Age Identification
A central concept in any discussion of aging is the meaning of age itself. Age identification is partly an acknowledgment of chronological age or years since birth, but it is also a powerful social and psychological dimension of our lives.
From early childhood, we are socialized to think about what it means to “act your age,” a process described as age differentiation. We learn that different roles or behaviors are considered appropriate—and inappropriate—depending on whether we are a toddler or a teenager, an adult or an older person. Age grading refers to the way people are assigned different roles in society depending on their age (Streib & Bourg, 1984). Theorists of age stratification emphasize that a person’s position in the age structure affects behavior or attitudes.
People also come to define themselves, at least in part, in terms of their age. Consider when you started thinking of yourself as an adult instead of a child. Did you suddenly lose interest in some of the things that had once fascinated you because you considered them “childish” interests? Do you anticipate that when you become “middle-aged” or “old” you will no longer be quite the same person you are now? Where do these ideas regarding what is “appropriate” at a particular age come from?
People in a culture have widely shared expectations about the “right time” for an event to happen. In Western society, for example, marriage at age 13 or retirement at age 30 would be considered off time, but graduation from college at 22 or retirement at age 65 would be on time. In other words, we all have a shared, socially constructed social clock concerning the appropriate age for certain life events (Helson, Mitchell, & Moane, 1984). However, the timetable for life events varies somewhat with social class based on ethnicity, and occupation; the career timetable of a medical student, for instance, is quite different from that of a migrant farmworker. In addition, age norms change over time. For example, Americans today tend to first marry in their mid- to late 20s, but a century ago, people that age (particularly women) would have been considered rather old for a first marriage.
Cultural understandings about what is “age-appropriate” are part of a tradition going back to antiquity (Falkner & de Luce, 1992). In the comedy of ancient Rome, for example, older adults are often ridiculed for unseemly behavior, and hostility is expressed toward old men who take young lovers, a theme often repeated in medieval literature (Bertman, 1976).
What do we think is appropriate for “older people” in our culture today? For one answer, we can look to the images in our symbols, rituals, and myths. Storytellers and minstrels have expressed traditional societies’ concepts of age, but today in advanced industrial societies, those concepts are frequently transmitted and reinforced by advertising, entertainment, and social media. As a rule, people on TV are young and good-looking; older people are not visible on TV in anything like their proportion of the actual population (Davis & Davis, 1985; Peterson & Sautter, 2003). When they are depicted, they tend to be one step removed from the action. Even when advertisers try to appeal to the “gray market” of older consumers, they present idealized images of good health and vigorous activity. It seems sometimes that we are trying to ignore the inevitability of old age.
Beyond age (and other) stereotypes, advertising, entertainment, and social media have a latent effect that is both more subtle and more pervasive. Media occupy a perpetual present dominated by novelty and momentary images (Meyrowitz, 1985). The effect is to weaken any sense of continuity over the life course and to undercut any authority or meaning for old age. Traditional cultures tend to prize their older members as links in a historical chain reaching back to the ancestors. But the contemporary culture of communication technology and social media tends to put all age groups on an equal footing (Gilleard & Higgs, 2000). The result is the “disappearance of childhood” and perhaps of old age too (Postman, 1982).
Mythic images of aging are of course oversimplified and based on fantasy. But sometimes they provide insight into the deeper meaning of the last stage of life. The Western view of old age tends to be ambivalent. In the Hebrew Bible, for instance, old age is venerated as a reward for righteous living: The Fifth Commandment to honor one’s parents contains a promise of long life. In contrast, there is a realistic dread of frailty and a fear that children may reject aged parents (Isenberg, 2000). The book of Job even questions the assumption that old age brings wisdom and recognizes that the wicked can live just as long as the righteous.
Greek and Roman views of late life also reflect profound ambivalence. In the first great work of Western literature, Homer’s Iliad, we find worship of youth in the figure of the young, strong warrior Achilles, but the aged Nestor is revered for his wisdom. In the philosophical tradition, Plato and Aristotle took opposing views on aging. For Plato, later life offered a possibility of rising above the body to attain insight into the eternal nature of reality. In contrast, Aristotle saw middle age as the summit of life, a time when creative intellectual powers were at their peak, with later life as a time of decline (Minois, 1989).
In our culture today, we explore similar issues, especially in feature-length films. The myths of aging range from the quest for rejuvenation through the fountain of youth (Cocoon) to the psychological self-fulfillment of the aged hero returning home (Wild Strawberries or The Trip to Bountiful). At its best, film can present images of the older person as a genuine hero triumphing over circumstance (Driving Miss Daisy or The World’s Fastest Indian) or living later life with zest and openness to new adventures (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or The Book Club). The images of old age purveyed by mass media have a profound effect on attitudes toward aging in all industrialized societies (Featherstone & Wernick, 1995).
The Stages of Life
Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have recognized a progression through the life course, from infancy through old age. The overall progression appears universal, yet the time between birth and death has been organized in distinctive ways by different societies (Boyle & Morriss, 1987). The simplest division was into two stages: childhood and adulthood. But as societies become more complex and as longevity increases, they tend to develop a greater number of life stages.
Greek and Roman ideas were influential in shaping how we think today about aging and the life course. One of the greatest Greek tragedies is the three-part Oedipus cycle, the last play written when its author, Sophocles, was nearly 90 years old. In this story, Oedipus becomes king because he solves the famous riddle of the Sphinx: “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the afternoon?” The answer is the human being at successive life stages: infancy (crawling on four legs), adulthood (walking on two), and old age (using a cane, a third leg, to support the other two). The Greek medical writer Hippocrates described four stages of life, or ages, corresponding to the four seasons of the year. Similar ideas were put forward by the Roman physician Galen and by the astronomer Ptolemy. Ptolemy developed an idea of seven stages of life, which had great influence during the Middle Ages.
During the Middle Ages, Christian civilization balanced the image of multiple stages with the metaphor of life as a journey or spiritual pilgrimage. From that standpoint, no single stage of life would be viewed as superior to another. Just as the natural life cycle was oriented by the recurrent cycle of the seasons, so the individual soul would be oriented toward the hope of an afterlife (Burrows, 1986). The human life course as both cycle and journey was thereby endowed with transcendent meaning and wholeness (Cole, 1992).
With the coming of the Reformation and the Renaissance, ideas about the life course changed into forms we recognize as modern. Writing in this epoch, Shakespeare expressed the traditional idea of the “Seven Ages of Man”:
All the world’s
