Age identity

Question 1

age is a

Answer 1

contested concept because the age categories are up to interpretation and differ from person to person

Question 2

age categories

Answer 2

• childhood
• youth
• young adulthood
• middle age
• old age

Question 3

youth and old age carry a

Answer 3

stigmatised identity

Question 4

childhood

Answer 4

• dependancy
• primary socialisation
• innocence
  -** Postman**
• vulnerable
• care and control

Question 5

youth

Answer 5

• rebel and resist
• fun and excitement
• greater independance
• style
• consumption and media
• education
• restrictions from law
• storm and stress
• rite of passage

Question 6

middle age

Answer 6

• work orientated
• parenthood
• empty nest syndrome
• financial independance
• stable relationships
• fulfilment
• sandwhich generation
• Henretta and grundy

Question 7

old age

Answer 7

• retirement and reflect
• dependant
• new oppertunities
• freedom
• fearful of crime etc
• ill health
• lonely

Question 8

chronological age is …

Answer 8

biologically determined

Question 9

age can be (what) by actions etc

Answer 9

socially constructed

Question 10

the Life course approach to life

Answer 10

when you go through the different stages of life

Question 11

Braddley

Answer 11

there are active and passive identities
- youth and old age are the categories that carry the most stigmatised identities

Question 12

Albert Cohen - functionalist

youth

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Clarke - marxist

youth

Answer 13

skinheds and hegemonic masculinity

Question 14

Phil Cohen - marxist

youth

Answer 14

skinheads and a ‘sense of community and terretofality’

football hoologanism

Question 15

**Polheimus **- postmodernist

youth

Answer 15

supermarket of style

• we are defined by what we consume and not what we produce
• pick’n’mix is encouraged by the media

Question 16

Corner and marxists

old age

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

growing up and growing old - Hockney and James

old age

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

**Becker **- interactionist

labelling theory example

old age

Answer 18

old people - treated as children - stigmatised identity - master status - self fulfilling prophecy

Question 19

Clarke and Warren - actively aging

old age

Answer 19

• 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

…………….

Question 20

greypound

old age

Answer 20

older people spending

important to captialism eg saga holidays are 50+
- anti ageing products
- botox
- aqua aerobics

Question 21

Philipson

old age

Answer 21

they are a financial drain on society

Question 22

Henry and Cummings - functionalists

old age

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

children in other cultures

Answer 23

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

Question 24

it is argued that in the UK we have a (what) view on childhood

Answer 24

contradictory

• little angels
• vulnerable

Question 25

**Postman ** | childhood

Answer 25

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

Question 26

**palmer** | childhood

Answer 26

toxic childhood and electronic babysitting

Question 27

young adulthood

Answer 27

- very little is said about 'normal' adulthood - young adulthood is characterised by career and family - become more independant from parents

Question 28

**Bradley** | middle age

Answer 28

middle age has a higher status then youth or old age - middle age are running the country - hold power at work

Question 29

middle age seen as a negative time

Answer 29

- mid life crisis - empty nest syndrome

Question 30

postmodernists | changing age identities

Answer 30

age is fluid and becoming less significant - living and wokring for longer - anti aging products - extension of youth

Question 31

**Featherstone** and **Hepworth** | changing age identities

Answer 31

media images of aging can create new identities and suggest that as the population ages, more positive images may emerge eg retro fashions

Question 32

**Plummer** - interactionist | childhood

Answer 32

culture is relative: - place to place - time to time - culture to culture