Gerontology Exam II

A major premise of the age stratification theory is that the aging processes reflect the interplay between two dynamics:

1) the changing life course pattern of people in different cohorts; 2) the changing social structures in which these aging processes are experienced.

Subcultures develop under two sets of circumstances:

1)When people share similar interests, problems, and concerns or have long-standing friendships, they may form a subculture; 2) Subcultures may also develop when groups of people are excluded from full participation in the wider society.

A theory can be classified as feminist if:

1. Gender relations are the main subject matter 2. Notions of masculinity and femininity are seen as socially constructed 3. Emphasis is placed on the different ways aging is experienced by men and women

Age Stratification theory sets an agenda for research based on four questions:

1. How does an individual's location in the changing age structure of society influence his/her behavior and attitudes? 2. How do individuals relate to each other within and between age strata? 3. How do individuals pass through key transitions from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood to old age? 4. What is the impact of the answers to the above questions on the society as a whole?

Factors that contributed to the fertility rate drop between 1971 and 1980.

1. One was the birth control pill, which became available in the early 1960s. 2. Another was an increase in educational opportunities for women. 3. Finally, female labor force participation expanded rapidly in the 1960s. As women became more highly educated, they sought work outside the home in increasing numbers.

Between 1971 and 1980, the fertility rate dropped dramatically, reaching an all-time low of____ children per woman. Several factors contributed to this reduced fertility.

1.7

In the _______ medical advances led to major gains against infant and child mortality and maternal mortality. Then, beginning in the late _______ , the death rate from heart disease began to fall, largely because of better prevention and treatment: Fewer people smoked, and new medications helped to control hypertension (high blood pressure). Heart disease remains the leading cause of death among people over 65. Cancer deaths have increased among the elderly.

1940s, 1960s

In the year 2000 there were more than five workers for each person over 65; by ______, there will be fewer than three. In ______the total dependency ratio will be no higher than it was in 1970, but the composition of dependents will be different. The shift is from the child to old-age dependency ratio.

2030

Throughout the twentieth century, the United States was aging, and the rate of change will accelerate during the twenty-first century. Equally important, the population of people 85 and older is expected to triple by ______ (21% of total population).

2040

By _______ the non-Hispanic white population is projected to decline from 87 % of people 65 and older to 78%.

2050

Over the next _______ disparities in life expectancy among many countries of the world are expected to decrease, resulting in global increase in life expectancy

30 years

Over the course of the twentieth century, Americans have experienced large gains in life expectancy. Between 1900 and 2010, overall life expectancy at birth increased by over 30 years, from ________ to ______years.

47.3 to 78.7 years

Age Stratification Theory criticisms

A large body of research has examined cohort differences in life course experiences. One of the more interesting issues is how changes that affect one life transition create a ripple effect in other arenas. Even though the original Age Stratification original included both individual life course rhythms and large-scale structural change as components of age stratification, most research derived from this model has ignored the latter emphasis. This is partly because the concept of social structure is broad and includes many possible definitions. Another problem with age stratification theory is that it ignores other bases of social stratification such as social class, gender, and race that create inequality within age cohorts.

With the __________ widowhood, poor health, and retirement all correlated with disengagement and are better predictors of activity level than age. The person who ages optimally stays active and resists the shrinkage of their social world. Older persons who engage in productive activities and social networks are less like to have depression.

Activity Theory

The quest for normal aging continued when Robert Havighurst formalized ____________, what Cumming and Henry had called the "implicit" (detachment) theory of aging.

Activity theory

There is no such thing as an age segregated society. Most people are involved in both age-segregated and age-integrated institutions. In practice, there is no such thing as a completely age-segregated society. A totally age-integrated society is equally unlikely. When outdated social structures prevent persons of certain ages from full participation in the society, the society is said to suffer from structural lag.

Age Integration Theory

_________________ analyzes the relationship between age and social structure. Age Stratification is based on the premise that all societies group people into social categories. These groupings provide people with social identities. Age is one principle of ranking, along with wealth, gender, and race.

Age Stratification Theory

The central concept used to examine this issue was that of an _____________,which refers to a group of people who are born at the same time and thus share similar life experiences.

Age cohort

__________ draws on a core premise of age stratification theory, the idea that society is stratified on the basis of age. Age stratification can create age-segregated institutions, in which age acts as a barrier to entrance, exit, or participation. But society also has age-integrated institutions, which are characterized by ___________________

Age integration theory, an absence of age-related criteria.

As social gerontologists began to abandon large scale concepts of societal development such as modernization theory as a way to explain the status of the aged, a new framework termed ___________ emerged.

Age stratification theory

The emphasis on decline in old age grew from:

An awareness of real physical changes.

The social gerontologist _________ applied subculture theory to the study of aging. ________ argued that older people were subject to both conditions. They have a positive affinity for one another based partly on their physical limitations and thus their common interest "in a physically easy and calm existence." They also share "common role changes and . . . common generational experiences in a rapidly changing society"

Arnold Rose

Theories of aging, like all scientific theories, have been influenced by ___________. These trends have helped to establish the core research agenda and have influenced the method to be used in pursuing it. These theories have left behind a legacy of useful information about the process of aging and how these themes are used to define public policy and social practice.

Broader historical trends

In the United States, the ___________ is the central clearinghouse for all national population data.

Bureau of the Census

The Origins of Social Gerontology was written by?

Cavan (1949)

______________ is determined by basic population processes—fertility (the number of births), mortality (the number of deaths), and migration (the arrival of new members from other countries). These processes are the subject matter of _________ in combination they determine a population's ___________, or the proportion of people in various age cohorts.

Cohort size, demography, age structure

Arnold Rose argued that older people shared a subculture because they have:

Common interests, common role changes, common generational experiences. He also stated that older people are drawn together because they are excluded by younger people.

____________ emphasizes that personality plays a major role in adjustment to aging and that adult development is a continuous process. Thus, continuity is an effective strategy for successful aging, and minimizes the effects of aging

Continuity Theory

______________ represents a more formal elaboration of activity theory, using a life course perspective to define normal aging and to distinguish it from pathological aging.

Continuity theory

The most recent theoretical approach in the study of aging is termed _________. Proponents of ___________ argue that research on aging has often been based on uncritical reliance on images from popular culture and from theories that are outdated.

Critical gerontology

___________ is derived from political economy and feminist approaches to aging but expands these perspectives to consider how the forces of globalization affect policies and programs for the aged and the daily lives of older people (ex. Immigration and displacement of older workers). In particular, this approach emphasizes that aging is no longer a local or national issue but rather affects individuals, families, and nations all around the world.

Critical gerontology

Who proposed the Disengagement Theory?

Cumming and Henry (1961)

During the twentieth century, there was a significant _________ in the sex ratio among people 85 and older, from around 80 until the mid-1940s to only 58 by 2010. This lopsided ratio was a result of the greater increase in female life expectancy compared with male life expectancy.

Decline

The world's population is aging rapidly due to the factors of ______________________ and the aging of large cohorts, like the baby boomers in the U.S.

Declining fertility, rising longevity

In all developed nations, the three-stage shift from high mortality and fertility rates to low mortality and fertility rates occurs through a socioeconomic process called the _________________. As countries industrialize, accompanying changes in fertility and mortality produce changes in population structure. At the end of this process, a country's population is both older and larger.

Demographic transition

Another way to measure population aging is through ______________, which indicate the burden of supporting an aging population.

Dependency ratio

The first practitioners of social gerontology were ______________ psychologists, whose traditional focus on growth and maturation was expanded to include later maturity.

Developmental

With the Activity Theory, social gerontologists no longer view the withdrawal of older people from social roles and social interaction as normal aging. __________ is associated with changes that make it difficult for people to remain active.

Disengagement

States that because of the inevitability of death, the society and the individual mutually sever their ties in advance so that the death of the individual will not be disruptive to the social system. This process results in decreasing interaction between an aging person and the others in his/her social system. This process is universal and inevitable.

Disengagement Theory

First formal theory of aging. Criticizing what they called the "implicit theory" that people can be well adjusted, satisfied, and happy in old age only if they remain active and involved, Cumming and Henry (1961) argued that normal aging involves a natural and inevitable mutual withdrawal or disengagement

Disengagement Theory (1961)

The fact that the large cohort of the baby boom was followed by a small cohort of the baby bust means that the _____________ will rise from 20 per 100 in 1990 to 37 per 100 by 2030.

Elderly dependency ratio

The ratio of old people to adults, called the ______________, is calculated as the number of persons aged 65 and older per 100 persons of working age (18 to 64 years old). It provides a rough estimate of the proportion of the "working " population vs. retirees

Elderly dependency ratio

Subculture theory controversies?

Even though it is true that older people experience common role changes, the idea that the aged form a single subculture has now been discounted. Older persons are more likely to form affiliations on the basis of family, racial ethnicity, and ethnic identity, social class and religious affiliation than on age. Within the subculture of the elderly, high status is conferred on those who have good physical and mental health. The idea that the aged form a single subculture is now discounted.

_____________ is similar to the psychosocial theories previously discussed in its interest in explaining why some older people withdraw from social interaction. Social exchange theory suggests that personal relationships feel most satisfying when both participants are perceived as contributing equally to the relationship

Exchange theory

In developed countries, over the last century, human life __________ has moved closer to the human life ________.

Expectancy, span

Is connected to past performance and can be observed in the continuity of skills, activities, environments, roles, and relationships between middle and old age (WHAT WE DO)

External continuity

Generally, life expectancy worldwide is higher for ________ than for _______. Scientists cannot fully explain the gender difference in life expectancy, which arises from a complex interaction of biological, social, and behavioral factors.

Females, males

____________ of aging are less a formal body of theory than an approach that reflects a commitment to use theory in certain ways. The central purpose of feminist theory is to illuminate the gendered nature of society. Feminist theorists contend that the entire life course is gendered, both in terms of informal norms and in terms of formal policies.

Feminist theories

The rate is a measure of the incidence of births or the inflow of new lives into a population. Generally, a declining birth rate is the main factor that can result in population aging.

Fertility

In the __________ of the demographic transition, the economy is agricultural, women marry young and have many children, and infants commonly die from acute and infectious diseases. Because birth rates and death rates are both high, few people reach adulthood, and even fewer survive to old age

First Stage

There are also four and five stage demographic transition models that basically follow the three stage models, with the exception that the __________ stage model accounts for a decrease in population.

Five

Criticisms of the Modernization Theory:

Golden Age of Aging never really existed in the United States (perhaps in other cultures). No more elderly were living in children's homes than today. Retirement was not a twentieth century creation, wealth was the dependent factor.

____________, one of the collaborators on the Kansas City Study of Adult Life, argued that the psychological and social needs of the elderly were no different from those of the middle-aged and that it was neither normal nor natural for older people to become isolated and withdrawn. _______________ stresses that the person who ages optimally manages to stay active and resist the shrinkage of their social world.

Havinghurst, The Activity Theory

To clarify controversy over the exchange theory, Bould, Sanborn, and Reif (made a distinction between immediate exchange strategies and deferred exchange strategies). What is the distinction?

Immediate exchange strategies may occur between friends and neighbors. A deferred exchange strategy recognizes the importance of strong ties built up over time.

Because of higher __________ and ________rates, the Hispanic, African American, and Asian populations are increasing more rapidly than the white population of the United States. The elderly population of the future will be considerably more racially and ethnically diverse than the elderly population of today.

Immigration and birth

Although baby boom children had fewer children than their parents generation, the number of babies born to their generation __________ because of the large number of baby boomers.

Increased

Refers to an inner remembered structure , such as the persistence of psychic structure of ideas, temperament, affect, experiences, preferences, dispositions, and skills. (WHO WE ARE)

Internal continuity

___________ is the oldest nation with 23 percent of the population 65 and older, while in _________ and _________ only two percent of the population is that old.

Japan, Kuwait and Bahrain

The three main regions of origin of the foreign-born population are:

Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

___________ is the average number of years people in a given population can expect to live or, more precisely, the mean age at death.

Life expectancy

In 1900 infant mortality rates were high, and if a person survived to age 20, they might easily expect to live to age 65. Because of the high infant mortality rate, the average life expectancy was low at 47.3 yrs. Thus it is important to determine____________ at birth and _____________ at 65, and both have improved over the last century. Despite these gains, significant racial and ethnic disparities in life expectancy remain.

Life expectancy at birth and life expectancy

One measure of individual age is the___________, defined as the greatest number of years any member of a species has been known to survive. The human _________ appears to be about 120 years, although there are a few recorded cases of people living to be much older. Humans are the longest-lived animals.

Life span

There are two ways to measure individual aging: ____________ and ____________. Gender differences in the _____________ affect the sex ration

Life span, life expectancy, life expectancy

A population becomes ___________ when fertility declines along with infant and child mortality, fewer children are born, and more survive

Middle aged

__________, the third process, is the movement of people across borders. Migration typically exerts the least amount of influences on population aging.

Migration

Modernization theorists argued that nations could be placed on a continuum ranging from least developed to most developed, according to such indicators as level of industrialization or degree of urbanization. Those exhibiting certain qualities of social structure were termed ____________.

Modern

The basic premise of modernization theory was that there was once a golden age of aging (The old were few in number. That they held great power and authority in the community and in the family). Then a revolutionary process called _________ shattered this traditional society (inverted the power structure)

Modernization

_____________ was responsible for the decline in status of the aged. As work moved from the home to the factory, the number of people who were self-employed declined. The aged lost their economic independence and were forced into retirement. Urbanization drew young people from rural areas to cities, destroying the extended family household and isolating the elderly.

Modernization

The optimism that characterized the United States in the post-World War II era was shared by social scientists, who believed that if other nations would only follow the American example, they, too, could achieve prosperity and economic growth. This worldview was encapsulated in _______________.

Modernization theory

_________ (death) rates, the second process that influences age structure, reflect the incidence of death in a population.

Mortality

Disengagement Theory controversies?

Most controversial about disengagement theory was the idea that disengagement was universal, meaning it happens everywhere and in all historical eras; that it was inevitable, meaning it must happen sometime to everyone; and that it was intrinsic, caused by biological factors rather than social factors

The biggest wave of immigrants arrived in the late _________________centuries, when thousands of Italians and East Europeans crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Nineteenth and early twentieth

A population becomes _______when mortality is reduced at all ages, but especially among the elderly.

Old

Exchange theory controversies?

One controversy with the exchange theory is that it ignores the value of non-rational resources, such as love and companionship, which often even out what seems to be an unequal exchange. Another controversy is that exchange theory overlooks that exchanges between generations take place over the life course.

The strength of the social constructionist approach is that it reminds the researcher that older people are not _______ objects but _______ subjects who participate in the construction of their social worlds.

Passive , active

Disengagement theory does not fully account for differences in _________________ when considering the activity level of an aging individual in society

Personality and temperance

Early researches of social gerontology saw old age as a period of inevitable ________________. Which included an awareness of real physical changes such as diminished short-term memory or vision loss, and an increased vulnerability to certain disease like heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

Physical and mental decline

______________ are made on the basis of census numbers, such errors can affect which groups receive funding and how much they receive. These problems are magnified when the United Nations confronts the task of compiling world population data. _________ is one of the most difficult measures of precise data. In an attempt to deal with such problems, the United Nations has developed a code for indicating its confidence in international demographic data. The code does not eliminate errors, thus the comparisons of international population trends must be made with caution.

Policy decisions, age

_______________ forces distribute societal resources in ways that maintain or increase inequality on the basis of class, race, or gender. Thus, The political economy approach understands the nature of old age to be socially constructed and to be created through power struggles.

Political and economic

_______________ highlight the structural influences on aging and emphasize the relevance of social struggles embedded in power relationships for understanding how the aged are defined and treated

Political economy theories

________ is a gradual increase in the proportion of older people to younger people.

Population aging

One way to display the age structure of a population is to construct a ______________, a bar chart that reflects the distribution of a population by age and sex. See Figure 4.1, next slide.

Population pyramid

A ___________ (population age increases with the increase in proportion of the elderly) structure can change through three fundamental demographic processes:_________, ___________, and ____________.

Population's age, fertility, mortality, and migration.

Among the very old, the advantages associated with being white disappear. An intriguing phenomenon, one not fully understood, is what is called ____________. After age 85, the mortality rate for African Americans falls below that of whites. In advanced old age, older black adults have lower mortality risk than whites

Race crossover

First proposed by _________, continuity theory draws heavily from the basic dichotomy of internal and external aging processes described in the Kansas City studies.

Robert Atchley

______ affects health in several ways. People with higher incomes are more likely than the poor to have health insurance and good health care. They are also more likely to live in less polluted areas and to have better access to public services. ______ also affects lifestyle. Middle-class people are more likely than the poor to exercise regularly, control their weight, and eat breakfast, and they are less likely to smoke or drink excessively

SES

The____________ of the demographic transition is characterized by declining death rates and population growth. More children survive into adulthood. When these children reach childbearing age, significant population growth occurs. Through improved sanitary measures and health care, life expectancy increases, mortality among the old begins to drop, and the proportion of older people in the population grows

Second Stage

Proponents of _____________ view humans as active agents who create the society in which they live. Social constructionists are concerned with the individual's process of interpreting his or her experiences. They study how social meanings of age and self-conceptions of age arise through negotiation and discourse.

Social constructionism

Contemporary versions of theories that view human beings as active creators of their own social reality are termed ____________.

Social constructionist theories.

Perhaps instead of defining disengagement as a theory of optimal aging, it may be more helpful to consider it a process that ________________

Sometimes, but does not always occur.

________________ shared several traits with activity theory and disengagement theory—a conviction that people lose status in old age, a focus on role changes in later life, and a belief that activity enhanced the lives of the elderly. It differed in that it built on a sociological theory of subcultural development.

Subculture theory

___________________ disappeared from the research agenda until recently. Now as older people have increasingly become involved in interest groups, questions have again arisen about their group identity.

Subculture theory

What did the Origins of Social Gerontology by Cavan suggest?

Suggested that a decline in old age was not inevitable. Poor adjustment was correlated with a lack of activity. People who continued to lead active and productive lives remained well adjusted in old age.

What does the Kansas City Study of Adult Life say about social role?

That there was no significant change in role competence or quality in middle age (subjects 40-75 yrs). Follow-up study in older populations up to age 85, showed increase disengagement (interiorization) - withdrawal from wordily affairs, decreased energy with advancing age.

The greatest declines in mortality occurred during two periods:

The 1940s and the 1970s.

_____________ makes national counts of the population every ten years and obtains information from each household on births, deaths, country of origin of the residents, health, living arrangements, occupation, and income.

The Census Bureau

Coupled the emphasis on adjustment with measures of how people performed various roles—spouse, parent, worker—as they aged. Central to these concepts was social role (Expectations that accompany a given position or status, including age and sex roles)

The Kansas City Study of Adult Life (1950s)

__________ was created by an upsurge in fertility during the post-World War II era. Fertility began to climb in 1946, peaking in 1958 at a whopping average of 3.17 children per woman.

The baby boom

_____________ ratio indicates the number of persons under age 18 relative to those of working age. This population is also dependent on the "working" population.

The child dependency

Continuity Theory controversies?

The most controversial element of continuity theory is its definition of normal aging. Normal aging, according to Atchley, refers to "usual, commonly encountered patterns of human aging . . . . It can be distinguished from pathological aging by a lack of physical or mental disease. However, chronic illness is common in old age and having such does not preclude meaningful social interaction, especially when the person can create continuity in the process of a disruptive chronic illness. Feminist theorists (discussed later in slide series) contend that because continuity theory defines normal aging around a male model, it turns forms of inequality such as high rates of poverty among older women into indicators of individual pathology. A more accurate description may be that poverty and income inequality is a flaw in the overall social structure.

Political Economy Theories criticisms?

The political economy framework has been criticized for being too negative and for viewing older people as too passive - theory does not address life satisfaction, individuals motivations, perceptions, and related activities.

______________ is defined as the number of males to every 100 females. For every 106 male babies that are born, there are only 100 females; however, after birth, death rates are persistently higher among males, beginning in infancy and continuing into old age. ▪As a result, the sex ratio declines progressively over the life course resulting in a large deficit in men in very old age.

The sex ratio

Social constructionism controversies?

The theory's emphasis on microsocial processes often neglects the structural features of social life that are imposed by external forces

The central premise in __________ is how does access to power influence the life changes of older persons and how do constraints create inequality in the aging experience. The political economy perspective is not so much a formal theory as it is a framework for examining the larger social context of problems associated with old age.

Theories of Power and Inequality

In the _______________, the population as a whole begins to age, and more deaths are caused by chronic ailments than by acute illness. When birth and death rates are both low, the demographic transition is complete. At that point a nation can be characterized as "old," demographically speaking. ( see Figure 4.2, next slide )

Third Stage

The combined ratio of children and older people to "workers" is called the ___________________. Dependency ratios are useful in estimating caregiving burden (determine the supply of caregivers relative to those who need care)

Total dependency ratio

When a population is young it exhibits a _______with a wide base and narrow apex. Fertility is high and death impacts the population at younger ages

Triangle

A central premise of exchange theory is that resources are often _______ and that actors will continue to engage in exchanges only as long as the benefits are ________ than the costs. Also, interaction between the old and the young decreases because older people have fewer resources to bring to the exchange.

Unequal, greater

There has also been a growing ________ in life expectancy. The highest earning men can expect to life nearly eight years longer than low income men. A similar pattern can be seen for women

Wealth gap

The oldest nations are in ______________ , while the youngest countries are in ___________________. The reason for this disparity is that most of Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America are still in the first stage of the demographic transition with high levels of fertility, young population profiles, and low life expectancy. European countries had a low fertility and mortality rates for decades and now have high proportions of elderly

Western Europe and North America, Latin America and Africa

In most nations, elderly ________ greatly outnumber elderly _________.

Women, men