AUSTRALIA: Attitudes Towards Ageing are Shifting

BRISBANE, December 13, 2005: The University of Queensland today awarded PhD for research to understand why the words “old age” conjure up so many negative cultural stereotypes. Ms. Robyn Haynes from the School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences has used the personal stories of 30 Gold Coast retirees to illuminate an identity of Australian seniors. These stories showed that attitudes towards ageing were shifting as many older people embraced modern technologies and redefined what old age was. “In the virtual space of the Internet they construct virtual identities,” Ms Haynes said. “Conducting research, communicating with common interest groups and with their sometimes distant families, they are unconstrained by their ageing appearance, compromised mobility and often marginalised status as `aged`. “Using personal narratives they construct new and significant selves as their prior identities recede.” While conducting her PhD research Ms Haynes immersed herself in the life of the Gold Coast`s retirement community, observing their daily lives, homes and possessions. She collected their personal narratives by recording stories of their lives on tape, collecting almost 300 hours over a two year period. “The stories we tell about ourselves construct who we are or who we aspire to be,” she said. “The same can be said on a macro scale for local communities and more expansively for whole societies. “I found that in the case of this sample, stories helped construct and maintain meaningful identities for these older people, thus reconstructing their social status and sense of worth.” Ms Haynes said it was important for society to understand the links between narrative, identity and ageing so older people were not subjected to negative cultural stereotypes. “Their stories speak to the growing cohort of baby boomers who are embarking on their own journeys into the foreign land of `old`, lighting the path for those that follow and suggesting a potential for who they might become as ageing individuals and communities in an ageing society,” she said. “The paradox is we all hope to have long lives but nobody wants to get old.”