An Insiders View on Physical Activity in Later Life - Book Report/Review Example

A Critique for the Paper: “An insider’s view on physical activity in later life” by Bevan C. Grant. Abstract. The research paper titled, “An Insider’s View on Physical activity in Later Life” written by Bevan C. Grant is an endeavour for finding out older people’s view on physical activity. It primarily aims to gather what it means for those above 70 years of age to undergo a physically active life all over again. In other words the research strives to seek answer from the elders to the question as thus: “what meaning do you associate with a more physically active life at this age?” The sample participants for the research included seventeen woman and nine men all belonging to a middle sized city in New Zealand, Caucasian, and their age ranging form 70 to 83 years old. Being advised by the ‘Regional Sports Trust’ they were invited to participate in the study. After two months of participation, many of them were unable to continue with the same. Drawing the findings on what the paper calls the “process of inductive analysis and constant comparison”, themes were developed that defined the feelings of the participants regarding the subject under discussion. Most of them revealed the belief that in order to be healthy, they need to be busy. The findings also suggest the difference between scientific and socially and culturally constructed meanings with regard to physicality. It is concluded that older people’s knowledge regarding physical health do not agree with their actual lifestyle. Ambiguity and differences are witnessed largely with regard to the perspectives in which the subject is viewed. In this paper, I shall furnish an overall critique of the aforementioned research paper. After evaluating the aims and rationale used in the paper, I shall outline the major strengths and limitations of the same. I shall evaluate whether or not the discussions and conclusion provided are justified according to the paper’s aims after which I shall conclusively suggest some of the future researches that could be embarked. Evaluation of aim(s) and rationale. The major or the overarching aim of the paper is to determine what physical exercise means for people over 70 years of age. The rationale used for embarking this research is the fact that there is a marked tendency of association made between the increase in age and the decrease in the physical activity in old people. Sometimes this association is biologically justified, that is, there seems to be in reality a marked decrease in the ability to remain physically active with increase in age. Hans-Werner Wahl (2006, p.119) argues that “research on oldest old and centenarians has demonstrated that very old age is associated with enormous negative changes in various domains of functioning”. Nevertheless, there are possibilities that some of the old people choose to deliberately remain inactive with no reason except to follow the stereotyped belief that old age is the one for rest and introspection and not activity. But, “the soberness of maturer years, and the ripe wisdom of old age – all have a certain natural advantage which should be secured in its proper season” (Cicero, 2004, p. 7). In order, therefore to meet the aim the paper tries to capture the “lived experience” of the old and evaluate their reality. By doing this the research suggests what the people feel regarding their experience in old age, and further their feelings regarding their physical activities and their likelihood, frequency or necessity. The subtle aim of the research also is to explore the general health of the old people and the various challenges that they are likely to face in their age. The rationale of the gap between ‘age’ and ‘health’ therefore, justifies the paper’s aim to find out what they ‘feel’ regarding activity. Major strengths of the paper. A notable strength of the paper is the fact that the research carried out does not just analyse the extent of physical activity that old people engage in or what they feel about the same, it also considers the ‘intangible and unexpressed aspects of physical life’ and its meanings to people. Although “getting closer to knowing and understanding ‘how and why things are as they are’ is certainly an arduous and endless enterprise” (Gregory, 2005, p.3), in this paper this is done by careful, analytical exploration of the ‘stories’ that the subjects reveal. The rationale of the act being that the meaning of the said stories by the people could be hidden, for instance by extraneous variables such as personal belief, the analysis is well justified and logically carried out. After all, the goal of the research is to find out people’s feelings based on their experience. The paper has revealed quite factually that there is indeed a gap between ‘belief’ and ‘reality’. Secondly, the applicability of the interview questions being carried out is quite evident. Firstly, the paper justifies the meaning of an interview as Bill Gillham (2005, p.1) defines: “a conversation where one person – the interviewer – is seeking responses for a particular purpose from the other person – interviewee”. In other words the best way to achieve the aim, that is, to detect the ‘ineffable’ feeling of the people without any bias is to make the questions as open handed as possible – which the paper did. The advantage is that people are allowed a good extent of freedom and subjectivity in their answers which would further allow higher scope for the researcher to interpret the same variedly and more analytically. Another advantage relating to the interview questions is the inclusion of the standpoints of the participants which takes the paper closer to achieving the goal. More importantly, by giving a room for the ‘voice’ of the old, the research also imparts a feeling of having had contributed for the betterment of themselves in those elderly participants. This facilitates accuracy and truthfulness in their answers. Thirdly, the analysis of the paper itself is quite remarkable. The research adopted a systematic process of findings such as, coding for key concepts, classification of important statements revealing the intended themes followed by the construction of the researcher’s version of the reality and at the end verifying the believability of the research. Richard Andrews (2005, p.80) argues that “identifying the main research question...(can be done)...by arraying the various questions you have generated, and then selecting one as the main, overarching question you are hoping to answer”. The paper does so and it improves its credibility. The documentation of ‘themes’ in the findings also add to the advantages of the paper. The themes found within the answers of the interview questions, the first one being the contrast between ‘ageing body’ and ‘busy lives’ in relation to ‘healthy lives’ and another theme of ‘getting started’ and ‘challenge of change’ all document the pursuit of the research in getting nearer to the aim of the paper. That is because these themes reveal the intended meaning of what the participants feel about physical activity. Major Limitations of the Paper. The most apparent limitation of the paper among others is the size of the sample participants. The size of 26 members is far too smaller than what could possibly be used for the generalized findings of ‘the feelings of the old people above 70 years’. Secondly the participants are female dominated with only 9 males among them. The fact that the gender difference matters in perceptions, draws a major limitation of the paper. Also a generalized finding of such kind necessitates the inclusion of inter-racial, inter-continental and inter-religious members, which the research fails to do. Fourthly, too much emphasis on the ‘voice’ of the participants brings forth the possibilities of bias from the participants as Zina O’Leary (2004, p.57) argues, “objectivity implies distance between the researcher and the researched, and suggests that relationships are mediated by protocol, theory, and method”. Allowing the participants to even change the words that one had already uttered would give them too much liberty to state or understate one’s feelings. What results is not the findings of what ‘old people feel’, rather what ‘they should feel’. However, let’s evaluate two of the limitations outlined above. The size of the sample participants matters. Bhattacharyya (2006, p.16) argues that “the scientific method (of research) should enable us to classify facts accurately and carefully, without any bias”. If the number of participants are as less as 26 and the research claims for example, that ‘old people are culturally influenced’, this statement can not be considered accurate as not all the old people in the world think that way. Housden and Crouch (2003, p.163) gives an interesting example that, “if half the members of a set of group discussions agree on a particular point, it should not be assumed that 50 percent of the target population will also agree with that point”. Similarly, if our goal is to know what “old people” generally feel about the meaning of endeavouring a physically active life, it is necessary to include the notions of people belonging to different background such as race, religion and culture. This is because the backdrop with which a person associates oneself influences much of one’s perceptions or the meaning one draws out of a thing. What an American old gentleman feels about health would be quite different from what a Chinese or an Asian feels because both differ in their experiences. Similarly differences occur between two people of two races, religion or culture. Indian culture, for example would consider everyday activities the part of bodily exercise, whereas, a European would consider extra exercises necessary. The homogeneity of results found out in the paper therefore is only because of their shared background. Evaluation of discussion and conclusion. An important parameter that determines a good research paper is the extent to which the discussion and conclusion laid out in the paper justifies its aim. As Costello (2005, p.3) quotes Bassey’s definition, research is a “systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and wisdom”. The discussion of the paper firstly reveals the beliefs and feelings of the old regarding the subject under investigation. It was found that almost all felt that the older their body became, the busier they needed to be in order for them to be healthy. They could also find as the paper mentions that there is gab between a scientific explanation of old age and socially and culturally influenced concepts about the same. The paper points out, however, the contradiction of the feeling people have about the need of exercise and their own lack of interest in doing so. These findings do confirm the attitudes the participants have regarding health. That is because the paper analyses and underlines the reasons for those feelings such as their historical affiliation. For example the fact that all of them were born before 1935, influenced their belief about exercise being an unnatural thing. This systematic review has “the advantage of including all the studies in a field..., so the reader can judge using the totality of evidence whether the evidence supports or refutes a given hypothesis” (Torgerson, 2005, p.6). In a nutshell, the discussion of the paper underlines the belief of older people that “it was impossible to be fully liberated from the realities of physical decline and debility” (Grant, 2007) . Now considering the larger aims of the paper makes the picture clearer. The paper firstly aimed to find out the personal beliefs of the participants about what it would mean to have a physically active lifestyle. Based on this aim the paper also tried to explore the reasons for the gap between the aspects of what one ‘should’ and what one ‘does’. Most importantly the research strives to discover the meaning of good health and life of the old as perceived by the old themselves as Lia Litosseliti (2005, p.2) argues, “focus groups offer some advantages compared to other methods of collecting data”. Therefore, the discussions do justify the aims of the paper. The conclusions put forward by the paper are also in perfect accordance to the findings and the primary aims it intended to achieve. Among many others, one conclusion the paper puts forth is the fact that the amount of social, cultural and environmental settings and beliefs shape the perceptions of the old people regarding their health and physicality. And sometimes as Michael Hayhoe and others (Hayhoe, Jones, & Jones, 1972, p.37) put it after reading a Ted Huges’ poem, “some old people seem to be endowed with perfect health and inexhaustible supplies of energy”. The paper also finds out that many of the older people say one thing and do another with relation to physical activity. More than a finding, it is a conclusion put forward. It also proposes that there is need to design research that identifies and explains different behavioural ambiguity that exist in old age in relation to physical health, in order to further explore the meaning of health for the people in their elderly age. Ultimately, the research brings itself to a close by asserting that looking at “an insider’s view” as the title suggests, is one way to unearth “what the older person considers is appropriate exercise for good health” (Grant, 2007). The conclusion based on the findings, and the findings based on the aims perfectly correlate to one another and are justified. Directions for future research. This research paper invites us to further explore the possibilities of future researches that could be beneficial for finding more on similar issues. Judith Bennett (2005, p.7) argues that the main reasons for evaluating a research “are to determine the effectiveness of a new programme once it has been implemented, and to gather information for improving the programme as it is being developed”. Future researches on this issue could mostly concentrate on the aspects hitherto not contemplated, including the paper under my investigation. Firstly, a research could be designed in future for finding out the extent of differences in older people’s perceptions regarding their health - whether one’s feelings could be influenced by external factors such as social backgrounds. This necessitates the inclusion of factors such as country, race, religion, gender and language that one associates oneself with, as possible reasons for the difference. This research would therefore, include a multidimensional and socially and culturally diversified group. Again, as aforementioned, the participants must be based on gender equality, that is, it should include equal numbers of males and females since gender plays a major role in the difference of perceptions. Secondly, there could be a possibility of an endeavour that includes a much larger sample group in size than the one in the present paper. In order to strive for a more accurate and generalized findings regarding older people’s feelings, the sample could include as many as 100 or more members. Other than just what the older people themselves feel about their health, another paper could pursue a research on the level of concern the society, the government and the younger generations have regarding their elderly family member’s physical health and the possible measures to ameliorate their condition. This could be done by finding out how NGO’s or governmental or social and religious organizations could help older people. More importantly, another research could be pursued in connection to the findings of stereotypes associated with the old that the above paper mentions. The new research could strive to find out why the association of a ‘declined health’ with the ‘increase in the age’ is always made. The current research and many more that would concern the old age would have a positive impact by initiating a degree of harmony as against the problems of generation gaps and other social disagreements that would otherwise exist and more importantly they would have “the potential to create new knowledge” and have the “power to elicit belief” (O'Leary, 2004) . Works Cited Andrews, R. (2005). Research Questions. London/ New York: Continuum. Bennett, J. (2005). Evaluation Methods in Research. New York/ London: Continuum. Bhattacharyya, D. K. (2006). Research Methodology (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Excel Books. Cicero, M. T. (2004). On Old Age. Kessinger Publishing Co . Costello, P. J. (2005). Action Research. London/ New York: Continuum. Gillham, B. (2005). The Research Interview. London/ New York: Continuum. Grant, B. C. (2007, June 25). An Insider's View on Physical Activity in Later Life. New Zealand, Depatment of Sport and Leisure Studies, University of Waikato . Gregory, I. (2005). Ethics In Research. London/ New York: Continuum. Hayhoe, M., Jones, E. H., & Jones, B. (1972). Old Age. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Limited. Housden, M., & Crouch, S. (2003). Marketing research for managers (3rd ed.). Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann. Litosseliti, L. (2005). Using Focus Groups in Research. London/ New York: Continuum. O'Leary, Z. (2004). The Essential Guide to Doing Research. New Delhi: Vistaar Publications. Torgerson, C. (2005). Systematic Reviews. London/ New York: Continuum. Wahl, H.-W. (2006). The Many Faces of Health, Competence and Well-Being in Old Age. The Netherlands: Springer. Read More