Intergenerational affinities: symmetrical life experiences of the young adults and the aging in Canadian society.
The essential aim of this paper is to explicate the theoretical proposition that, in our society, the adolescent-young adults (fifteen to twenty-four years old) and the retired-aging "young-olds" (sixty-five to seventy-four years old) bear a symmetrical relationship to each other in terms of both their psycho-social propensities and "social location." To this end, the concept of symmetry is analysed and its elements interpreted in the context of life experiences. Perspectives used here to illustrate and identify the composite elements of symmetrical relationship are those given by respondents from the two specific age groups mentioned above. They reflect personal views of goals, values, satisfactions and stresses of life as they experience it. A complementary purpose of the study is to indicate their expressed awareness of affinities and experiments in interaction between them, within the same social structure.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D002170:Canada; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent