Chapter 1 Growth of Social Gerontology Flashcards
Key concepts
Define geriatrics
It is a specialty in medicine, dentistry and nursing = focuses on how to prevent or manage diseases associated with aging
Gerontology is a multidisciplinary field in that it gets together research specialist in many areas such as
Basic
Clinical
Behavioral
Social sciences
Define ageism
negative attitudes held by people toward older adults
Gerontology includes fields such as
Psychology Psychiatry Sociology Physical and occupational therapy Medicine Nursing Social work Biology Dentistry Economics Political Science
Adaptation of older adults to the environment is a _______ _________ where older adults:
Dual process
adjust to some qualities of the physical and social environment (example: extensive paperwork for Medicare)
induce changes in others/environment (example: lobbying to expand Medicare benefits in order to cover dental care)
Aging is viewed by gerontologists as:
four distinct processes:
chronological aging - based on person’s years from birth
biological aging - based on physical changes that impact the efficiency of the body’s organ systems negatively
psychological aging - based on sensory and perceptual changes, changes in mental functioning, personality and adaptive capacity
social aging - based on people’s changing relationships and roles within society, relative to work, friendship, religious and political groups
Define cohort
a group of people born at roughly the same time
What is the compression of morbidity
a major current aim in gerontology work - a phenomenon that involves having fewer years of debilitating diseases in very old age
Environment comprises:
The Community
The Larger society
The neighborhood
The home
Define the person environment perspective in regards to the perspective of social gerontology
the belief that the environment changes as a function of older adults:
taking from the environment what they need
controlling what can be manipulated
adjusting to conditions that cannot be changed
Define Environmental press
the demands put on people by physical and social environments to adapt, respond or change
Competence
the higher people’s competence, the higher the tolerance level for environmental press (example: physical disability limits the level of physical and social demand a person can meet)
Competence model: as defined by Lawton and Nahemow
it conceptualizes the existence of a theoretical upper limit to a person’s ability to function in several areas, such as:
health
social behavior
cognition
Define Maximum life span
maximum number of years a given species could be expected to live in the event that all environmental hazards were eliminated (about 120 years for humans unless some extraordinary discoveries occur)
Life expectancy
a probability estimate of how long a person will live based on environmental conditions including:
disease
health care
