Agenda, 15 January 2008

Overview of Course Harwood: Chapter 1

NiceNetConversational Analysis Tutorial

Highlights of language production, I.

Harwood’s keycepts, Chapter 1

• Demographic changes over next 50 years

• Variability among older people

• 4 key approaches to aging: • biological, psychological, sociological, lifespan

• Longitudinal and cross-sectional designs

• Qualitative and quantitative approaches

Projections on aging

• In NC

• In the US

• What longevity means: we’ll take a brief look at one selection from the Intergenerational Gallery – used in several classes• http://education.uncc.edu/more/StartResources/Intergener

ational_Gallery_Trio.htm

Longevity

Longevity is a measure of both the length of life and the quality of life.

Factors that affect longevity include a person’s occupation, living environment, nutrition, exercise, preventive medical care and other lifestyle choices

For more information on longevity, review the Administration on Aging’s website: http://www.aoa.gov/prof/notes/notes_longevity.asp

Review the information sheet, Trends in Causes of Death Among the Elderly: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/agingtrends/01death.pdf

Globally speaking: median age implies what?

Individual reflection #1

• Write for 5 minutes about an older relative whom you cherish. To get you started:• How long have you known this person?• What is something that characterizes how this

person acts?• What is something important that this person has

told you?• Were you able to learn any of this person’s

memories from an earlier time?

About YOUR aging: expect greater diversity, slower growth 2030-50: Administration on

Aging

www.aoa.gov/prof/Statistics/future-growth

One way to look at diversity: http://www.agingstats.gov/chartbook2000/

What’s ‘old’? Expect changes

• Dynamic population pyramids let us compare the US and another country (Taiwan):

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/pyramid.html

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/pyramids.html

Stages in adulthood

• Middle adulthood: age forty to sixty-five • Midlife transition-forty to forty-five• Entering middle adulthood-forty-five to fifty• Age fifty transition-fifty to fifty-five• Culmination of middle adulthood-fifty-five to sixty

• Late adulthood: age sixty on• Late adult transition-sixty to sixty-five

• Harwood proposes two new divisions:• Young old: 65-80• Fourth age: over-80

L.Worrall & L. Hickson. 2003. Communication disability in aging

Young adult concerns about aging Boomer parents, reflected in Canadian

comic

For better or for worse, January 20, 2006

Individual reflection #2: Assign age norms and see if any of them group

together

1. Wearing a short skirt and high heels

2. Living alone 3. Getting married 4. Raising children 5. Being considered sexy 6. Drinking alcohol 7. Driving a sports car 8. Having others make

decisions for you

9. Displaying affection in public

10. Running a marathon 11. Running for president 12. Retiring 13. Becoming pregnant 14. Enrolling in a 4 year

college degree program15. Receiving a heart

transplant

Age norms: cultural reflections?

Ben http://www.comics.com

Clips from http://www.biology.duke.edu/cunningham/Villains.html

Age norms: cultural reflections #2

What do these have in common?

Approaches to studying aging: biological/biomedical

• Focus on decline/deficit• Genetic predisposition to some conditions

• Metabolism rate: should we slow it? Get way thin?

• Wearing out: free radicals? (take C)

• Older folk:waste of resources or valuable addition?• Harwood, p. 13: ‘one area of research has suggested that

significant strides in human culture are directly traceable to … when people’s life spans reached the length that grandparenting was possible”

Grandparents & Culture: Young-Old and Fourth Age talking on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_WJ00D3vPw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ZA9IiVBvY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZPF7DdVrwI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyQOEPUbcD4

And you might enjoy Reel Geezers – see below

Approaches to studying aging: psychological

• Focus on decline/deficit• Short term memory• Disengagement theory (increasing isolation)• Socioemotional selectivity theory (here and now)• Continuity theory (focus on what doesn’t change)• Activity theory (stay busy)

Approaches to studying aging: sociological approaches

• Modernization theory and the ‘place’ of older people

• Social stratification theory (age, gender, race; segregation by age

• Political economy of aging: i.e. are aging encouraged to depend on system, institutions?

Approaches to studying aging: life-span developmental approaches

• Erikson’s 8 stages http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/ERIK/sum.HTML

• Selective optimization:select optimize compensate

Life-span approach: we develop and grow throughout the life span; age constrains but does not control development. Environment and history constrain but do not control development. Development involves gains and losses on different dimensions (‘learning experiences)

What methods shall we use to study aging? NSF on Qualitative Analysis

“Qualitative modes of data analysis provide ways of discerning, examining, comparing and contrasting, and interpreting meaningful patterns or themes. Meaningfulness is determined by the particular goals and objectives of the project at hand: the same data can be analyzed and synthesized from multiple angles depending on the particular research or evaluation questions being addressed. The varieties of approaches - including ethnography, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, and textual analysis - correspond to different types of data, disciplinary traditions, objectives, and philosophical orientations. However, all share several common characteristics that distinguish them from quantitative analytic approaches. …good qualitative analysis is both systematic and intensely disciplined”

http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/REC/pubs/NSF97-153/CHAP_4.HTM

What methods shall we use to study aging? Some quantitative methods:

• http://ihd.berkeley.edu/aldwin.pdf gives a good overview of several quantitative methods, which expand our text’s analysis.

• Cross-sectional designs compare participants in different age cohorts

• Longitudinal designs test one group repeatedly over time

• Cross-sequential designs let you stagger cohorts and then compare them sequentially over time.

It isn’t easy to match method to research question

Aldwin 2003 illustrates how cross-sectional analysis can confound age and cohort

Hypothetical Study of Age & Religiosity in Florida done with cross-sectional samples of 3 different ages, taken at one time. However, it turned out that the cohorts had different religious characteristics and that really confused the question.• Young cohorts: Catholic (Hispanic)• Middle aged cohorts: Protestant• Older cohorts: Jewish

Interpretation confuses age & cohort:“People are born Catholic, become Protestant in mid-life, and then turn to Judaism in old age (!)”

http://www.nicenet.org

Conversation Analysishttp://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ssca1/