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Aging and social change in a religious community: A case history

Gayer, Colman
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1055340278

Abstract Details

1991, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Sociology.
While it is a given that changes in society, in organizations and among individuals are always occurring, there has been a rapid social change in the past thirty-five years both within and without the Roman Catholic Church. Although all Catholics have been influenced by them, probably no group within the Church has been as influenced as have the women religious. This study has been focused on the way a specific society (that is one group of Roman Catholic Sisters) have changed and how individuals who have aged within that society have experienced these changes. How the members understand and cope with change in both internal and external structures that have been the parameters of everyday living were the ways the members defined the self. To accomplish these goals three data collection techniques were used. In keeping with the focus on the individual sister's lived experience, sisters were interviewed using the life story format. Participant observation techniques were also utilized to gather data. Finally archival materials were used as the third source of data for the researcher. Two conceptual frameworks were utilized to analyze and present the life stories of the elderly nuns. The first was the age stratification or life course perspective as described by Matilda White Riley. The second was symbolic interactionism as it relates to the self, and particularly to secondary socialization. As a result of the study, it was found that the sisters felt disenfranchised from the process of change, even though they were in some respects responsible for the trends which led to change. Some changes experienced by the elders wrought consequences comparable to the process of modernization in industrializing societies as described by Rosow. Finally because of their early intense secondary socialization, the sisters in the research group viewed many of the changes as suspicious because these changes were responsible for new trends which though less stringent, did not in the sisters' eyes maintain the social equilibrium and continuity of the old way of life.
Sarah Matthews (Advisor)
329 p.
Aging; social change; religious community

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gayer, C. (1991). Aging and social change in a religious community: A case history [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1055340278

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gayer, Colman. Aging and social change in a religious community: A case history. 1991. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1055340278.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gayer, Colman. "Aging and social change in a religious community: A case history." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1991. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1055340278

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1055340278
1,589
© 1991, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.