Stages of Life and Helping the Homeless and Other Disenfranchised Persons
Some Ideas for Social Workers and Other Helpers
Unhoused persons—and other disenfranchised individuals—go through various complex changes and adjustments as they deal with the challenges of their newly-assigned status as “homeless” or other group to which they belong. These persons also go through changes and challenges as they age—issues that are in addition to those they encounter as homeless people.
Theorists generally agree there are different emotions and priorities as an individual ages. Some talk in terms of levels or stages. For example, Peck posited four psychological advances crucial to successful adjustment in middle adulthood. First, “socializing versus sexualizing in human relationships” has to do with redefining sex partners in their lives to see them as friends and companions rather than solely as sex objects. Second, “valuing wisdom versus valuing physical powers” has to do with making wise choices and putting a higher value on thought. At this point in life, physical strength and stamina begin to decline. Peck feels that well-adjusted middle-aged persons realize that the wisdom they now have more than compensates for those decreases. Third, “cathetic flexibility versus cathetic impoverishment” deals with the capacity to shift emotional investments from one person to another. This is important during these years because of divorce and other forms of decoupling, including the loss of a partner, friend or parent. Fourth, “mental flexibility versus mental rigidity” deals with one’s ability to use old knowledge in new situations, to adapt to needs to retrain and re-educate oneself for career purposes. These are activities preferred over stagnation because they are common among well-adjusted people in middle adulthood who tend to view life as meaningful, stimulating, and rewarding (1968, cited in Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, p. 416).
It is interesting to discuss examples where we might use Peck’s notions about middle-age adjustments. At least we can work within the spirit of his assertions in dealing with issues of the disenfranchised. It is important to look at Snow and Anderson’s piece on the homeless in terms of Peck’s suggested middle-age adjustments. Although these individuals now function within a culture very different from the majority of mainstream Americans, many of them are in fact middle-aged disenfranchised persons deserving discussion in this light. On Peck’s first point, it is obvious from comments made by homeless men interviewed that sexual prowess and taking the pseudo-role of desirable men is important in the setting. As disenfranchised persons, these men are not marriageable, do not have possessions and status making them desirable to women. The natural learning of how to deal with women as companions is out of their grasp—but not necessarily because they do not wish to participate in this middle-aged transition. On Peck’s second point, it is obvious several of these men have made this crucial transition—it’s just that they do not have jobs. Their knowledge of the importance of wisdom, then, could be beneficial in assisting them to deal with their disenfranchisement. It is a strength to be developed further. On Peck’s third point, the ability to move attachments from one friend to another is indeed obvious. As members of the homeless setting come and go, these disenfranchised individuals show they adapt to the changes in membership within their ranks. This is another strength to build on. Regarding Peck’s fourth area, it seems that the homeless interviewed in this piece have had difficulties finding work, but they are able to engage in fictive storytelling. This is a sign that they are capable of using their imagination. Unfortunately, the piece focuses on so much of their non-mainstream activities and thoughts that it may be hard for some readers to see the strengths in these individuals—and the fact that some of these disenfranchised persons have made other transitions important for middle adulthood.
It is important to step back for a moment and remember Goffman (1963) stated that stigma assigned later in life is always the hardest for the individual to accept. Images come to mind of the once-famous popular athlete who suddenly faces life in a wheelchair. What adjustments and transitions is that disenfranchised person capable of making? How does that person enter middle adulthood?
It is interesting to look at a piece by Stack (1992) on sex roles and strategies within an urban Black community. Although it could be said that some of these disenfranchised adults have made some of the movements toward these four transitions, a point-by-point analysis of how these men and women perform shows different realities indeed. The majority of the people discussed do not seem to fit into this life cycle, do not seem to be preparing themselves for smooth transition into middle-aged adulthood. If they do not make these transitions, the question of how they will do in later adulthood also arises. It seems that given the examples in this particular reading, Peck’s four middle-age transitions might not apply to Black adults living in a depressed urban setting with little chance for gainful employment, few hopes for the future, and little if any possibility for smooth transition into a safe later adulthood with much retirement income. The important question here is what is preventing them from engaging in what some would call these “White mainstream” transitions into middle-aged adulthood.
A look at another disenfranchised group will raise other questions about the applicability of these four proposed transitions. Another group prevented from engaging in the “White mainstream” transitions asserted by Peck consists—or at least in the first few years of the epidemic consisted—of individuals infected with the HIV virus and exhibiting signs of AIDS. Because they often cannot fully participate in mainstream heterosexual transitions such as the four posited by Peck, they have their development as adults moving into middle age arrested. Conrad stresses not only the medical but also the social devastation of the cultural image of AIDS: “It might even be said that AIDS is an illness with a triple stigma: it is connected to stigmatized groups (e.g., homosexuals and drug users); it is sexually transmitted; and, like cancer” it can be a terminal disease (1992, p. 532).
Ferraro and Johnson (1992) discuss another group not making transitions into middle-aged adulthood in terms asserted by Peck. Battered women spend a great deal of time often in constructing stories and realities to rationalize the beatings and maltreatment they are receiving. This emphasis on denial takes on a variety of forms. The women also engage in discussions in which they evidence a denial of options, meaning alternatives to their current abuse. They use explanations such as the difficulty affording their own dwelling or finding money to feed their children. Slowly, women locked in this pattern emerge and begin to participate in a “career of victimization” in which they start to understand the abusive patterns. Through all of this, they have they have not had the advantage of smoothly transitioning into middle-aged adulthood. The question is two-fold, then: Does the four-transition model asserted by Peck not apply to them because it is mainly for mainstream male Americans? Or is their participation in that natural set of transitions thwarted by abusive males? The answers may lie in focusing on Peck’s four middle-age transitions as meant primarily to apply to White mainstream American males.
Examples could be used to discuss Peck’s assertions about three primary psychological adjustments for later adulthood, also. First, Peck suggests the importance of shifting from work-role preoccupation to self-differentiation. This means the person values the sum of their talents and not just the tasks at their job. Second, Peck asserts the importance of transitioning from body preoccupation to body transcendence as the person has aged. Those who can do this have perhaps found comfort in social relationships or creative mental activities. Third, Peck shows the importance of shifting from self-preoccupation to self-transcendence. No longer is the focus on the self. Peck states that the need is for individuals to focus on the interests, happiness, and security of those will survive them (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 1997, p. 575).
Fontana (1992) shows the results of working one summer at a convalescent home and the setting is not one favorable to development of Peck’s three important transitions into later adulthood. Looking at this Goffmanesque piece in light of Peck, it is important for professionals to understand part of what is ailing these aging and disenfranchised persons: they have not been allowed to make these transitions. Either because of the setting or the staff, few of them can be said to have adjusted to Peck’s first important change from work to spirituality. Nor have many of them been able to make it through the second transition. Perhaps this is because of the harsh treatment. There is not time for these disenfranchised older adults to relax and transition into body transcendence. Many of them have not transitioned from self-preoccupation to self-transcendence, either. The “better” patients have found that constructing a conspiracy for themselves allows them to be lucid and to “survive” being in that setting. There is only one patient, a Mrs. Leister, who for the majority of her time at the home was able to survive because she at first wants to garden, go for walks, and watch television in the evenings. Through a degrading experience, she is forced to give up her claim to selfhood.
Robboy and Goldstein (1992) show in their piece on social death that prolonging death in the physical sense may actually produce more problems than would death. Pecks’ first transition may not be made yet if a patient is found within an institution before retirement, and given enough time to take that step. Perhaps if being placed into the institution occurs after an older person has made the step, the individual will feel less disenfranchised by losing their job. However, going from working full-time to being “socially dead” must not be a natural step—in anyone’s assertions. The second transition in Peck, relaxation and transition into body transcendence, is also not met by many such patients, it would appear. Peck’s third step, shifting from self-preoccupation to self-transcendence, also does not occur. This is difficult for the significant other involved with the patient. Unless this has occurred before a patient is “socially dead” there is no longer a chance for the patient’s partner or spouse to get relief from the grief and abandonment tending to follow the death—social or physical. Peace of mind for the survivor may not come. Because these three transitions from Peck’s model cannot be met, there is further support for the opinion that prolonging life is indeed unnatural in these situations.
As professionals, we can profit from developing a better understanding of the disenfranchisement of the individuals needing to make transitions according to models such as those Peck asserts for middle-aged and older adults. Some stages of the life cycle may only apply to White mainstream American males and may be overlooked. This reality may present itself as we deal with individuals who do not fit within that group.
As an educator, I feel strongly that disenfranchisement is more crippling than most other afflictions, and I understand the frustration of those persons who have lost their employment, status, income, and the respect from others because of disabilities and challenges. The disenfranchised need help dealing with not just drug abuse or unemployment or depression, but also—and more importantly—with the stigma associated with the difficulties.
Caseworkers, educators, and social workers need to set their sights on obtaining better policies and programs for dealing with the disenfranchised. Funding and other important resources can follow the achievement of that hope. However, it is still most crucial to have a better frame for understanding the plight of “disenfranchised adults.”
Beginning with a focus on disenfranchised adults, instead of starting off with a wide variety of labels such as recovering alcoholics, chronically ill or persons with developmental disabilities, will allow professionals to better develop and understanding of the great force of disenfranchisement in the lives of all such adults.
Accompanying these concerns is the importance of coming to understand why some theories do not work and why some individuals are precluded from reaching benchmarks within them, such as has been seen to be the case with Peck’s assertions.
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References:
Conrad, P. (1992). The social meaning of AIDS. In Clark, C., & Robboy, H. (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: Readings in sociology (4th ed.), (pp. 527-539). New York: St. Martin’s.
Ferraro, K., & Johnson, J. (1992). How women experience battering. In Cahill, S. (Ed.), Inside social life: Readings in sociological psychology and microsociology. (2nd ed.), (pp. 357-374). Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing.
Fontana, A. (1992). Growing old between walls. In Clark, C., & Robboy, H. (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: Readings in sociology (4th ed.), (pp. 210-224). New York: St. Martin’s.
Goffman, E. (1963). Notes on the management of a spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Robboy, H., & Goldstein, B. (1992). Social death: Some unanticipated consequences of medical innovations. In Clark, C., & Robboy, H. (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: Readings in sociology (4th ed.), (pp. 595-606). New York: St. Martin’s.
Peck. R. (1956). Psychological developments in the second half of life. In J. E. Anderson, (Ed.), Psychological aspects of aging (pp. 42 – 53). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Peck, R. (1997). Sociological aspects of young and middle adulthood. In Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K., Understanding human behavior and the social environment. (4th ed.). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Snow, D., & Anderson, L. (1998). Salvaging the self from homelessness. In Clark, C., & Robboy, H. (Eds.), Symbolic interaction: Readings in sociology (4th ed.), (pp. 98-108). New York: St. Martin’s.
Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K. (1997). Understanding human behavior and the social environment. (4th ed.0, (pp. 416-417). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.