Evaluate the view that age is the most important influence on a person’s identity.
CAMBRIDGE
A level and AS level
2023
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Free Essay Plan
Introduction
Briefly introduce the concept of identity and the factors that influence it. State your stance on the essay question – is age the *most* important influence or are other factors more significant?
Arguments Supporting Age as a Primary Influence
Role Expectations: Discuss how societal expectations are heavily tied to age, with examples of formal (laws) and informal norms.
Agents of Socialization: Explain how institutions like family, education, and media reinforce age-based categories and behaviors.
Life Course and Subcultures: Explore how different life stages come with unique cultural characteristics and pressures, referencing concepts like peer groups and the generation gap. Use examples like differing values and technological fluency.
Evaluating the Significance of Age
Blurring Boundaries: Discuss the weakening of traditional age roles in modern society, citing examples like the "third age" and delayed adulthood. Mention Giddens and Laslett.
Postmodern Perspectives: Introduce the idea of identity as fluid and self-constructed, with individuals having more agency in shaping their identities, even manipulating physical appearances.
Intersectionality: Acknowledge the interplay of age with other social categories like gender, class, and ethnicity, emphasizing that these factors can significantly impact identity formation.
Counter-Arguments: Other Influences on Identity
Gender, Class, Ethnicity: Briefly discuss how these factors can be equally or even more influential than age in shaping identity. Provide specific examples of how these factors intersect with age.
The "Death of Childhood": Discuss Postman's theory and its implications for how age influences identity in a media-saturated world.
Conclusion
Reiterate your stance on the essay question, summarizing the key arguments presented. Offer a nuanced perspective on the complex relationship between age and identity, acknowledging both its significance and its limitations in a constantly evolving social landscape.
Evaluating Age as the Most Important Influence on Identity
This essay will evaluate the view that age is the most important influence on a person's identity. While age undoubtedly plays a significant role in shaping our lives, other factors such as social class, gender, and ethnicity also contribute to our sense of self.
Arguments Supporting Age as a Primary Influence
There are compelling arguments suggesting that age is a dominant force in shaping identity. Societal role expectations are heavily tied to age. We associate certain behaviours, responsibilities, and opportunities with different age groups. For example, childhood is often associated with play and education, while adulthood brings expectations of work and family life. These expectations are reinforced by formal institutions like legal systems that grant rights and responsibilities based on age, such as the right to vote or buy alcohol. Furthermore, all agents of socialisation, from families to the media, contribute to the idea of age as a social category. Education systems, for example, typically group children by chronological age, further emphasising its significance.
The concept of a life course, with its distinct stages, is another argument for age's influence. Each stage, from youth to old age, carries cultural characteristics and expectations. Pilcher highlights the significance of these stages, noting how transitions like retirement or becoming a grandparent can significantly impact one's identity. Willis's work on youth subcultures shows how age influences peer groups and cultural preferences.
Moreover, the experience of ageing can lead to shared experiences and perspectives that bond individuals within an age group. For example, older generations might share cultural references or historical events that shape their worldview, leading to a generational gap with younger generations raised on different experiences and technologies, as highlighted by Bradley. This gap further reinforces the idea that age shapes our understanding of the world and our place in it.
Challenges to Age as the Sole Determinant of Identity
However, to argue that age is the most important influence on identity is to oversimplify a complex process. Postmodernists like Giddens argue that we are increasingly able to construct our own identities, choosing lifestyles and appearances that defy traditional age norms. The rise of cosmetic surgery and anti-ageing products, for example, demonstrates a desire to control the ageing process and its impact on identity.
Additionally, the boundaries of age are becoming increasingly fluid. Giddens' concept of the "third age" describes a phase where older people are healthier and more active than previous generations, blurring the lines between traditional notions of middle and old age. Similarly, Clarke and Warren's research on active ageing shows how older people are engaging in activities traditionally associated with younger generations, challenging the idea that age dictates lifestyle.
Furthermore, other social categories intersect with and sometimes overshadow age. Gender, ethnicity, social class, and sexuality all play significant roles in shaping our experiences and self-perception. For instance, a working-class woman might experience life differently than an upper-class man of the same age, highlighting the limitations of viewing age in isolation.
Finally, even within age groups, there is significant diversity. Thornton's work on youth culture and identity demonstrates that young people don't necessarily form a homogenous group; their identities are influenced by factors like music taste, fashion, and subcultural affiliations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while age undoubtedly shapes our experiences and influences our sense of self through social expectations, life stages, and shared generational experiences, it's crucial to acknowledge the limitations of viewing it as the sole determinant of identity. Social categories are fluid and interlinked. Age interacts with gender, class, ethnicity, and personal choices to create the multifaceted individuals we are. While acknowledging the continued influence of age, a more nuanced understanding of identity recognizes the complex interplay of multiple factors that shape who we are.
Free Mark Scheme Extracts
Evaluate the view that age is the most important influence on a person’s identity.
In support:
- Role expectations are very strong when it comes to age. Many formal and informal signposts of the significance of age.
- Actions of the state reflect this via a range of protective laws for the young and elderly.
- All of the agents of socialisation create/reinforce the idea of age as a real category e.g. in education children are divided into chronological age groups.
- Expect to see reference to different stages of the life course but focus may be on one or age groups and their cultural characteristics – peer pressure is very influential on youth; the old face ageism.
- Evidence of a generation gap e.g. over values (religion) over technology (‘digital natives’).
In evaluation:
- Age boundaries weakening: in modern society age ‘just a number’ with expectations blurring.
- e.g. the ‘third age’ (Giddens) older people healthier and playing a more active role in society.
- Delayed adulthood as young people stay in education and at home for longer.
- The ‘death of childhood’ (Postman) as children are exposed to an adult world through the media.
- Postmodernists argue we can create our own identities or pay money to look younger for longer.
- Other groups as/more important e.g. gender, class, ethnicity plus all of these overlap with age identity.
Research evidence:
- Pilcher, Victor, Willis, & James, Laslett (fourth age), Bradley, Neugarten, Clarke & Warren (active ageing). Thornton (Youth Culture and identity). Postman, Giddens.
Additional concepts:
- Social construction of age, life course, youth culture, transition, peer group, Subculture, rites of passage. Third age, death of childhood.
The above content is indicative and other relevant approaches to the question should be rewarded appropriately. References to sociological theories such as feminism, functionalism or postmodernism may be present but are not necessary even for full marks.