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J J Dowd

Publications and source records attributed to J J Dowd.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

Beneficence and the aged.

The present paper reexamines the modernization hypothesis, focusing principally on the issues of whether and why the relative status and prestige of old people is lower in late 20th century industrial societies than it was during the preceding century. It is argued that the status of most old people, whether considered in absolute or relative terms, is indeed higher now than earlier. No longer bound by the usual norms of reciprocity governing social interaction, old people benefit by a renascence of the norm of beneficence. The very old, in other words, receive more than they are owed under the norm of reciprocity. For the young-old, however, the norm of reciprocity continues in effect. Because of this, and the tightening in eligibility criteria for programs of social support, the position of the young-old is less a function of age than it is of social class.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Mental illness and the aged stranger.

Sociological investigations of mental illness in older populations have been largely concerned with the causes and consequences of morale and life satisfaction. Satisfaction with life and "good morale" are widely viewed as reasonable indicators of mental health. Apart from the definitional problems inherent in this approach, the focus on morale has effectively diverted greater research attention from more serious issues of mental health in older populations, such as schizophrenia, personality disorders, and depression. The intent of this paper is to evaluate the dominant mental health paradigms within social gerontology; to synthesize some existing threads of a political economy/social control approach to these issues; and, finally, to argue that the act of growing old in capitalist societies brings increased risk of mental illness not because of drift, selection, or stress but, rather, because of the exclusion of the aged from labor markets and the physical and ideological "strangeness" of the aged.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Socialization to violence among the aged.

This paper addresses the issue of the attitudinal consequences of fear and victimization by focusing on the degree to which people of different ages expresses approval of violent behavior. It is our argument that the experience of victimization socializes the individual to a view as constituting an effective strategy for resolving interpersonal conflict. Data from a national sample of the noninstitutionalized adult population of the United States support this argument, at least for respondents under 60. Older people are less likely to be victims of crime than younger persons, more likely to report fear of crime, and more disapproving of violent behavior. Older victims, however, do not evidence the same attitudinal response as younger victims. Younger victims are generally less disapproving of violence than youthful non-victims; the difference between older victims and non-victims, however, is in the opposite direction. This finding is explained as a specific instance of the lesser impact across the life cycle of period effects on attitudes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Exchange rates and old people.

This paper extends earlier work on aging as a process of exchange by focusing on the issue of exchange rates and how they are negotiated. Intergenerational social exchange is conceptualized as a "boundary crossing" in which the older partner must learn the decision rules appropriate to interaction within a younger stratum. Because of the power differential that, in many cases, favors the middle-aged partner, the "discourse" governing the exchange is typically that of the younger exchange partner. Age is an "exportable" status characteristic, one that is used to assess the legitimacy of a person's claim for a certain level of reward. Old age places the exchange partner in a double bind. Access to power resources declines with age, placing the person in the unenviable position of negotiating from weakness. In addition, those resources which he/she does possess are exchanged for less than they would be if held by a younger person.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1978

Aging in minority populations. An examination of the double jeopardy hypothesis.

The plight of minority aged has been characterized by many as one of double jeopardy: in addition to the disadvantages imposed by their minority group status, the minority aged are said also to experience the devaluation in status associated with old age in our society. Other research has indicated, however, that the gaps between minority and majority individuals tend to decline with age, such that the status disparity between white and minority aged actually may have decreased from middle to old age. To test these competing hypotheses, a series of health, income, life satisfaction, and social participation variables (interaction with family, kin, neighbors, and friends) was examined with data from a large (N = 1269) sample of middle-aged and older blacks, Mexican Americans and whites in Los Angeles County. Differences among the three ethnic groups were found which, in some cases, constituted a case of "double jeopardy" for minority aged. On variables measuring life satisfaction or frequency of contact with relatives, however, the extent of ethnic variation declined across age strata, indicating some support for the "age as leveler" hypothesis.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1975

Aging as exchange: a preface to theory.

After a brief review of the major concepts and propositions of the social-psychological theory of exchange, a view of aging as exchange is developed. Drawing upon the previous work of Blau and Emerson, problems of aging are seen as problems of decreasing power resources. Because power resources decline with increased age, older persons become increasingly unable to enter into balanced exchange relations with other groups with whom they are in interactions. From this view, the process of disengagement is the result of a series of exchange relations in which the relative power of the aged vis-a-vis their exchange partner increasingly deteriorates. An imbalanced exchange ratio consequently results in which the aged are forced to exchange compliance--the most costly of all generalized reinforcers--for their continued sustenance. The retirement phenomenon is specified as illustrative of the aging as exchange process.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1975

Modernization, modernity, and perceptions of aging: A cross-cultural study.

Data from a comparative study of 5,450 young males in six developing nations were used to investigate the association between modernization or modernity and negative attitudes toward aging. The findings question the frequent assertion that "modernity" (the exposure of individuals in developing nations to industrial technology and urban social experience) results in negative perceptions of aging and diminished value attributed to the aged. The data do provide support for the hypothesis that "modernization" (societal development) is related to negative perceptions of aging. Results suggest the necessity of differentiating between "modernization" and "modernity" as levels of analysis and of avoiding value-laden assumptions concerning advantages of either traditional or industrial social settings with respect to the position of elders.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sociological functionalism, exchange theory and life-cycle analysis: a call for more explicit theoretical bridges.

There has been a notable lack of articulation between mainstream sociological theory and the work of social gerontologists. This paper suggests four reasons for this, and reviews the basic assumptions and applications to gerontology of two well-established frameworks in sociological theory: structural-functionalism and exchange. With more rigorous and systematic integration of gerontological data with social and social psychological theory, more comprehensive explanations of life course phenomena would result. Moreover, the age variable would be considerably by other sociologists as less of a control and more of a relevant variable in its own right.

Geriatric Psychiatry↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The problems of generations: and generational analysis.

The focus of this paper is two fold: 1. conceptual and methodological problems underlying the life-span sociology literature that heretofore have not been discussed; and 2. application of the generational analysis model to the question of life cycle change in personal values. Specifically, we address the issues of whether (1) value change over the life course is a result of period shifts or individual maturation and (2) differences in values among age strata are a function of cohort experience or individual maturation (aging). Utilizing data from the Detroit Area Studies, four measures of values were constructed. The analyses shows that on only one of the four dependent measures was aging directly implicated in the findings. However, cohort differences and period effects were found to have a significant effect on the distribution of several of the value indices. The data are consistent with Mannheim's observation that older cohorts are affected by social change although the relative degree of observed change is much greater among the young.

Age Factors↗