Article Review about "Discourse and Aging"

Discourse and Aging

 HEIDI E. HAMILTON

0     Introduction

            Some scholars describe the language and/or communicative abilities that accompany aging, looking both at healthy individuals and at those dealing with health problems that directly affect language use, such as Alzheimer’s disease and aphasia. Others assume that people’s language choices help to construct their social identities (including an elderly identity or patient identity) and relate these choices to issues of mental and physical health. Still others recognize the critical importance of communicative relationships across the life span and investigate talk among friends and family members, both at home and within health-care facilities.

This article describes:

1    Who Is Old? Conceptualizations of Old Age

            Researchers who work with elderly individuals come to the nearly immediate realization that age is much more complex than a simple biological category. Chronological age tells only a small part of anyone’s story and in fact, can be quite misleading.
People often feel older or younger than their chronological age (Boden and Bielby 1986; cf. discussion of “disjunctive aging” in Coupland et al. 1989).
            Each person will experience aging, but aging in each individual will vary depending on hereditary factors, environmental stressors, and a large number of other factors. Although there is no single theory can explain the events of the physical, psychological, and social events complex that occur from time to time, an understanding of the research and theories generated is very important for nurses to help the elderly maintain physical health and psychological perfect.

Theories that explain how and why aging occurs typically classified into two major groups, namely the theory of Biological and Psikososialogis

2     Embracing Multiple Disciplinary Perspectives

            Following Chafe and Moerman, then, I argue that, not only should no single disciplinary approach be understood as the dominant paradigm in issues of discourse and aging, but excluding any disciplinary approach a priori will almost certainly result in a less-than-complete understanding of such issues. The field is far too complex to be understood by looking through one set of filters.

            Aging (getting old) is a process of gradual disappearance of the network's ability to self-repair / replace and maintain normal function that can’t survive the infection and repair the damage suffered. (Constantindes, 1994)

The process of aging is not a disease, but rather a period or stage of human life, namely: infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age, and the elderly. People died not because of advanced age, but because of a disease, or also a handicap. However, the aging process can cause a reduction in body resistance in the face of stimuli from inside and outside the body. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that there is a wide range of diseases that often plague the elderly.

The aging process is already under way since the person reaches adulthood. For example, with the loss of tissue in the muscles, nervous system and other tissues so that the body die little by little. Actually there is no clear boundary, at what age a person's appearance began to decline. In each person, the physiological function of the tool body is very different, both in terms of achieving the peak and decline.

3     Modes of Inquiry

3.1    Different starting points

Possibly the most obvious paradigmatic difference relates to the choice of a theory-driven (top-down) or data-driven (bottom-up) approach to questions of discourse and aging. Researchers who align themselves with the natural sciences tend to take a theory-driven approach; they start with a question and motivation that derive from a theory which they deem important and relevant. Once the motivated question has been posed, they determine which and how many subjects are necessary to carry out the study as well as the context(s) of the subjects’ language use. In this approach, the analytical tools necessary to the examination of language use are usually determined ahead of the actual data collection.

3.2    Contexts of talk

Discourse and aging studies typically examine language used within one or more of the following contexts:

ü Standardized test situation

ü Interview with the researcher

ü Conversations with the researcher

ü Real-life situations “listened in on” by the researcher

4    Areas of Inquiry

In this section  identify three areas of inquiry that have served to center clusters of research in the area of discourse and aging and that  predict will continue to be important magnets for research in the future:

(1) language and communicative abilities in old age

(2) identity in old age

(3) social norms, values, and practices in old age.

Decisions regarding where to place individual studies in this review were based on  understanding of each author’s primary focus and goals.

1)      Language and communicative abilities in old age

The majority of these scholars work in the disciplines of psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and speech and language pathology; their findings are typically based on the discourse produced and comprehended within standardized test batteries by large numbers of strategically selected elderly subjects. Some of these researchers look specifically at subgroups of the overall elderly population who are known to have difficulties with communication, such as individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, different types of aphasia, and hearing loss. Others attempt to characterize the decline, maintenance, or improvement of such abilities within the healthy elderly population

Language is a symbol system sounds arbitrary, conventional and influenced by people as a means of communication. Language is seen as a language which has its own characteristics and unique. This can be assessed through the disciplines of psycholinguistics.

while Communicative means able to convey the message properly. That is, the message received by the receiver together with the intent of the message delivered by the sender of the message. The meaning of the message here is not only information, but also includes thoughts, desires and feelings.

2)      Identity in old age

         Other scholars working in the area of discourse and aging are drawn to issues of identity. These researchers tend to be trained in the fields of social psychology, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and anthropology. Generally, they are not primarily interested in characterizing language abilities and disabilities of elderly individuals. Instead these scholars attempt to identify patterns and strategies in discourse by and with (usually healthy) elderly interlocutors and relate these to the ongoing construction of a range of identities for the speakers as the discourse emerges.

3)      Social norms, values, and practices in old age

            Another group of scholars interested in the relationship between aging and discourse focuses primarily on characterizing discourse practices by elderly individuals that display or reflect the speakers’ social norms and values.

Cattell (1999: 312) argues that researchers should not dismiss such complaints as “just what all old people do,” but should recognize the strategic use of this practice through which the complainers “assure their physical security and reassure themselves as persons in settings of rapid social and cultural change.”

Comparing the past to the present. Disclosing painful information. Complaining. These discursive practices can be seen as reasonable responses to change, but ones that may be subject to misinterpretation when (over)heard by those who do not share the same experiences of changing physical environments, changing bodies, and chang-ing relationships.

5 Conclusions

            The goal of understanding how discourse and aging are related to each other challenges us to understand how language is used by large numbers of elderly indi-viduals in many and varied contexts, both experimental and natural.

             The aging process is normal, this continues over time naturally. Started since human beings are born even earlier and generally common to all living beings. Aging is a process of structural body function decline followed by a decrease in endurance. Each person will experience old age, but aging on each person varies depending on various factors that influence it. These factors may include hereditary factors, nutrition, stress, health status and other. In essence, being old is a natural process that means someone has gone through three stages of life, namely childhood, adulthood and old age (Nugroho, 1992). These three different stages, both biologically and psychologically. Enter old age is to experience physical and psychological setback. Physical setbacks marked by the loosened skin, gray hair, decreased hearing, deteriorating eyesight, slow movements, abnormalities of the various functions of vital organs, increased emotional sensitivity and lack of passion.

            Biological theories attempting to explain the physical process of aging, including changes in the function and structure, development, longevity and mortality. The changes in the body including molecular and cellular changes in major organs and systems of the body's ability to function adequately and fight disease.
            Psikososialogis theory focused on changing attitudes and behaviors that accompany increasing age, as opposed to the biological implications of anatomical damage. For the purposes of this discussion, sociological changes or nonphysical combined with psychological changes.