scholarly journals Using Visual Demonstrations of Learning to Promote Age-Integrated Problem Solving

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 353-353
Author(s):  
Lisa Borrero
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Concept Maps ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Multimedia Presentations ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Problem Solve

Abstract Working to dismantle the “othering” of older adults requires active effort to reverse deeply ingrained cultural perceptions and attitudes. As gerontology educators, we are uniquely positioned to “move the needle” on this issue by providing students with the opportunity to engage with older adults in meaningful ways and to see the world from their perspective. In this presentation, visual demonstrations of student learning will be shared that allow students to demonstrate their mastery of course concepts in a creative way and to problem-solve a particular issue by engaging with their own future selves. This approach also allows for a deviation from the routine of written demonstrations of learning by appealing to a different set of student skills. Approaches discussed will include concept maps to deconstruct community collaboration; book bentos to explore optimal aging; multimedia presentations on meaning-making in older adulthood; and a photo elicitation project to address outdoor fall hazards.

scholarly journals Homeless on Main Street: Using Photovoice to Highlight Older Adults Among the Hidden Homeless

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 728-728
Author(s):  
H Shellae Versey
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Service Agency ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Community Based Interventions ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Formerly Homeless

Abstract Homelessness is a reality for a growing number of Americans living in small towns and rural areas. However, unlike in cities, housing instability may be less visible. Using a photo-elicitation method (i.e., Photovoice), this study explores the meaning of place and obscured visibility to currently and formerly homeless older adults living in a small town in central Connecticut. Participants (N = 27) were recruited from a local service agency, given cameras and asked to photograph areas around town that were meaningful to them. Photographs were developed and followed by in-person, semi-structured interviews with participants in which photos and experiences during the project were discussed. Primary themes included belonging, generativity, social isolation, and place-making as meaning-making. The study culminated in a community photography exhibition in which photographs from the project were displayed in public spaces around town. Implications for community-based interventions to reach homeless groups in rural areas are discussed. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Qualitative Research Interest Group.

scholarly journals Through Their Lens: Using Visual Methods to Illuminate the Lived Experiences of Diverse Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 727-727
Author(s):  
Jarmin Yeh ◽  
Tam Perry
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Civic Participation ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Visual Methods

Abstract Visual methods, like photovoice and photo-elicitation, have attracted modest attention in gerontological inquiry with diverse and vulnerable community-dwelling older adults. Visual methods are based on the idea of inserting images, produced by informants or not, into research interviews, allowing informants to be the experts of knowledge and meaning-making while the researcher becomes the student. The empowerment of informants as subject-collaborators in the research process is a distinctive feature of visual methods. Benefits include revealing unique insights into diverse phenomena by evoking elements of human consciousness, feelings, and memories that words may not easily express and surveys may not easily capture. This symposium presents qualitative research using visual methods to illuminate the lived experiences, voices, and perspectives of diverse and vulnerable older adults living in New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Reyes’ research critiques how the operationalization of mainstream notions of civic participation becomes exclusionary and provides a more inclusive understanding of how civic participation is enacted and performed through the practices of Latinx and African American older adults living in New Jersey. Versey’s research with homeless older adults subverts the attention often focused within cities by interrogating the meaning of place with informants whose needs and desires are often overlooked or obscured by residing in a small, rural town in central Connecticut. Yeh’s research on aging in place inequalities chronicles the everyday lives of housed and unhoused older San Franciscans to reveal their tactics for negotiating a moving tension between the daily interiority of identity and contingencies of a changing environment. Qualitative Research Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

“Going to the Gym Is Not Congolese’s Culture”: Examining Attitudes Toward Physical Activity and Risk for Type 2 Diabetes Among Congolese Immigrants

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka ◽  
Kelechi D. Ibe-Lamberts ◽  
Guy-Lucien S. Whembolua ◽  
Abi Fapohunda ◽  
Eugene S. Tull
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Physically Active ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Cultural Empowerment

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions and attitudes around physical activity among immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo and examine the influence of Congolese cultural beliefs on physical activity practice. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted and augmented by photo-elicitation among 20 Congolese immigrants, distributed equally by gender, aged 35 years or older. The PEN-3 model was used as the cultural conceptual framework. Results Using both the Relationships and Expectations dimension (Perceptions, Enablers, and Nurturers) and Cultural Empowerment dimension (Positive, Existential, and Negative) of the PEN-3 model, emergent themes were categorized around knowing the benefits of being physically active (perceptions), doctor encouragement to be more physically active (enablers), and the habit and local tradition of consuming beer after a soccer match (nurturers). Other emergent themes included Congolese loves to dance (positive), going to the gym is not Congolese culture (existential), and the challenge of increased physical activity (negative). Conclusions Congolese have their intrinsic cultural perceptions and attitudes around types of physical activity. The study disclosed a much more pronounced willingness to dance (as a potential source of increased physical activity) than to go to a gym. As such, if one wants to advocate a regimen of increased physical activity to offset the risk for type 2 diabetes, dance is an alternative to consider among some immigrants.

scholarly journals Self-compassion as predictor of daily physical symptoms and chronic illness across older adulthood

2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532110023
Author(s):  
Heather Herriot ◽  
Carsten Wrosch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Chronic Illness ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Early Old Age

This study examined whether self-compassion could benefit daily physical symptoms and chronic illness in early and advanced old age. The hypotheses were evaluated in a 4-year longitudinal study of 264 older adults. Results showed that self-compassion predicted lower levels of daily physical symptoms across the study period in advanced, but not early, old age ( T-ratio = −1.93, p = 0.05). In addition, self-compassion was associated with fewer increases in chronic illness in advanced, but not early, old age ( T-ratio = − 2.45, p < 0.02). The results of this study suggest that self-compassion may be particularly adaptive towards the end of life.

scholarly journals Changing our thinking about changing their thinking in older adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1405-1407
Author(s):  
Viviana M. Wuthrich
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
New Learning

It is well-established that as people age, deterioration in cognitive abilities including processing speed, memory, and cognitive flexibility occurs, although vast individual differences occur in the rate and consequences of this decline (Christensen, 2001). Anxiety and depression in late life are also associated with specific cognitive deficits in memory and executive functioning that may impact on new learning (Yochim et al., 2013). Therefore, it is possible that cognitive changes make it more difficult for older adults to learn how to change their thinking particularly in the context of psychological therapy.

Goal disengagement capacities and severity of disease across older adulthood

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle Jobin ◽  
Carsten Wrosch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Emotional Distress ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Goal Disengagement ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Early Old Age

This study examined age-related associations between goal disengagement capacities, emotional distress, and disease severity across older adulthood. Given that an age-related increase in the experience of stressors might render important goals unattainable, it is expected that goal disengagement capacities would predict a decrease in the severity of experienced illness (i.e., the common cold) by preventing emotional distress (i.e., depressive symptoms), particularly so among individuals in advanced (as compared to early) old age. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study of 131 older adults (age range = 64 to 90). Regression analyses showed that goal disengagement capacities buffered 6-year increases in older adults’ cold symptoms, and that this effect was significantly pronounced among older-old participants. Mediation analyses further indicated that changes in depressive symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the age-related association between goal disengagement and changes in cold symptoms. The study’s findings suggest that goal disengagement capacities become increasingly important for protecting emotional well-being and physical health as older adults advance in age.

Loneliness and Off-Topic Verbosity Among Young Adults and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110580
Author(s):  
Michael D. Barnett ◽  
Leah N. Smith ◽  
Alexzandra M. Sandlin ◽  
Allyson M. Coldiron
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
The Relationship

Objectives: Off-topic verbosity (OTV) refers to prolonged speech that derails from the initial conversational topic by including more loosely associated speech and becoming increasingly more unfocused and distant from the initial topic. Previous research has suggested that, among older adults, loneliness may be associated with greater OTV. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship between loneliness and OTV among young adults ( n = 62) and older adults ( n = 80). Methods: Participants completed a measure of loneliness and provided speech samples, which were transcribed and rated for OTV. Results: Results indicated some relationship between loneliness and tangentiality of speech, particularly among older adults. Discussion: Overall, loneliness may be associated with greater OTV in older adults, which could further explain the connection between increased loneliness and worse health outcomes in older adulthood.

scholarly journals Improving Attitudes to Volunteering Among Older Adults: A Randomized Trial Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle I. Jongenelis ◽  
Ben Jackson ◽  
Jeni Warburton ◽  
Robert U. Newton ◽  
Simone Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Volunteer Work ◽  
Group Design ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Parallel Group Design ◽  
Parallel Group ◽  
Negative Perceptions

Promoting engagement in formal volunteering represents a potential means of facilitating healthy aging. Given reluctance to participate in volunteering has been partially attributed to negative perceptions of various aspects of this activity, this study assessed whether trialing volunteering can improve perceptions among older people. Using a parallel-group design, Australians aged 60+ years ( n = 445) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, one in which they were encouraged to trial volunteering and one in which they were asked to continue their usual activities. Perceptions and attitudes among those in the volunteering condition became significantly more favorable over 6 months relative to those in the control condition, with this change predicted by several aspects of the volunteering experience (e.g., acquisition of skills, increased social connectedness). Providing access to roles that cater to the learning and social needs of older adults appears to be important for improving attitudes toward engaging in volunteer work.

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