Browsing by Author "Noone, John Hamilton"

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    Men, masculine identities, and healthcare utilisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2006) Noone, John Hamilton
    Seeking medical help early in a disease process is critical for recovery, yet empirical evidence indicates that men do not utilise general practitioner services as often as women. In explaining these findings, the focus has now shifted away from the biological differences between men and women to examine popular beliefs about masculine identities and their influence on help seeking behaviour. This paper incorporates a critical analysis of Connell's (1995) theory of hegemonic masculinity to examine how men's relative under-utilisation of medical services, as negative health behaviour, can be influenced by the social construction of masculine identities. Interviews discussing the help seeking attitudes and behaviours of seven older rural men used a short movie clip and hypothetical scenarios as stimulants to discussion. The transcribed data was analysed using discursive analysis techniques, which resulted in the identification of three interpretative repertoires labelled: 'The Medical', 'The Natural Body', and 'Health Behaviours'. Many men faced a dilemma between identifying as a regular health care user, a morally virtuous position for all individuals, and identifying as an infrequent user of health care services, a virtuous position for men. They solved this dilemma by using the health behaviours repertoire to position women as the frequent and trivial users of health care whilst using the medical repertoire to position themselves as the legitimate users of health care. Furthermore, a number of respondents used the medical and natural body repertoires to construct a powerful masculine identity in relation to men that do not seek help and in relation to doctors. By using the three repertoires in this way these men could maintain a masculine identity whilst identifying as a regular and virtuous user of healthcare services. These results highlight the existence and complexity of multiple masculine identities and, in doing so, challenge theories that consistently polarise masculinity and help seeking health behaviours. These results therefore support hegemonic masculinity as a theory for examining the construction and maintenance of gendered identities.
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    Psychological and socioeconomic factors influencing men and women's planning for retirement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Turitea, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Noone, John Hamilton
    Concerns for the future well-being of the Post World War II “Baby Boom” generation continue to increase as many approach retirement age. These concerns stem from the expected strain on social security and health systems when this generation leaves the paid workforce. Retirement planning has been identified by social science researchers as one way of protecting pre-retirees’ future well-being, but there are many problems within this research. For example, the long-term benefits of retirement planning are yet to be confirmed, the causal relationships between socioeconomic, psychological, and demographic variables have been under-theorised, and existing conceptualisations of retirement planning have not adequately captured the construct. This has had implications for the resultant measures and for the development of new retirement planning knowledge. A programme comprising four studies was designed to address these limitations in the retirement planning research. For Study One, longitudinal data from the American Health and Retirement Survey were used to illustrate the prospective benefits of retirement planning on well-being in later life. For Study Two, a sub-sample of 2,277 working men and women from the New Zealand Health, Work, and Retirement survey, was used to theorise and model the causal effects of SES, work involvement, and retirement perceptions on retirement planning from a gendered perspective. Study Three described the development and validation of a comprehensive and theoretically driven measure of retirement planning using a population sample of 1,449 New Zealand pre-retirees. Fifty two items were developed to assess each stage of the retirement planning process for financial, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial planning. The final study used the same data to examine the relationships between certain psychological, socioeconomic, and demographic variables and the process of retirement planning. The results indicated that these variables were inconsistently correlated with the different stages III of the planning process. These inconsistencies were theorised as barriers to completing the retirement planning process. Overall, the results of the four studies indicate that retirement planning predicts well-being and that certain groups are less prepared than others. Conceptualising retirement planning as a process has the potential to build on our current understandings by generating research questions that have not previously been considered. These new understandings will have implications for future research and for retirement policy aimed at promoting retirement planning for the next generation of retirees.