The Sociology of the Life Course

1 -How do people age?

-Biological, psychological and social aspects of the life course-Development of the social self with emphasis on the looking-

glass self

Accompaniment to the superb Giddens and Sutton (2013) (left) Chapter 9, with an assortment of additional accompanying resources and activities

Contents

1 How do people age? An introduction to the sociology of the life courseDifferent aspects of ageingThe development of the social self

Later in the series…

2 The sociology of childhood3 The sociology of youth and adolescence4 The sociology of young adulthood5 The sociology of mature adulthood6 The sociology of later life

1- How do people age?Giddens and Sutton (2013:344)

Pic: http://starsandgalaxiesmc.wikispaces.com/Life+Cycle+of+Stars

.

What is ‘ageing’?

Three simultaneous,

interconnected processes:

1) Biological2) P_________3) S_____

.

Biological ageing

The physical stages that all living

people pass through;

The rapid growth of the infant, the puberty of the

youth, the maturation of the adult and

eventual physical ‘decline’ of old age

Activity:p357

What are some aspects of the physical ‘weakening’ of the elderly? To what extent can these be hastened, or delayed?

.

Activities:

(i) Look at the top-left photograph. Which side would most find more “beautiful”? To what extent is this idea socially constructed? Is there a biological/reproductive element to it also?

(ii) Why do we value youthful aesthetics so highly?

In the late-modern industrialized world, the

“beauty industry” is booming;

for young girls, the

rush to “look like a woman”; for everyone else, the cosmetic

swimming against the tide of ageing

Psychological ageing

Developmental psychology has identified some clear,

fairly consistent stages in the child’s mental development;

which are crucial to social learning and

maturationActivityG&S 2013:336

Outline the famous child developmental- psychological stages identified by Jean Piaget

. The most ‘psychological’ of the sociological perspectives in

symbolic interactionism:

George Herbert Mead’s classic theory of social-self development involves

the child’s growing distinction

between “I” and “me”;

this is similar to Charles Cooley’s concept of the

looking-glass self

Activities:

(i)Summarize Mead and Cooleys’ theories in turn

(ii)How can these be combined with Piaget’s theory of psychological development? Use a timeline (like below) to illustrate your ideas

(iii)Eating disorders, particularly amongst teenage girls, seem to be more common in the late-modern world than ever before. Why do you think this is? How does it relate to these theories?

The interactionist-psychology of Mead and Cooley is

increasingly relevant in the complex, late-modern world; where we are presented with an array of situations in which they can use one of various

persona

This social skill is learned: adults tend to be better at it than children

Activity:

The Latin definition of ‘persona’ is ‘mask’. To what extent do you utilize a series of such masks in your everyday life? Why is it seen as a ‘skill’; what advantages can it bring?

.

Joachim Vogt Isaksen The Looking Glass Self: How Our Self-

image is Shaped by Society

Excerpt (presenter read aloud):Do you sometimes experience that the mere presence of other people leads to feelings of discomfort and tension? When not knowing exactly what other people think of you it may

lead to self-doubt and feelings of insecurity. According to the American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), the degree of personal insecurity you display in social

situations is determined by what you believe other people think of you. Cooley´s concept of the looking glass self, states that a person’s self….

(continued at the link above, free to all without registration)

http://www.popularsocialscience.com/2013/05/27/the-looking-glass-self-how-our-self-image-is-shaped-by-society/

.

• .

Activity: how does this picture represent Mead and Cooleys’ notions of selfhood?

. Modern studies of elderly

mental impairment suggest it is

not until very late in life (i.e. over 80) that significant problems are experienced

Activity:

Are you concerned about ageing? List the elements of the ageing process that are particularly worrying. Would you describe these as biological, psychological or social ?

.…and these can be delayed by maintaining regular, meaningful

sociability;

exercising the brain like one would any other muscle; and taking plenty

of physical exercise

Alzheimer’s disease is uncommon among under-75s, but

may effect up to half of all over-85s

Activities:

(i) Do you recognize the above writer?

(ii) Look at the pictures of older people taking part in supposedly life-elongating activities. Which is most relevant to interactionist sociology?

.

Psychological ageing also refers to the processes that

affect the elderly- the

decline of memory, clarity of thought, ability to

learn and solve problems

.

In the late-modern, industrialized world, we have

much more opportunity to study the condition of being elderly and the

notion of mental impairment in old age

Activity:

Why do we have this increased opportunity in late-modernity?

.

Social age

“The norms, values and roles culturally associated with a particular chronological age”.

Giddens and Sutton 2013 :358

ie notions of what it should

mean to be at a certain stage in life, and how others view you

like gender and ethnicity, “being” of a

certain age group is socially-constructed, to an extent

Central to the

sociology of age and the life course is

the deep, fresh examination of how

meanings

and expectations

associated with each “stage” in the

life course change relatively quickly over space and time

…the experience

of and

expectations for e.g.

“children” (approx. 0-13),

“youth” (approx. 13-

18) and “mature adulthood” (approx.

40-60) differ hugely

The notion of ‘age as social construct’ = the

fact that in different

historical eras (time) and in

different places today (space)…

As we shall see, a lot of what we a associate with “childhood” and

being a “child”, for example, are a product of industrial (late)

modernity; societies adapt to the requirements of their era’s

mode of production(today’s being late/post-industrial modernity)

Activity:

Besides modern capitalism, what other historical modes of production can you name?

Activity: What do the later-life experiences of Fauja Singh tell us about the biological process of ageing? What does the level of public and corporate interest in him suggest about notions of social age in industrialized Western society?