Faces of Aging

The Lived Experiences of the Elderly in Japan

Yoshiko Matsumoto, Yoshiko Matsumoto

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780804777650
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Géographie humaine

The indisputable fact of Japan's rapidly aging population has been known for some time. But beyond statistics and implications for the future, we do not know much about the actual aging process. Senior citizens and their varied experiences have, for the most part, been obscured by stereotypes. This fascinating new collection of research on the elderly works to put a human face on aging by considering multiple dimensions of the aging experience in Japan.

Faces of Aging foregrounds a spectrum of elder-centered issues—social activity, caregiving, generational bias, suicide, sexuality, and communication with medical professionals, to name a few—from the perspective of those who are living them. The volume's diverse contributors represent the fields of sociology, anthropology, medicine, nursing, gerontology, psychology, film studies, gender studies, communication, and linguistics, offering a diverse selection of qualitative studies of aging to researchers across the social sciences.

I

Varied Lives and Experiences of the Elderly

1

Successful Aging through Participation in Social Activities among Senior Citizens

Becoming Photographers

Keiko Takahashi, Makiko Tokoro, and Giyoo Hatano

THIS CHAPTER EXAMINES how the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model proposed by Paul and Margaret Baltes and their colleagues applies to elderly Japanese participating in the avocational activity of photography after retirement. Depending on how long they had studied photography, three groups of senior shutterbugs—Old-timers, Main-stayers, and Newcomers—were intensively interviewed and evaluated by several assessment measurements as to how they made progress in (a) acquisition of knowledge and skills; (b) improvement of life satisfaction and quality of life; and (c) expansion and enhancement of social relationships. Our findings indicated that their progress toward successful aging could indeed be described by the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model. In addition, the data suggested that a model that describes successful aging should include socioemotional factors, such as subjective life satisfaction and socioemotional support from others, especially among the general population of the elderly.

A Model of Life-Span Development: The Selection, Optimization, and Compensation Model

A psychological model of life-span development, the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation model (hereafter the SOC model), proposed by Paul and Margaret Baltes and their colleagues, has provided a framework for the examination of success in aging (e.g., Baltes and Baltes 1990; M. Baltes and Carstensen 1996; Baltes, Lindenberger, and Staudinger 1998; Baltes, Lindenberger, and Staudinger 2006). The SOC model is based on the assumption that any process of development involves selection of and selective changes in adaptive capacity. It assumes that individuals attempting to age successfully recognize that not all opportunities can be pursued. For this reason, they select appropriate goals or possible outcomes for living by choosing from alternative pathways to such goals (elective selection) and/or selecting in response to a decline in resources or loss (loss-based selection). They organize their lives around the achievement of these goals and outcomes through optimization or channeling of their efforts toward their goals, as well as through compensation for their deficiencies or losses pertaining to such goals by using available tools and resources, including the help of others. The researchers also assumed that the orchestration of these processes is central to achieving adaptive mastery and continued lifelong development (Baltes and Baltes 1990; Freund, Nikitin, and Ritter 2009).

By constructing a self-report-type SOC questionnaire and showing its predictability for successful aging, these researchers and others have given further operational clarification to the model (Baltes, Freund, and Lang 1999; Freund and Baltes 1998; 2002a). For example, as predicted by the model, some studies have indicated that SOC scores obtained by questionnaire positively correlate with subjective indicators of well-being among older people (Chou 2002; Freund 2008; Freund and Baltes 1998; 2002b; Wiese, Freund, and Baltes 2002), while others have suggested that dominance of the components of the SOC varies with aging and physical condition (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, and Charles 1999; Bourgeois 2003; Freund and Baltes 2002a; Jopp and Smith 2006). However, at present, we would need more detailed qualitative examinations of the SOC model itself to ascertain whether it is generally applicable to successful aging among ordinary people who are not endowed with exceptional talent like the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, a favorite example used by P. Baltes and his colleagues to describe the SOC model (Baltes and Baltes 1990; Baltes, Lindenberger, and Staudinger 1998).

A Longitudinal Study of Senior Shutterbugs

Our challenge in this study was to examine how well the SOC model could describe aging among Japanese people participating in avocational activities after retirement. In societies such as Japan, retirement begins at a relatively early age. Most employed people retire upon reaching the mandatory retirement age (usually 55–60), and full-time housewives, having reared an average of two children, are released from parental obligations in their fifties. However, both groups of people are likely to live past age 80. Accordingly, many people are eagerly looking for self-actualizing activities after retirement. Senior citizens over 65 in Japan enjoy a variety of activities, one of the most popular of which is practicing some form of art, such as photography, painting, ceramics, calligraphy, poetry (haiku) composition, or flower arrangement. Most of these aesthetic practices in modern Japan are essentially social learning activities that have developed and become widespread since the late seventeenth century. Individuals, regardless of gender or social status, usually belong to a group or a class where they can meet other participants as well as a tutor (Ikegami 2005).

The goals and expected outcomes of the vast majority of elderly people who have already retired from their careers do not involve success in a profession or generating income. In this vein, the definition of successful aging should be broader than the mere “overall maximization of gains while minimizing losses” posited by Baltes and others (e.g., Baltes and Baltes 1990; Baltes, Lindenberger, and Staudinger 1998), or simply “the ability to maintain three key behaviors and characteristics: low risk of disease or disability, high mental and physical function, and active engagement with life” defined by Rowe and Kahn (1998, 38). Rather, first, successful post-retirement aging, especially among ordinary seniors, should include not only acquisition of domain-specific knowledge but also a maximization of life satisfaction and the expectation of an active life against the physical, cognitive, social, and financial losses associated with retirement and aging. Second, although Baltes and his colleagues have not explicitly conceptualized this, the successful aging of ordinary elderly people requires social feedback, such as acknowledgment and appreciation of their efforts and warm concern and emotional support from significant others.

In this study, we examined to what extent the original SOC model aids in describing the development of ordinary elderly citizens who are successfully aging through participating as amateurs in the learning and practice of photography. More precisely, we examined the importance of social and emotional factors in the SOC model for successful aging after retirement (Takahashi and Tokoro 2002; 2010). Using the expert-vs.-novice paradigm, we attempted to explore the specifics of how the seniors we studied actualized the SOC in their practice of photography. We assumed that our “experts,” those who had been actively involved in photography for longer periods, would show a more advanced level of SOC than people with fewer years of participation identified as novices or early learners (e.g., Goodnow, Miller, and Kessel 1995).

Participants and Procedure

Thirty-two senior amateur photographers who were studying photography in a photography group with an instructor (Mr. Hanazato, hereinafter Mr. H) in Ueda, a medium-sized city in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan, agreed to participate in our four-year longitudinal study. The city of Ueda is located in a basin surrounded by scenic mountains, and local residents have opportunities to take different photos virtually each day of the year, according to seasonal changes.

The entire photography group consisted of 69 elderly persons (44 males and 25 females, ages 59–89) who had started to learn photographic techniques in a public seminar for senior citizens offered by a local governmental office in the 1980s. Most of the members started when they were over the age of 60, that is, after their retirement and completion of parental responsibilities. Since then, most of them have continued to learn in a monthly seminar given by Mr. H, with new members joining the group each year. Thus, there were differences in how long each member had been in the group. Some of them had participated for more than ten years, whereas others had joined quite recently.

As shown in Table 1.1, rather than employ a strict expert-vs.-novice paradigm, we divided the 32 amateur senior citizen photographers according to seniority determined by how many years they had belonged to the photography group. All of them began learning photography after joining the group. This four-year longitudinal study contained: 15 Old-timers, who had participated in the seminar for more than ten years (M = 11.1 years); 12 so-called Mainstayers, who had participated for more than two years but less than six years (M = 4.3 years); and five Newcomers, who had participated for 23 months or less (M = 1.0 year). The Old-timers were significantly older than their Mainstayer and Newcomer counterparts. Aside from the chronological age differences, all three groups had similar cultural backgrounds. All of them were fully literate (years of education: M = 12.9, SD = 2.76). Most of the males had had careers in companies or civil service, and all the females were full-time homemakers. With one exception, the participants were living with their spouses and/or children and grandchildren. Only 20 percent had some kind of job with income, and, as far as could be determined, all others lived on their pensions.

Table 1.1. Participants at Time 1

Photography Practices of the Participants

The participants were each attending one of four classes that consisted of 8 to 23 students, according to the districts in which they lived. Most of them attended each month. They were encouraged to take as many photographs as they could and to pick out as many as they wished to bring to class. In every class, following a lecture on the theories and techniques of photography, each of the students’ photos taken during the previous month was reviewed and commented upon by the instructor, Mr. H, in front of the entire class. In addition to attending the class, the students drove together to scenic spots to take pictures almost every week and sometimes had photo picnics.

They were afforded three different opportunities to ascertain their progress and the quality of their photos: through comments given by Mr. H at the monthly seminar; through submissions to various contests for amateur photographers supported by public institutions such as newspaper publishers, photography magazines, and photo-film companies; and through evaluation for awards by a world-famous photographer, Eikoh Hosoe, who chose the best 18 photos out of 500 to 600 anonymously submitted photos each year over a 15-year period. Through these evaluative procedures, the amateur participants were able to gain an appreciation of the aesthetic standards of photography, a key goal of their practice. Interestingly, such evaluative procedures as these are not at all novel; since the seventeenth century, Japanese who have actively enjoyed aesthetic pursuits have invariably expected and requested qualitative judgment (Ikegami 2005).

As predicted, over the 15 years, the Old-timers’ photos were most often selected among the best 18 by Hosoe (4.5 awards for the Old-timers, more than twice as many as their juniors). However, if we focus on the recent four years covered by our study, the number of awards won by the Main-stayers increased in the last two years. The number of award-winning photos among the Old-timers decreased during this period, probably because of their aging.

Interviews and Assessments

Each year, the participants in our study were individually interviewed for 60–120 minutes regarding their current photographic activities, acquired knowledge of photography, and practice-related interactions with others. A semistructured questionnaire was used. All narratives were transcribed verbatim and the contents of their replies and remarks were analyzed. In addition, they were assessed as to (1) their psychological well-being based on five different scales consisting of (a) a subjective evaluation of their health, (b) the subjective life-satisfaction scale, (c) the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depressed Mood Scale (Radloff 1977), (d) the Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg 1965), and (e) the Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau, and Cutrona 1980); and (2) their social relationships by (a) the Affective Relationships Scale (Takahashi and Sakamoto 2000) and (b) the hierarchical mapping method (Antonucci 1986). Moreover, we regularly observed their seminars and interviewed Mr. H in order to gain an understanding of the participants and his teaching aims and policies.

In this study, we examined how well the SOC model could be applied to the data at hand, with specific focus on (1) how and why these seniors had selected this activity and committed themselves to it; (2) how they optimized their efforts and means to achieve their goals; and (3) how they compensated for insufficient resources of knowledge and technique.

Selection, Optimization, and Compensation among the Photographers

Selections of Goals and Outcomes

Nearly half of the participants reported having artistic interest in other domains, such as painting, flower arrangement, calligraphy, or woodcarving. Some others reported having long been interested in photography but not having had enough time to learn about it before retirement. All participants from all three groups told us that they had started to attend the seminar by chance either through public information, a visit to a photo exhibition, a recommendation by their spouse or some other family member, or by invitation from friends. However, once they had started, they were very much involved in only or selectively doing photography. Thus, the selection of one pursuit, while giving up others, is substantially important in the process of the SOC.

Elective Selection

Everyday practices of doing photography

As shown in Table 1.2, most of the participants in the three groups regul...