Age identity Flashcards
age is a
contested concept because the age categories are up to interpretation and differ from person to person
age categories
- childhood
- youth
- young adulthood
- middle age
- old age
youth and old age carry a
stigmatised identity
childhood
- dependancy
- primary socialisation
- innocence
-** Postman** - vulnerable
- care and control
youth
- rebel and resist
- fun and excitement
- greater independance
- style
- consumption and media
- education
- restrictions from law
- storm and stress
- rite of passage
middle age
- work orientated
- parenthood
- empty nest syndrome
- financial independance
- stable relationships
- fulfilment
- sandwhich generation
- Henretta and grundy
old age
- retirement and reflect
- dependant
- new oppertunities
- freedom
- fearful of crime etc
- ill health
- lonely
chronological age is …
biologically determined
age can be (what) by actions etc
socially constructed
the Life course approach to life
when you go through the different stages of life
Braddley
there are active and passive identities
- youth and old age are the categories that carry the most stigmatised identities
Albert Cohen - functionalist
youth
- youth experience ‘status frustration’
- society believes in deferred gratification
- working class youth are frustrated that they will not reach the same money as middle class ones
Clarke - marxist
youth
skinheds and hegemonic masculinity
Phil Cohen - marxist
youth
skinheads and a ‘sense of community and terretofality’
football hoologanism
**Polheimus **- postmodernist
youth
supermarket of style
- we are defined by what we consume and not what we produce
- pick’n’mix is encouraged by the media
Corner and marxists
old age
Ageing bodies represent ugliness. Corners study reflected that old people see themselves as a burden on society. Marxists see this because they are not working and contributing to a capitalist society.
growing up and growing old - Hockney and James
old age
- children lack personhood
- children are dependant and variable
- children and old age are socially contructed as they haave lost a status of personhood
- ‘gaga’ is a term used for both babies and elderly
- infantilisation describes this concept
- in a retirement home they were treated like childre (eg no privacy)
- creates self fulfilling prophecy
**Becker **- interactionist
labelling theory example
old age
old people - treated as children - stigmatised identity - master status - self fulfilling prophecy
Clarke and Warren - actively aging
old age
- interviewd 23 people between the ages of 60 and 96 about their experience of aging
- they concluded that most of the respondants identified this phase of life in an active and engaged way
- eg the Zimmers
…………….
greypound
old age
older people spending
important to captialism eg saga holidays are 50+
- anti ageing products
- botox
- aqua aerobics
Philipson
old age
they are a financial drain on society
Henry and Cummings - functionalists
old age
- disengagement theory
- old people should stop work at 60
- still beneficial in society
- take up other useful roles like grandparents
- allows young poeple to enter workforce
children in other cultures
In some cultures ‘childhood’ is not a period of innocense and vulnerability
- some will be working or even fighting in wars
- some will be married
it is argued that in the UK we have a (what) view on childhood
contradictory
- little angels
- vulnerable
**Postman **
childhood
childhood emerged only when literacy could allow adults to sheild children from the harsh aspects of life
- the innocent child was created
- media brought a decline to childhood
palmer
childhood
toxic childhood and electronic babysitting
young adulthood
- very little is said about ‘normal’ adulthood
- young adulthood is characterised by career and family
- become more independant from parents
Bradley
middle age
middle age has a higher status then youth or old age
- middle age are running the country
- hold power at work
middle age seen as a negative time
- mid life crisis
- empty nest syndrome
postmodernists
changing age identities
age is fluid and becoming less significant
- living and wokring for longer
- anti aging products
- extension of youth
Featherstone and Hepworth
changing age identities
media images of aging can create new identities and suggest that as the population ages, more positive images may emerge eg retro fashions
Plummer - interactionist
childhood
culture is relative:
- place to place
- time to time
- culture to culture
