious consumption
What does Corner say about age (old) identity?
Still significant, not changing
- Old people see themsleves as a ‘burden’ on society
- They don’t work, so don’t follow capitalist values and don’t buy into consumerism
What do Hockey and James say about age (old) identity?
Still significant, not changing
- Those in old age have lost their personhood status (dependent, vulnerable, need care- like childhood stage)
- Infantalisation- research into a retirement home shows clients treated like children
- Creates a self-fulfilling prophecy (treated like children, so act like children)
What is the labelling theory?
- Becker (interactionist):
- Old people > treated as children > stigmatized identity > master status (vulnerable, innocent) > self-fulfilling propehcy (see themselves as children)
What do Clarke and Warren say about age (old) identity?
No longer significant, changing
- Interviewed 23 people, aged 60-96, asked about experience of ageing
- Most respondents identified this stage of life in an active and engaged way- ‘Active Ageing’
- E.g: The Zimmers
What is the ‘Grey Pound’ concept?
No longer significant, changing
- With greated life expectancy, people are in retirement for longer, so the ‘grey pound’ is important to contributing to capitalism
- Older people spending
- E.g: SAGA holidays targeted at those 50+ and anti-ageing products/botox
What did Phillipson say about age (old) identity?
Still significant, not changing
- Old people are a finanical drain on society
- See themsleves in this way
How is childhood constructed?
- Socially constructed:
- In UK culture, childhood= innocence, dependence, vulnerability
- In other cultures, childhood= work, marriage, boy soldiers
What does Postman say about age (childhood) identity?
No longer significant, changing
- There is a ‘disappearance of childhood’
- Due to media
What does Palmer say about age (childhood) identity?
No longer significant, changing
- ‘Toxic childhood’
- ‘Electric babysitters’
What is young adulthood characterised by?
- Career (establishing a career)
- Family (relationships, children)
What does Braddley say about age (middle age) identity?
Still significant, not changing
- Time of highest status
- Middle age run the country and hold the power at work
- BUT, ‘youth’ is lost, and old age comes closer: mid-life crisis and empty nest syndrome
What do postmodernists say about changing age identities?
Changing, no longer significant
- We are working and living for longer
- Anti-ageing products/procedures extend periods of youth
- Age is fluid and becoming less significant
