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Verhalen over technologie Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar sekseverschillen ten opzichte van ervaringen met huishoudelijke apparaten door het leven van ouderen heen

Blässe, Theresa I. (2011) Verhalen over technologie Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar sekseverschillen ten opzichte van ervaringen met huishoudelijke apparaten door het leven van ouderen heen.

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Abstract:Older people have witnessed a lot of changes in technology during their lifetime. The style of living is very different to the one 60 years ago. Especially the progress and development in home equipment during the last decades made life more comfortable. The adaption to these developments is more easily if older people want and can use it. The present study investigated qualitatively the experiences and opinions of older people about the changes and progress in home appliances and their use with it. Therefore, data were collected by use of a semi-structured interview. Thus, 30 elderly people within a range of 65 to 80 years of age were conducted, belonging to the „silent‟ generation. The mean of age was 72 with a standard deviation of 4.5. Using the grounded theory approach, content analysis of the reports by the participant showed that the use of newly developed home appliances was experienced different between men and women. For men, home equipment newly developed within the 50s and 60s was less important than for women. Women experienced that the washing machine and the fridge are the most important home appliances in those decades. Still up to date, both, men and women evaluate these inventions as comfortable and timesaving. During the time, elderly people have experienced the use of further home equipment as convenient, too. Women get more time for doing other activities. In contrast, men have mainly noticed a fast development of home equipment on the market. These changes did not stop but they are going on up to date. Furthermore, both sexes experience negative characteristics of home equipment: especially women detect unpractical appliances whereas men detect when appliances are fragile and break down. However, men experienced that the dishwasher and the microwave, which stand for more recent home appliances, are very useful. The use of both equipments is found to make housekeeping much easier. In contrast, for most women a microwave is even more necessary than a dishwasher. A dishwasher becomes more useful until the family gets larger. Nowadays, particularly the men are more interested in new useful appliances which will be launched to the market in the future than the women. However, men and women make no intention to buy a certain new home appliance within the near future. They would rather replace a broken old with a new one. This study supports existing literature about the use and experiences of older people with newly developed home appliances. Further, the study presents a new understanding of life stories between men and women that belong of the „silent‟ generation in regard to the development of new home appliances. These findings can be used to fit home appliances to elderly people as the target group.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60996
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