health, ageing and the life course chapter 11. main points old age and ill health are not...
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Health, Ageing and the Life Course
Chapter 11
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Main points
• Old age and ill health are not synonymous, with the majority of older people living fit, healthy and active lives.
• Older people may be subject to ageist stereotyping and this can impact on identity and sense of self.
• It is important to understand ageing as taking place in biographical and historical time.
• Experiences across the life course strongly influence the health of older people.
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An overview of ageing
• Ageing is not a simple biological process.
• Ageing emerges out of the interplay of society, biology and psychology.
• Experiences and perceptions of ageing are mediated by society and culture.
• Contemporary western society can offer highly negative images of older age.
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Ageism
• Bytheway and Johnson (1990) offer an interrelated two-part definition of ageism:
‘A set of beliefs originating in biological variation related to the ageing process …The actions of corporate bodies and their agents and the resulting views of ordinary people.’
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Theories of ageing (a)
• Disengagement theory: a functionalist theory which argues that older people relinquish their roles as they go through life so as to minimise social disruption on their retirement and eventual death.
• Dependency theory: focuses on the economic restriction and lack of access to social and cultural resources that face older people.
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Theories of ageing (b)
• Third Age Theory: states that old age can be a ‘golden age’, full of self-realisation, personal growth and the fulfilling of lifetime ambitions.
The ‘Third Age’ is made possible by older people having higher disposable incomes and access to consumer culture.
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Life cycle or life course?
• Life cycle implies a static set of phases that are passed through by everyone and that are outside their control.
• Life course implies a fluid approach to passing through life where the individual has more agency to act and do as they want.
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Health and the life course
• Older people’s health is affected by how the following affect their life course.
• Historical time: the circumstances in which they lived and the attitudes they hold;
• Biographical time: the events and experiences that shaped their particular life.
• Good and bad experiences are ‘recorded’ on the body.
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Painful and disabled joints
• Normal part of biography for older people.
• As a consequence of old age and/ or personal history.
• Aspiration to positive ageing result in ‘playing down’ of symptoms. (Sanders et al. 2002)
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Dementia and social death
• The body without the self• Clinically/ biologically defined life but a
socially accepted death• An end of narrative?• Three groups:
– Lengthy fatal illness– Deeper old age– Loss of personhood (Sweeting and Gilhooly
1997)
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Dementia and social death
• Responses of carers to social death:– Accepting but not
behaving– Accepting and
behaving– Not accepting and not
behaving
• An increasing trend?