Why Qualitative Research is Needed in Gerontology and How We Can Do It Better

Phoenix, Cassandra

doi:10.1093/geronb/gby079

Cited by 36 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Qualitative research, with its focus on human subjectivity, is sensitive to the complex experience of aging, sport, and society (Dionigi, 2006, 2016; Phoenix and Grant, 2009; Phoenix, 2018). To our knowledge, no study has qualitatively examined the stories of older male athletes specifically framed within social comparison theory and with consideration of the broader health promotion context.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Can Sit in the Middle or Be One of the Outliers”: Older Male Athletes and the Complexities of Social Comparison

et al. 2019

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Sporting events for older adults are proliferating in both popularity and participation numbers, mirroring the growth that is occurring globally with an aging population. Preliminary evidence indicates that older athletes have a tendency to compare themselves (in terms of their performance, participation, and aging) to inactive older adults deemed “worse-off.” Our aim was to examine the stories and experiences of older, male Masters athletes, not only in terms of their own lives and in relation to others but also in the broader context of current (neoliberal) policies that promote sport across the lifespan. We use social comparison theory to interpret our findings and highlight the strengths and limitations of social comparison as a psychological strategy. For this study, 17 male competitive athletes (age range from 70 to 90 years) who participated in either the 2013 or 2017 World Masters Games were interviewed as part of a larger project on the meaning of sport in their lives. Seven different sports were represented, and participants hailed from multiple countries. Within the interpretive paradigm, we used qualitative methods to interview each participant, analyze individual transcripts, and develop common themes across the data set to address the aforementioned aims. Our two major themes were, Sport as social comparison:“It’s the competitive nature” and Downward comparisons. A number of participants commented on the nature of sport, and competitive sport in particular, as being important to their motivation to train and prepare. Within the theme of Downward comparisons, we established two categories: Resisting loss and Assigning blame. While downward comparisons were used by our participants to separate themselves from other seniors of the same age, thereby bolstering their sense of self, participants also tied those comparisons to neoliberal notions of individual and moral responsibility for health. Participants believed that compromised health was due to individual negligence and bad decisions, with little reference to uncontrollable factors, such as non-modifiable risk factors for disease, disability, and/or socioeconomic status, which could be affecting people’s lives or decisions. Ultimately, our findings show that the useful psychological strategy of social comparison for maintaining a positive sense of self and performance may also have some negative individual and societal consequences.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You Can Sit in the Middle or Be One of the Outliers”: Older Male Athletes and the Complexities of Social Comparison

et al. 2019

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“…Recent qualitative studies have privileged the voices of people living with dementia [24], exploring the impact of dementia upon quality of life [25] and dignity [26]. None have directly considered how people living with dementia in their own homes feel they can best achieve independence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I just keep thinking that I don’t want to rely on people.” a qualitative study of how people living with dementia achieve and maintain independence at home: stakeholder perspectives

et al. 2020

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Background: Most people living with dementia want to remain in their own homes, supported by family and paid carers. Care at home often breaks down, necessitating transition to a care home and existing interventions are limited. To inform the development of psychosocial interventions to enable people with dementia to live well for longer at home, we qualitatively explored the views of people living with dementia, family carers and health and social care professionals, on how to achieve and maintain independence at home and what impedes this. Methods: We conducted an inductive thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with 11 people living with dementia, 19 professionals and 22 family carers in England. Results: We identified four overarching themes: being in a safe and familiar environment, enabling not disabling care, maintaining relationships and community connectedness, and getting the right support. For people living with dementia, the realities of staying active were complex: there was a tension between accepting support that enabled independence and a feeling that in doing so they were accepting dependency. Their and professionals' accounts prioritised autonomy and 'living well with dementia', while family carers prioritised avoiding harm. Professionals promoted positive risk-taking and facilitating independence, whereas family carers often felt they were left holding this risk. Discussion: Psychosocial interventions must accommodate tensions between positive risk-taking and avoiding harm, facilitating autonomy and providing support. They should be adaptive and collaborative, combining selfmanagement with flexible support. Compassionate implementation of rights-based dementia care must consider the emotional burden for family carers of supporting someone to live positively with risk.

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“…These methods are generally centred around individual or group interviews followed by close analysis and interpretation of resulting communicative events (Warren‐Findlow, 2013, p. 407). While research within gerontology has traditionally been quantitative (Phoenix, 2018, p. e81), high‐quality qualitative and mixed‐method work is being called for (Warren‐Findlow, 2013; see also the October 2018 special issue of The Journals of Gerontology ). Methods used in this research run parallel to methods used in sociolinguistics, for example, in‐depth structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation and ethnography.…”

Section: Approaching Social Agementioning

confidence: 99%

The coming of age: How do linguists tease apart chronological, biological and social age?

Hejná

Jespersen

2021

Language and Linguist. Compass

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Age is one of the key variables in the field of language variation and change (LVC). The vast majority of experimental work generally views a speaker's date of birth—chronological age—as a good reflection of both their social age, for example, which generation they identify with and how strongly and their biological age, that is, the physiological age of their body. This paper aims to provide the reader with tools to tease apart these three ways of conceptualising the variable of age. It reviews qualitative and quantitative methods from fields adjacent to LVC that will enable linguists of different theoretical interests to tap into biological and social aspects of ageing. In doing so, it provides a practical manual for linguists wishing to work from a more multifaceted understanding of one of the key variables in many linguistic subfields.

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Why Qualitative Research is Needed in Gerontology and How We Can Do It Better

Cited by 36 publications

References 27 publications

“You Can Sit in the Middle or Be One of the Outliers”: Older Male Athletes and the Complexities of Social Comparison

“You Can Sit in the Middle or Be One of the Outliers”: Older Male Athletes and the Complexities of Social Comparison

“I just keep thinking that I don’t want to rely on people.” a qualitative study of how people living with dementia achieve and maintain independence at home: stakeholder perspectives

The coming of age: How do linguists tease apart chronological, biological and social age?

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