Chapter 10: Age

Question 1

Ageism

Answer 1

Prejudice or discrimination, mostly against older Canadians, but by implication against any member of society, based on their age.

Question 2

life course

Answer 2

A patterned sequence of individual age-linked experiences over time, entrenched in social institutions and historical influences.

Question 3

According to sociologist Glen Elder (1999), currently considered the most eminent researcher studying this topic, the life course approach rests on five main assumptions:

Answer 3

1. First, “human development and aging are lifelong processes” (Elder, 1999, p. 7). They start at birth and stop only with death. As people get older, their lives change. (longitudinal analysis)
2. Second, “the developmental antecedents and consequences of life transitions, events, and behaviour patterns vary according to their timing in a person’s life.”
3. Third, “lives are lived interdependently and socio-historical influences are expressed through this network of shared relationships”
4. Fourth, “the life course of individuals is embedded in and shaped by the historical times and places they experience over their lifetime”
5. Fifth, “individuals construct their own life courses through the choices and actions they take within the opportunities of history and social circumstances”

Question 4

senescence

Answer 4

The biological aging of an organism as it lives beyond its maturity, usually accompanied by chemical and organic changes.

Question 5

age pyramid

Answer 5

A graphic depiction of the age composition of a population, broken down by age and sex—pyramid-shaped if the birth rate is high but otherwise more rectangular.

Question 6

disengagement theory

Answer 6

The theory that as people age, they voluntarily and normally remove themselves from activities and social contacts, to ease their passage into a less active lifestyle.

Question 7

according to disengagement theory:

Answer 7

age-based retirement from work serves several functions for society:

(1) it empties job positions, allowing younger people to move up the occupational and social hierarchy;
(2) it gives the retiree a moment of celebratory recognition—for example, a retirement party—to honour their contribution; and
(3) it ensures that society replaces outdated skills and ideas with more useful ones.

Question 8

Activity theory (Havighurst & Albrecht, 1953) argues that:

Answer 8

contrary to disengagement theory (the idea that people give up roles as they age), people take on new roles and identities as they age. Through such continued activity, they preserve a sense of continuity and self-worth, and gain greater life satisfaction, though by new means.

Question 9

intragenerational mobility

Answer 9

Mobility between labour-market positions within individual careers.

Question 10

primogeniture

Answer 10

A system of inheritance in which only one child, the oldest son, inherits all the family property on the death of his parents.

Question 11

filial responsibility

Answer 11

The sense of personal obligation or duty that adult children often feel for protecting, caring for, and supporting their aging parents; filial piety.

Question 12

sandwich generation

Answer 12

Middle-aged adults caring for both older parents and their own young children.