Age Also Matters for Gerontologists: Personal and Professional Perspectives on Growing Older

Abstract Gerontology is a unique field of scientific inquiry, because it embodies both professional and personal dimensions of experience and poses questions for its researchers. How does our work help us understand our own personal experience of aging? How does the reality of growing older change our teaching and research? As gerontologists, we embody two narratives of the aging experience, one academic and professional (with its dependence on theory and scientific research), the other intimately personal (with its own lived experience and practical insight acquired over the life course). How this dynamic unfolds is as personal as each of us as individuals, and embodies our own disciplinary backgrounds; yet collectively it has implications for how we approach an understanding of what it means to grow old. This symposium explores different facets of this dynamic from four perspectives of different individuals and differing disciplines. The first paper assesses the limitations of both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms in revealing the deeply idiosyncratic nature of personal aging. The second develops the metaphor of “double agent of aging” to characterize the two narratives of professional and personal aging. The third uses Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development to weave together the professional, practical, and personal dimensions of gerontology. Finally, the last develops the metaphor of arcs and stages in conceptualizing a gerontological career. The symposium concludes with recommendations for the integration of theoretical, practical, and personal insights into teaching, research, and service in a way that embraces, enhances, and extends the field of gerontology.

UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE THROUGH RESEARCH Sara Stratton, 1 Pi-Ju (Marian) Liu, 2 Kendon Conrad, 3 and Zachary Hass, 2 1. San Francisco Adult Protective Services,San Francisco,California,United States,2. Purdue University,West Lafayette,Indiana,United States,3. University of Illinois at Chicago,Chicago,Illinois,United States Substantiation of abuse, neglect, and exploitation (ANE) data collected during the Identification, Services, and Outcomes (ISO) Matrix pilot included some outlier scores warranting further investigation. To examine outliers and other unexpected findings in greater detail, we completed case reviews and caseworker interviews to explore why outlier cases did not follow the expected patterns of substantiation decisions. Cases were selected on a random basis from those with self-neglect outlier scores. Several factors were found to have contributed to the extreme scores in all three categories of confirmed, inconclusive, and unfounded abuse. In this study, no valid ISO Matrix scores were found that contradicted the substantiation decision. Instead, analysis revealed that most of the errors occurred: 1) in application of the intended procedures showing need for further training, and 2) some needed changes to the procedures of the ISO Matrix based on feedback from caseworkers.

AGE ALSO MATTERS FOR GERONTOLOGISTS: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON GROWING OLDER Chair: Phillip Clark Discussant: Margaret Perkinson
Gerontology is a unique field of scientific inquiry, because it embodies both professional and personal dimensions of experience and poses questions for its researchers. How does our work help us understand our own personal experience of aging? How does the reality of growing older change our teaching and research? As gerontologists, we embody two narratives of the aging experience, one academic and professional (with its dependence on theory and scientific research), the other intimately personal (with its own lived experience and practical insight acquired over the life course). How this dynamic unfolds is as personal as each of us as individuals, and embodies our own disciplinary backgrounds; yet collectively it has implications for how we approach an understanding of what it means to grow old. This symposium explores different facets of this dynamic from four perspectives of different individuals and differing disciplines. The first paper assesses the limitations of both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms in revealing the deeply idiosyncratic nature of personal aging. The second develops the metaphor of "double agent of aging" to characterize the two narratives of professional and personal aging. The third uses Erikson's theory of psychosocial development to weave together the professional, practical, and personal dimensions of gerontology. Finally, the last develops the metaphor of arcs and stages in conceptualizing a gerontological career. The symposium concludes with recommendations for the integration of theoretical, practical, and personal insights into teaching, research, and service in a way that embraces, enhances, and extends the field of gerontology.

THROUGH THE GERONTOLOGICAL LOOKING GLASS: PERSPECTIVES FROM LATER LIFE Edward Ansello, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States
Do dominant gerontological research and education models help us understand our own aging? "(These) seemingly made no impact on my expectations for my own late life" (Cohen, 2017). The gerontological looking glass tends to favor research and teaching that identify large patterns, populations, and research cell sizes of "sufficient" numbers to produce data about external, descriptive assessments; and are compliant with nomothetic ideology: general, universal, and consistent. Even qualitative data rely on numbers of respondents to identify themes. In contrast, idiographic ideology emphasizes the individual and unique. While not meant to yield general findings, neither does it produce the incompleteness of descriptive statistical approaches, i.e., trying to capture the external persona. As human aging is both inherently universal and profoundly individual, one is likely to appreciate idiographic gerontology with awareness of one's own aging. Various complementary perspectivesincluding humanistic gerontology, positive and conscious aging, and the curriculum palette-are relevant.

THE SELF AS SUBJECT AND OBJECT: REFLECTIONS ON BEING A DOUBLE AGENT OF AGING Phillip Clark, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, United States
Being both a gerontologist and an older adult places one in a double narrative: one is the scientific story and academic life of research and education, the other is the personal experience of living through this phase of life. These two narratives become intertwined in a way that both enriches and poses challenges. This paper explores what being a "double agent of aging" means as an individual and a scholar, and offers some insights for the field of gerontology. These implications include: (1) the growing importance of values and life wisdom, (2) health behavior hypocrisy, and (3) the experience of ageing and marginalization. The implications for the field of gerontology include: (1) valuing the voices of older adults in our research and teaching, (2) being more active in confronting ageism in our own institutions, and (3) acknowledging the limitations of studying aging as a younger adult.

SCIENCE AND SELF: AGING AS WOVEN Helen Kivnick, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
Gerontology is a field both scientific and practice-based. Aging, the subject of this field, is an experience in which all human beings participate. But scientific pillars of objectivity, quantifiability, control, and external validity have long mitigated against gerontological scholars effectively moving back and forth between professional scholarship and practice, on the one hand, and personal experience, on the other. Qualitative research approaches, informed by the humanities and arts, utilize alternative ways of knowing that, when added to positivistic science, enable us to construct a body of gerontological knowledge that is robust and useful, and that also incorporates wisdom. Aging, wisdom, and integrality-these all matter. Although often mischaracterized, Erikson's theory of healthy psychosocial development throughout the life-cycle (Erikson, Erikson, & Kivnick, 1986) weaves these constructs together in ways that can meaningfully inform professional and personal experiences of gerontology. This presentation illustrates one aging gerontologist's engagement with such weaving.

ARCS AND STAGES: RETROSPECTIVELY CONCEPTUALIZING A GERONTOLOGICAL CAREER Kenneth Hepburn, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
The arc of a gerontologist's career is that of a "work in progress," work unlikely to be completed. Early efforts might develop interdisciplinary collaborations and establish the principles and mechanisms of a central line of work and inquiry. Mid-stage work may entail expansion and adaptation of preliminary efforts and identification of exciting areas of exploration that both fit within the gerontologist's overall thematic trajectory and extend beyond the reasonable scope of pursuit. In late stage, the most pressing concern is to sustain, but not constrain, the work's trajectory. This may best be accomplished by identifying and supporting students and early career researchers who are passionate about the work and who are likely to move it forward and expand it in their own unique and divergent ways. Emeriti gerontologists may seek to remain generatively engaged in ways that both contribute to and let go of the continuing arc of the work. Age is a social constructions. The treatment of people on the basis of their age, imposes serious psycho-emotional, social and economic costs on society and older people. The experiences of ageism may be exacerbated when other forms of acute and chronic forms of oppression are experienced due to racism, sexism, etc. The first paper looks at the impact of ageism on older people's health. Their systematic review of studies showed that ageism detrimentally and consistently impacted older individuals in 11 health domains, with the prevalence of significant findings increasing over time. Informed by NIA's Health Disparities Framework, the second paper examines the relationships between discrimination and protective factors on cognitive functioning. Their analyses of the Health and Retirement Survey data reveal, among other things, that everyday experiences of ageism significantly worsen older adults cognitive functioning. Using survey data of adults throughout the life-span, our third presenter examines how multiple identities (such as age and gender) influence employees' perspectives on workplace fairness in hypothetical situations. The findings are informative to human resource departments in ensuring workplace fairness within the context of a multigenerational workforce. The final paper examines two efforts to disrupt