Family, Social Ties and Self-Meaning in Old Age: The Development of an Affective Identity

Abstract

The meaning of the self in old age is examined from an interactionist perspective, employing a variation of a recently developed methodological technique (Burke & Tully, 1977). The identity of older persons is found to incorporate a dimension of affectiveness versus effectiveness, i.e. a self-meaning as one who operates from feeling and emotion rather than action. The meaning of affectiveness is stressed as not synonymous with ineffectiveness. In addition, the analysis related identity directly with age, poor health and widowhood. For men, lack of social involvement and the `empty nest' also contribute to a sense of affectiveness, but appears to have no effect on women. It is concluded that although differences in the environment, including poor health and role losses, are related to differences in the self meaning of the elderly, the meaning is not necessarily a negative or pathological one.