Susan A. Eisenhandler

The Asphalt Identikit: Old Age and the Driver's License:

A recent study of fifty older adults from a small community is used to explore the asphalt identikit—possession of a valid drivers license and driving—and its use as a disidentifier of old age. Interview material is used to illustrate the substantive issues of identity that underlie the practical activity of driving. Resistance to giving up driving is strong even as self-imposed limits curtail the kind and amount of driving that is done. Older adults use and maintain this asphalt identikit to ward off the stigma of an old age identity.

Aging and the religious dimension

Figures and Tables Foreword by Harry R. Moody Introduction: A Human Science Perspective on Aging and the Religious Dimension by L. Eugene Thomas and Susan A. Eisenhandler Theoretical Perspectives Values, Psychosocial Development, and the Religious Dimension by L. Eugene Thomas From Loneliness to Solitude: Religious and Spiritual Journeys in Late Life by Barbara Payne and Susan McFadden Case Studies From Sacred to Secular: Memoir of a Midlife Transition toward Spiritual Freedom by Richard B. Griffin The Way of the Religious Renouncer: Power through Nothingness by L. Eugene Thomas Historical and Literary Studies Aging and Spiritual Empowerment: The Stories of Oedipus and David by Stephen Bertman and W. Andrew Achenbaum Fairy Tales and the Spiritual Dimensions of Aging by Allan B. Chinen Spiritual Well-being, Maturity, and Aging: Biblical Illustrations by J. Gordon Harris Honor Thy Mother: Aging Women in the Jewish Tradition by Dena Shenk Participant Observation A Social Milieu for Spirituality in the Lives of Older Adults by Susan A. Eisenhandler Life Narrative and Spiritual Journey of Elderly Male Religious by Edward J. Quinnan Interview and Survey Research Generativity as Pragmatic Spirituality by Robert L. Rubinstein Religiosity and Fear of Death in Non-Normative Aging by Sheldon S. Tobin, Elise N. Fullmer, and Gregory C. Smith Gero-Transcendence: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration by Lars Tornstam For Further Reading Index

Keeping the Faith in Late Life

Introduction: faith as a feature of identity and of late life - the theoretical and methodological context of the study. The bedrock of faith and religion - socialization the folkways of prayer in late life other folkways of faith in late life a grown-up faith with musings, doubts and questions folkways of faith in long-term care settings - self, soul and space conclusion - beyond a reflexive faith. Appendices: a closer look at several steps in the research process some social characteristics of the sample.

Lifelong roles and cameo appearances: Elderly parents and relationships with adult children

Abstract At the heart of the changed relationship between parent and child, as each grows older, is the adult status that parents maintain and children acquire. Roles that once distinguished parent from child are roles now shared: The bio-social process of aging moves interaction between parent and child to the level playing field of adulthood. Expectations about the nature of lifelong family roles and extant patterns of interaction are challenged and redefined when these two generations occupy adult statuses. This article draws upon three qualitative community studies-a total of fifty-seven women and men sixty years old and older-to explore the understandings elderly parents, predominantly mothers, have of their relationships to adult children. In this pooled study, parents made cameo appearances in the lives of their adult children and vice versa. Lifelong parental roles were vestigial parts of the social identity of community-dwelling elderly parents.

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS: THE CONSORTIUM TEN YEARS LATER

This article describes the potential problems and principles inherent in developing a research component in a community - based consortium of long - term care providers and educational institutions. The Consortium for Gerontological Education in Long - term Care was designed to share educational resources among member institutions. In the last several years the Consortium has developed a collaborative research agenda and undertaken specific training in field research techniques. Meeting the needs of divergent members of the Consortium by introducing research that integrates students, academics, and health care providers working in the field is discussed in a way that clarifies the challenges as well as the success of the endeavor.

The Rose and the Thorn: Some Ethical Dilemmas in a Qualitative Study of Older Adults∗

ABSTRACT Researchers engaged in exploring the social worlds of older adults have a keen awareness of a range of ethical issues associated with qualitative methodology. As is the case with quantitative work, qualitative social gerontologists can forecast the likelihood of encountering certain ethical issues in a study. However, there are some thorns, perhaps intrinsically connected to the small sample size, or the rose, of qualitative work. This paper discusses some of the unforeseen and thorny ethical issues that emerged during initial field work for a recent study. The issues involved making an assessment of the potential for harm that might come to participants from an inability to assure their confidentiality and privacy. The studys purpose—to understand the experience of older adults from non-western religious traditions—was and remains worthwhile; but, at least for the present, the small sample size in a small state precluded its completion.