Identity, support and health : the heterogenous experiences of retired husband carers

Retired men contribute significantly towards the care of the elderly, with half of all carers over the age of 65 years in Australia, being men. Dementia is an age-related disease characterized by progressive cognitive decline over a number of years and often manifests in memory loss and personality and/or behaviour changes in the care recipient. Caring for a family member with a cognitive illness has been shown to be particularly challenging and is often reported to have adverse health impacts on the health of carers themselves Despite a growing body of literature about men’s experiences of caring for dementia impaired wives, the impact of caregiving on the health and wellbeing of retired/elderly husbands caring for a dementia impaired wife remains unclear. Theoretical frameworks employed to understand retired men’s experiences of caregiving largely focus on gender, therefore other aspects of identity such age and/or class are often missing from these analyses. The aim of this study is to investigate retired husband’s experiences of caring for dementia impaired wives. The study explores how various aspects of identity (gender, class and age/generation) intersect to shape the husbands’ caregiving practices and considers the implications of these practices, for their health and wellbeing at different points during the dementia caregiving trajectory. Findings suggest that gender, class, age/generation, location and faith and to some extent place, intersect in multiple nuanced ways informing the men’s caregiving practices and their health at different stages of the caregiving trajectory. These intersections were significant in determining how the husbands navigated: their own corporeal decline, whilst caring for increasingly dependent wives; the health system to obtain their wife’s diagnosis; and the husbands’ capacity to seek and accept help and assistance from their informal and formal support networks. Seeking emotional support was problematic for all the husbands, but class and age/generation acted as mediators influencing at what stage in the caregiving trajectory such support would be needed and the likelihood of the husbands to seek and use this support. Findings suggest that intersections of gender, class and age/generation informed the extent to which the husbands were able to reap the emotional rewards of caregiving, develop softer masculinities and in doing so be positively transformed by their caregiving experiences

Linking communicative interaction to cognitive functioning: implications for older adults

As the percentage of older adults within the U.S. steadily increases, long-term care options are being impacted with growing numbers of seniors to provide for. The reality of these elevated numbers have sparked an interest in researchers to conduct studies on human development, plasticity in the brain, and training and intervention programs in search for ways to halt or lessen the cognitive and communicative decline, in older adults. As an alternative path to help older adults maintain quality of life, this study proposes to examine the link between communicative interaction and cognitive functioning to educate family members and healthcare providers on how communicative interactions and language influence cognition. Data (n = 3130) used in this study was retrieved from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2014 for participants 65 years and older. Examination of the link between communicative interaction and cognition encompassed all factors of the learning process such as socio-emotional influences, environmental experiences, health and nutrition, and cognitive and physical development. Analysis of the study also included exploratory studies on social cognitive neuroscience and how brain training affects dementia. Findings in this study revealed that cognitive functioning declines with age, but rises with higher levels of education. Results also indicate that increased communicative interaction is significantly associated with improved cognitive functioning, when controlling for age, gender, and education. Considering other influential factors, determining the degree of association may require further investigation

Relational Viewing: Affect, Trauma and the Viewer in Contemporary Autobiographical Art

This dissertation examines the communicative relationship between contemporary autobiographical art and the viewer. By analyzing the work of six artists, Richard Billingham, Jaret Belliveau, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Lisa Steele and Bas Jan Ader, I maintain that lived experience and personal history condition the way viewers respond to autobiographical art. I turn to literary theory as a critical methodology to argue that autobiographical art operates as a catalyst for identification, memory and self-discovery. I use affect and trauma theory to demonstrate how artwork produces meaning and discourse through the viewer’s feelings, emotions and bodily sensations. Consequently, I survey the importance of affect in generating ethically appropriate responses to trauma-related art. With the viewer’s subjective gaze in mind, I also weigh the possibility of trauma-related artwork triggering traumatic affects in the viewer through conscious and unconscious forces. My response to affect theory further reconceptualizes how empathy and community form new social relationships between the viewer, the artist and others irregardless of physical, cultural and ideological differences. In this regard, my study shows that autobiographical art is a pedagogical instrument for learning about others while learning about the self as well: through the artist’s life one may come to better understand their own. With extensive research and close analysis of select visual material, this dissertation proposes several interrelated points. Chapter one considers the types of responses that photographs of family tragedy generate in the viewer, how viewers connect to these photographs and what meaning can be gained from these encounters. In chapter two I examine three different philosophies of community to argue that inclusion, identification and universality are capable of transforming existing social structures and political relationships. The third and final chapter problematizes the communication of memory by deconstructing how conventional memory is performed. It also addresses why the logic of representation collapses during the artist’s communication of trauma and explains how the conscious and unconscious reverberations of pain surface unexpectedly through the haptic sense. Overall, the dissertation seeks to contribute to contemporary research on autobiographical art, affect, trauma and their complex relationship to spectatorship

The stereotyping of 'old people' : a qualitative exploration of preschool children's constructions of older adults : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Despite an ageing population, in Western countries, children and older adults are being provided fewer opportunities to spend time together. Intergenerational (IG) programmes were developed to intentionally bring these two groups together, for the mutual benefit of both parties. However, the voices of children, particularly preschool aged children, are often excluded from the research focussing on these programmes. The aim of the current research was to explore the experiences of the preschool children engaged in a shared-site intergenerational programme, based in New Zealand, and to explore the children’s constructions of older adults. Seventeen children participated in the study, aged between 3 and 5 years old. Methodological choices were ethnographically informed, and included interviews, observations, photographs, and the children’s drawings. Analysis of the data from all four methods produced two key themes. The first revealed that the relationships the children developed with the older adults were with this group as a collective, rather than with particular individuals. Although the children were able to experience individual connections with older adults, these were dependent on the context, and often temporary. The second theme detailed how the children understood what it means to be an older adult, which involved the identification of its group members. The children held a belief that old age was manifested physically, and each child used a singular physical feature of old age to identify older adults as a group. This focus on the physical highlighted the important role that observation played in the children’s developing conceptualisation of older adults. These findings suggest that the children were stereotyping the older adults, but that there was no positive or negative judgement placed on these stereotypes, they just simply existed. They also support a discursive understanding of stereotypes, as opposed to a cognitive one, which is how much of the existing literature conceptualises stereotyping. Finally, the findings demonstrate that very young children are capable of participating in qualitative research, and that they have important and interesting contributions to offer. Future research should prioritise the inclusion of these voices and would benefit from the use of multiple methods to engage children

Vulnerable responsibility

The authors have developed the ethical imagination inviting a sense of “otherness” towards the vulnerable self, rebounding care for the other as a way to understand our everyday neurotic (normal) tendency of small vices as the propensity and possibility for responsibility towards the other. The authors, inviting the reader into troublesome feelings such as laziness and anger, bring a Levinasian horizon into focus, so that even in the midst of laziness, there remains the small goodness to set the self free to care for the other, meeting the demands, challenges, hesitation, shuddering, tension and shocks of such alterity, of living “otherwise”

Interdependent Compositions Employed in Sonic Ecosystems: Integrating the Listener in the Evolving Soundscape

A presente dissertação explora a integração de ouvintes na paisagem sonora em transformação enquanto compositores do ambiente sónico, no formato de instalações áudio.A investigação é motivada pela necessidade de promover e discutir a identidade do património aural da cidade do Porto e a sua crescente transformação.O desenho metodológico seguido é o practice-led research/research-led practice, e foca-se na compreensão e no desenvolvimento de ecossistemas sonoros e das relações interdependentes entre os agentes internos e externos do sistema.Os participantes exploram cartografias sonoras generativas, transformando iterativamente a natureza composicional das paisagens ao navegarem por motivos abrangentes ou focarem em elementos específicos da experiência.Palavras-chave: Identidade, Transformação, Ecossistema, Composição de Paisagens Sonoras, Interatividade.This dissertation explores the integration of listeners in the evolving soundscape as compositional agents of the sonic environment, presented as an audio installation.The investigation is motivated by the need to promote and discuss the sonic landscape identity of Porto and its rapid transformation. A method of practice-led research/research-led practice is followed, focusing on the development and understanding of sonic ecosystems and the interdependent relationships between its internal and external agents.Participants explore generative aural cartographies, transforming iteratively the nature of compositions by expanding into wider motifs or focusing on small and specific elements of the experience.Keywords: Identity, Transformation, Ecosystem, Soundscape Composition, Interactivity