Personal identity and environmental meaning in later life

doi:10.1016/0890-4065(90)90011-V

Journal of Aging Studies

Volume 4, Issue 2, Summer 1990, Pages 131-147

https://doi.org/10.1016/0890-4065(90)90011-V Get rights and content

Abstract

This article examines the relationship of personal identity to environmental meaning in later life. Four key elements of personal identity are described for each of three elderly informants who were questioned in a series of ethnographically-based qualitative interviews for a research project on the meaning of home. The manner in which each of these elements of personal identity is expressed environmentally is then described. The article supports the view that the subjective construction of the life course plays an important role in accounting for older person's environmental meanings.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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This study examined the effects of the behavioral, environmental, and intermediate attributes of greenways on the well-being of older adults, especially regarding how place attachment can serve as an intermediate factor in achieving aging in place. Data were obtained from environmental evaluations and user surveys of 769 participants aged 55 and older throughout all 13 greenways of the Taichung Urban Greenway system. The regression models revealed that greenway quality, perceived pollution, activities on the greenways, neighborhood social capital, and place attachment had significant effects on well-being. Moreover, the greenness of the greenways had a more positive impact on the well-being of those older people who experienced greater levels of place attachment. The strengths of the current study include a focus on the synergistic effects that a greenway, place attachment, and neighborhood social capital have on well-being, thereby contributing to aging in place for the growing older population.
Urban-greenway factors’ influence on older adults’ psychological well-being: A case study of Taichung, Taiwan
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Citation Excerpt :
The concept of aging in place represents the amount of security, familiarity, connection, and reliability that older adults perceive concerning their homes and communities, helping them gain self-identity through place attachment and independence. Long-term emotional attachment toward an environment can improve older adults’ well-being (Rubinstein, 1990; Taylor, 2001). Place attachment represents an individual’s relationship, emotions, and purpose toward an environment.
In Taiwan, about 80 % of the population lives in urban areas, and as the number of older adults inches toward 20 % of the total population by 2026, Taiwan is expected to become a super-aged society. Because urban green spaces are critical for maintaining older adults’ physio-psychological health, maintenance of these spaces can assist the aging-in-place process. Urban greenways not only provide physical environments that support leisure activities, but also create a social environment in which older adults can develop place attachment. These areas improve older adults’ psychological well-being. By contrast, urban environmental stressors (e.g., noise and air pollution) may affect older residents’ well-being negatively. Therefore, this study developed a structural equation model to examine the relationship between physical environment and well-being from urban greenways in Taichung, and it examined how local older residents’ place attachment and perceived environmental stressors influence this relationship. Our dataset included 13 greenways and 769 participants older than 55 living in the vicinity of these greenways. The results indicate that participants perceive lower levels of environmental stress when their local greenway quality is better, enhancing levels of well-being and place attachment, as reported by older adult residents. Since urban greenways are linear public spaces adjacent to roads, greenway designers and planners should place more emphasis on environmental quality to help create high-quality and easy-to-maintain public spaces where older adults can enjoy the outdoors and improve their well-being without worrying about environmental stressors.
Advancing understanding of person-environment interaction in later life: One step further
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Citation Excerpt :
Place attachment is not only related to attitudes, but also to a gamut of processes operating when people form affective, cognitive, behavioral and social bonds to the environment (Brown & Perkins, 1992), thereby transforming “space” into “place” (Altman & Low, 1992; Rowles, 2006; Rowles & Watkins, 2003). Cognitive and emotional links with a place (in particular, home) may become manifest through processes of reflecting on the past, symbolically represented in certain places and cherished objects within the home (e.g., “embeddedness”; Rubinstein, 1989, 1990). Place attachment and meaning of place have been empirically explored mainly via qualitative methods (Rowles, 1983; Rubinstein, 1989, 1990; Sixsmith & Sixsmith, 1991), but there have also been efforts to quantify aspects of the meaning of home (Kaspar, Oswald, & Hebsaker, 2015; Oswald & Kaspar, 2012).
This paper reconsiders the existing conceptual frameworks and models in environmental gerontology and takes a step forward towards a comprehensive and integrative understanding of person-environment (P-E) exchange processes in later life.
After briefly reviewing key existing models and important developments in the field, we move forward towards conceptual optimization and specification emphasizing on the processes of P-E exchange, outcomes of these processes and consideration of time, illustrated with three scenarios. The paper concludes with an outlook on future directions.
The conceptual framework presented here advances previous theoretical work in P-E exchange in later life by incorporating the constructs of agency and belonging representing the processes, identity and autonomy as outcomes and linking them with the primary components, i.e. individual, social, built environmental and technological factors. Case studies of older adults' representing a range of functional status in multiple settings illustrate the application of the conceptual framework's key components. The framework also explicitly addresses the relevance of the temporal aspect in P-E exchange.
Attachment to place in advanced age: A study of the LiLACS NZ cohort
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We demonstrate that people in advanced age hold strong feelings of attachment to place. We also establish some positive associations between attachment to place and health in advanced age, and show how these differ for the indigenous and non-indigenous cohorts. For older Māori there were strong associations between various health measures and the importance of nature and the outdoors, and connectedness to neighbourhood and community. For older non-Māori, there were strong associations between health and liking home and neighbourhood, and feeling connected to their community and neighbourhood. Place attachment, and particularly its relationship to health, operates in different ways for different groups.
What is the role of place identity in older farming couples' retirement considerations?
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Citation Excerpt :
Retirement from employment usually involves a clear loss of role as well as a repositioning within the social matrix and this has implications for identity (Breakwell, 1986). Rubinstein (1990) and Golant (2003) suggest that place attachment, defined as the emotional ties enabled by a long term, deep experience of and involvement with place (Shamai and Ilatov, 2005), may inform a sense of identity as people age. The environmental psychology literature suggests that place attachment is but one aspect of peoples’ multidimensional relationships with place acting as a precursor to the development of place identity (Patterson and Williams, 2005; Williams et al., 1992).
The contemporary farming context across western countries is experiencing a period of dramatic demographic, social, environmental and economic change. This is having a significant impact particularly in countries such as Australia with a long culture of generational family farming sustained by patrilineal farm succession. Generational farmers maintain strong attachment and unique relationships with place as farms are both homes and sites of production. Retirement involves a reconfiguration of place identity and in the context of change, farming couples contemplating retirement now face unprecedented challenges as they age, with the younger generation reluctant to follow. Drawing on Australian data, this article utilises place identity theory to examine the role of place identity in older farming couples' retirement considerations. Findings are drawn from a 'small story' narrative study of six older generational farming couples, all still actively farming the land. A small story approach permits examination of the ways couples position retirement and how place identity affects couples' agency as they contemplate retirement. The collection of data across two time points, 18 months apart, enabled couples to reflect on how they individually and collectively viewed retirement over time. Findings suggest that the uni-dimensionality of farming men's place identities may be marginalising women as couples navigate the prospect of retirement. The implications of this study are broader than the Australian context as the family farming model remains the most prevalent form of agricultural enterprise across the world.
Oscillating in and out of place: Experiences of older adults residing in homeless shelters in Montreal, Quebec
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Aging in place is desirable from the perspective of older adults and policy makers alike. However, the meaning of ‘place’ for adults experiencing homelessness has been largely overlooked. Addressing this gap, this constructivist grounded theory study discusses the meaning of place for 15 older adults residing in emergency homeless shelters in Montreal, Quebec. Findings revealed that four interrelated dimensions of place—that is, control, comfort, privacy, and security were instrumental in supporting participants' ability to feel in place across housed-homeless trajectories. Many felt out of place well before they lost their housing and some felt more in place during homelessness when shelter conditions and interpersonal relations supported these four dimensions. The empirically-driven model oscillating in and out of place extends and nuances existing understandings of aging in place and provides insights into policy and practice solutions for older adults who may not have a stable place to call home.

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Personal identity and environmental meaning in later life

Abstract

Journal of aging studies

Life stories in the bakers' trade

Alternative modes of living for the elderly: A critical review

Cultural components of identity in old age: A case study

Ethos

The ageless self: Sources of meaning in late life