Influence of Culture on Aging
Grand Valley State University
7th Annual Art & Science of Aging Conference
Friday, February 10, 2012
Transitioning to Honor the Older Population in America
Cathy Weisbeck, PhD, MSW
Session Handouts
Transitioning to Honor the Older Population in America
Art & Science of Aging Conference: February 10, 2012 - Reading List
Articles
Bambrick, P., & Bonder, B. (2005). Older adults’ perceptions of work. Work, 24, 77-84. Dorfman, L.
T., Murty, S. A., Ingram, J. G., Evans, R. J., & Power, J. R. (2004). Intergenerational service-
learning in five cohorts of students: Is attitude change robust? Educational Gerontology, 30,
39-55.
Greenfield, E. A., & Marks, N. F. (2004). Formal volunteering as a protective factor for older adults’
psychological well-being. The Journals of Gerontology, 59B(5), S258-S264.
Knight, T., & Ricciardelli, L. A. (2003). Successful aging: Perceptions of adults aged between 70 and
101 years. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 56, 223-245.
Levy, B. R. (2001). Eradication of ageism requires addressing the enemy within. The Gerontologist,
41, 578-579.
Books
Cohen, G. D. (2000). The creative age: Awakening human potential in the second half of life. New
York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Cohen, G. D. (2005). The mature mind: The positive power of the aging brain. New York: Basic
Books.
Dychtwald, K. (1999). Age power: How the 21st century will be ruled by the new old. New York:
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.
Dychtwald, K., & Flower, J. (1990). Age wave. New York: Bantam Books.
Erickson, E. H., Erickson, J. M., & Kivnick. H. Q. (1986). Vital involvement in old age. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company.
Freedman, M. (1999). Prime time: How baby boomers will revolutionize retirement and transform
America. New York: Public Affairs.
Freedman, M. (2007).Encore: Finding work that matters in the second half of life. New York:
Public Affairs.
Freedman, M. (2011).The big shift: Navigating the new stage beyond midlife. New York: Public
Affairs.
Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing
Group.
Garrett, R. (2009). Embracing age. Franklin, TN: Providence House Publishers.
Greenbaum, S. (Ed.). (2010). Longevity rules: How to age well into the future. Carmichael, CA:
Eskaton.
Hessel, D. (Ed.). (1977). Maggie Kuhn on aging. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press.
Nouwen, H. J. M., & Gaffney, W. J. (1966).Aging: The fulfillment of life. New York: Image Books
Doubleday.
Post, S. G. (2000). The concept of Alzheimer’s disease in a hypercognitive society. In P. J.
Whitehouse, K. Maurer, & J. F. Ballenger (Eds.), Concepts of Alzheimer’s disease: Biological,
clinical, and cultural perspectives (pp. 245-268). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Schachter-Shalomi, Z., & Miller, R. S. (1995).From age-ing to sage-ing: A profound new vision of
growing older. New York: Warner Books.
Thomas, W. H. (2004). What are old people for? Acton, MA: VanderWyk&Burnham.
Definitions of Culture
The culture in which one lives and matures provides a perspective by which the world is defined and growth is monitored.
1. Johnson (2000) defined culture as “historical, bound up in traditions and practices passed through generations; memories of events – real or imagined – which define a people and their worldview’ (p.121).
2. Hooyman and Kiyak (2005) defined culture as “a complex system and process of shared knowledge, beliefs, traditions, symbols, language, art, and social organizations” (p. 527).
3. Smelser considered culture a “system of patterned values, meanings, and beliefs that give cognitive structure to the world, provide a basis for coordinating and controlling human interactions, and constitute a link as the system is transmitted from one generation to another” (as cited in Johnson, 2004, p. 224).
4. Helman described culture as the manner in which an individual determines how to live, processes everyday occurrences, and basically finds meaning in one’s life and world (as cited in Hooyman & Kiyak).
Hooyman and Kiyak stated that “age is a social construct with social meanings and social implications” (p. 6). Therefore, one’s perspective on the process of aging is constructed within one’s culture and becomes part of one’s worldview. This implied that different cultures may regard aging and the older person in different ways.
Hooyman, N. R., & Kiyak, H. A. (2005). Social gerontology: A multidisciplinary perspective (7th ed.).
Boston: Pearson Education.
Johnson, J. L. (2000). Crossing borders-confronting history: Confronting adjustment in a post-cold war
world. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Johnson, J. L. (2004). Fundamentals of substance abuse practice. Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning.
Influence of Culture on Aging
Ageism
Wolff (1998) defined ageism as a negative bias or an attitude based on stereotypes regarding aging and the older person. She outlined four factors that contribute to the negative stereotypes of aging:
• Fear of death in Western society
• Emphasis on the youth culture in American society
• Emphasis in American culture on productivity
• The manner in which aging was originally researched in long-term care institutions.
As reported by DuBois and Miley (2005), ageism affects older adults from a societal perspective. Due to ageism there exists:
• A reduction of older adults’ ability to contribute to the community at large
• A reinforcement of stereotyping which views older adults as a group rather than as individual people
• Encouragement for older adults to devalue themselves
• A perpetuation of the fear of aging.
American Culture as a “Hypercognitive” Culture
Post (2000) defined the American culture in terms of being “hypercognitive,” by which he meant a culture and society that defines the dominant image of human fulfillment by:
• Self-control
• Independence
• Economic productivity
• Cognitive enhancement.
In a hypercognitive culture, to be deprived of one’s ability to be in control, of being able to think one’s way through life, is the most cruel of losses and one which carries a sense of shame and stigma. Post (2000) claimed that in the American culture there is nothing as fearful as Alzheimer’s Disease since it violates the very spirit of cognitive competence. A hypercognitive culture would:
• Find it unacceptable to embrace the natural process of aging with the common aspects of diminishment and increased dependence
• Want to put aside any visible indications that increased years would mean being less than humanly fulfilled
• Find it important to put down and discount those unfortunate enough to be affected by this deterioration.
Wolff, L. (1998). The theoretical basis of ageism. Retrieved October 4, 2007, from
Post, S. G. (2000). The concept of Alzheimer’s disease in a hypercognitive society. In P. J. Whitehouse,
K. Maurer, & J. F. Ballenger (Eds.), Concepts of Alzheimer’s disease: Biological, clinical, and
cultural perspectives (pp. 245-268). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
DuBois, B., & Miley, K. K. (2005). Social work: An empowering profession (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson
Education.
Creating the Tradition of Honoring the Older Population
Catherine Weisbeck
Master’s Thesis
School of Social Work
Grand Valley State University
Abstract
This qualitative research study explored what it would take to create the tradition of honoring the older population in American culture. In this exploratory study, 15 participants were interviewed in person using a series of ten open ended questions. The participants were selected according to the criteria of being an older adult, working with or volunteering for older adults, or having been involved in a project which considered the older population as a subgroup within the total population. The participants were personally invited by the researcher to be interviewed and the interview took approximately 40 minutes. Results indicated that creating the tradition of honoring the older population in American culture would require a change on every individual’s part as well as a social revolution. Findings also indicated that the changes were needed not only on the part of society but also on the part of the older population. As society provides opportunities for the older population to be honored, the older population needs to understand and accept what it means to be honored.
“Elders are the jewels of humanity that have been mined from the Earth,
cut in the rough, then buffed and polished by the stonecutter’s art
into precious gems that we recognize for their enduring value and beauty.
Shaped with patience and love over decades of refinement,
each facet of the jewel reflects light that awakens our soul
to intimations of its own splendor.
We sense such radiance in our youth but we cannot contain it.
It requires a lifetime’s effort to carve out the multifaceted structure
that can display our hidden splendor in all its glory.”
Zalmon Schachter-Shalomi
“Being an elder of the tribe is awesome, demanding, and exhilarating.
Elders have a purpose for living that’s stronger
than any physical disabilities that might slow us down.
As the mind and spirit triumph over the body’s infirmities,
we work passionately to achieve our goals of
social justice,
environmental safety, and
cross-cultural understanding.”
Maggie Kuhn
Definition of an Elder
An Elder is a person
who is still growing
still a learner,
still with potential and
whose life continues to have
within it promise for, and
connection to the future.
An Elder is still in pursuit of
happiness, joy and pleasure,
and her or his birthright to these
remains intact.
Moreover, an Elder is a person
who deserves respect and honor and
whose work it is to synthesize wisdom
from long life experience and
formulate this into a legacy for
future generations.
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