Ch. 13 quiz

What percent of the population of the U.S. is 65+ today?

13

What is the approximate median age of the United States?

37

What percent of the population of the United States was 65+ in 1900?

4

What was the life expectancy in the years 1900-1906?

47

What does it mean when sociologists say that age is "socially constructed"?

Age is based on cultural attitudes that are rooted in a society

If elderly people suffer abuse, it is most often perpetrated by ____.

Caregivers

What sociological perspective stresses that age has no inherent meaning and that each culture shapes the way that its citizens perceive the elderly? A. functionalism B. the feminist perspective C. the conflict perspective D. symbolic interactionism

D

Who wrote the book on Death and Dying, outlining the five stages of grief?

Elisabeth Kubler- Ross

America's baby boomer generation has contributed to all of the following except:

Medicaid being in danger of going bankrupt

What was life expectancy when ACU began?

Probably 30 years shorter than it is now

Francis has recently been told that he has a terminal disease and can expect to live for only a short time. He has made a will, paid all his bills, and given instructions to his children. According to Kubler-Ross, Francis is in the stage of _______.

acceptance

An older woman retires and completely changes her life. She is no longer raising children or working. However, she joins the YWCA to swim everyday. She serves on the Friends of the Library board. She is part of a neighborhood group that plays Bunco on Saturday nights. Her situation most closely illustrates the ____theory.

activity

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act counteracts which theory?

age stratification

Which factor most increases the risk of an elderly person suffering mistreatment?

being frail to the point of dependency on care

Veterans are two to four times more likely to _____ as people who did not serve in the military.

commit suicide

Thanatology is the study of___.

death and dying

An older man retires from his job, stops golfing, and cancels his newspaper subscription. After his wife dies, he lies alone, loses touch with his children, and stops seeing old friends. His situation most closely illustrates the ____ theory.

disengagement

Which of the three major sociological theoretical perspectives is most closely aligned with the disengagement, activity, and continuity theories of aging?

functionalism

In Erik Erikson's developmental stage of life, with which challenge must older people struggle?

overcoming despair to achieve integrity

The measure that compares the number of men to women in population is______.

sex ratio

Which action reflects ageism ?

speaking slowly and loudly when talking to someone over age 65

For individual people of a certain culture, the life course is _____.

the typical sequence of events in their lives

In the United States, life expectancy rates in recent decades have____.

continued to gradually rise

In U.S. society, men with graying hair and wrinkles are seen as mature, while women with the same features are seen as old. This is referred to as _______ age.

gender

Today in the United States the poverty rate of the elderly is_____.

increasing

What is the primary driver of modernization theory?

industrialization

In most countries, elderly women ______ than elderly men

live a few years longer

Which sociological perspective is most closely aligned with the explanation that Social Security benefits came about as the result of a struggle between competing interest groups?

the conflict perspective

Which assertion about aging in men would be made by a sociologist following the functionalist perspective?

Men who remain active after retirement play supportive community roles

The "graying of the United States" refers to_____.

the increasing percentage of the population over 65