Chapter 5: Social Theories of Aging Flashcards
How is median age and dependency ratios related?
The higher the median age, the higher the old-age dependency ratio
What countries have the highest dependency ratios
Developed countries
Factors that influence dependency ratios
Longer life expectancies, higher birth rates, lower death rates
due to healthcare, education, sanitation, hygiene, conflict, socio-economic disparities, immigration, emigration
Why is US’s life expectancy not as long as other developed countries?
Diet, lifestyle, unequal access to healthcare, wealth inequality, sedentary behaviour
Life expectancy and per capita healthcare spending
US spends the most amount on healthcare, but have the lowest life expectancy
Active life expectancy
number of years spent in good health
Dependent life expectancy
number of years spent in poor health
Earth’s capacity
10 billion people
Does work help people live longer?
allows financial capability to live longer
but often associated with sedentary behaviour, physically demanding, chronic stress etc…so could be detrimental
having to work vs. wanting to work
work-life balance
4 Theories of Aging
Cellular aging (stem cell exhaustion, telomere shortening, proteins become less functional, mitochondrial malfunction, inefficient cell communication, imbalanced metabolism)
Wear and Tear
Free-radical/Oxidative stress
Immunological (cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, immune, digestive, reproductive)
Metastatic aging
the spread of aging
all affect each other, which what causes aging
leads to biological aging, then death
What happens to the senses in aging
Sight: declines with age (presbyopia)
Hearing: declines with age (Presbycusis)
Taste: declines with age
Touch: declines with age
Smell: declines with age
Brain: slower with age, but not “dumber”
The scientific approach to theory development
A systematic attempt to explain why and how an age-associated change or event occurs
represents the core of the foundation of scientific inquiry and knowledge
Can a theory be entirely proven or disproven?
No, instead, through both quantitative and qualitative research, they gather evidence that may strengthen their confidence in the theory, or move them closer to rejecting the theory by demonstrating that parts of it are not supported
What is the reason for recent development of social theories?
began 1950-60s
- early social gerontological research tended to be applied rather than theoretical - it attempted to solve problems facing older people or help them adjust to problems that could not be solved rather than explain social phenomena
Role theory
Because roles define us and our self-concept and shape our behaviour, role loss in old age can negatively affect elders’ self-esteem and life satisfaction
such roles identify and describe us as social beings
typically organized sequentially, so that each role is associated with a certain age or stage of life
Age alters the role anticipated of people, and the manner in which they are expected to play them
Age norms
open up or close off the roles that people of a given chronological age can play
assumptions that we all make about age-related capacities and limitations
may be expressed through social policies and laws
individuals hold norms about the appropriateness of their own behaviour at any particular age
Society conveys age norms through socialization
Socialization
Refers to a lifelong process by which individuals learn to perform new roles, adjust to changing roles, relinquish old ones, learn a “social clock” to what is age appropriate
Role discontinuity
what someone learned at one age may be useless or conflict with role expectations at a later age
T/F: Older adults often display considerable flexibility in creating or substituting roles
True
Barriers to moving into new roles
Low-income
elders of colour
Few positive role models for elders
Activity Theory
Posits that an older person’s self-concept is validated through participation in roles characteristics of middle and elders who are active are more satisfied and better adjusted than those who are not active
Ability to maintain roles, relationships, and status they enjoyed in middle age
Values paid work, individual responsibility, and productivity
Limitation: does not take account of how personality, social class, gender, race, and lifestyle may be more salient than age in whether activity is associated with life satisfaction and health
challenged by disengagement theory
Disengagement Theory
Older people, because of the inevitable decline with age, become less active with the outer world and increasingly preoccupied with their inner lives, thereby shifting an orderly transfer of power from older to younger people
Primary mechanism is retirement
Disengagement is inevitable and adaptive, which allows older people to maintain self-worth
Limitations: Not an ideal adaptation to aging, Fails to account for variability in individual preferences, personality, culture, opportunities, Cannot be assumed that older people’s withdrawal from useful roles is necessarily good for society, Been proven that successful aging is more likely to be achieved by people who remain socially involved and integrated
Continuity Theory
Central personality characteristics become more pronounced with age, or are retained through life with little change; people age successfully if they maintain their lifelong roles and adaptation techniques
Challenges both activity and disengagement theory
Limitations: Has face validity because it seems reasonable but difficult to test empirically, Focuses on individual; overlooks role of external social, economic, historical, and political factors that influence aging
Age Stratification theory
The societal age structure - or cohorts and the historical time period - affects the experiments of aging; cohorts in turn influence patterns of age stratification
Considers a structured time component in which cohorts pass through an age-graded system of expectations and rewards
It recognizes that the members of one stratum differ from each other in both their stage of life and the historical periods
Encompasses the idea of structural lag => the inability of social structures to adapt to changes such as aging in population and individual lives
Examples of how baby boomers who are retiring today differ as a whole from the cohort that retired in the 1950s
- believe they should have lifestyle options and the freedom to choose living environments and services that are responsive, flexible, readily accessible, culturally appropriate
- reject notions of “seniors”, dependence, disability adn frailty
- view retirement and leisure more positively
- be technologically savvy
- live long enough to become grandparents
Social Exchange Theory
A person’s status is defined by the balance between people’s contributions to society and the costs of supporting them
withdrawal and social isolation result from an unequal exchange process of “investments and returns” between older persons and members of society
older adults generally seek to maintain reciprocity and to be active agents in the management of their lives
challenges activity and disengagement theories
Social policies can serve to increase opportunities for elders to contribute less tangible resources
Life course perspective
Not necessarily a theory, rather a framework
understanding older adulthood as part of a continuity of human development across the lifespan - from birth to old age - and taking into account historical, political, cultural economic and other societal circumstances that affect how we age
Life course for most people encompass both gains and losses in roles and functions, as well as structured advantages and inequities
The cohort is the fundamental unit of social organization
can provide critical analysis of how caregiving for older relatives is now a standardized and “on-time” part of the life trajectory for the majority of adult children because of increased life expectancy among their parents’ generation
takes account of the role of individual decisions that affect one’s future, along with the accumulation of risks and resources
Political economy of aging
social class and other structural variables determine the older people’s position and life satisfaction, with groups in power trying to sustain their own interests by maintaining class inequities
rejects activity and disengagement theory
socioeconomic and political constraints shape the experience of aging and age inequities in society
posits that structural factors are institutionalized and reinforced by public policy, and serve to limit the opportunities and choices of later life
Cumulative disadvantage
structural disparities experienced by people earlier in life are intensified in old age
Social constructionism
Aging is defined as a problem by society and our social interactions rather than by biological and physiological changes, or by its subjective meaning
Social constructionists contend that we need to deconstruct the concept “old”
Differs from political economy because it gives greater recognition to the importance of our interpersonal interactions in shaping the aging experience
social reality and the meaning of being old shift over time, reflecting the differing life situations and social roles that occur as we age
Social phenomenology
a point of view in studying social life that emphasizes the assumptions and meanings of experience rather than the objective “facts”, with a focus on understanding these meanings rather than explaining
Data or facts about aging cannot be separated from researchers own perceptions about time, space and self - or from those of the individuals being studied
Feminist Gerontology
Takes account of how gender-based inequities and the oppression of women across the life course differentially structure men’s and women’s experiences of aging and disadvantages older women
contends that current theories of aging are insufficient
Gender identities generally serve to benefit men and disadvantage women
the real problem for women caregivers is public policies that fail to support their care work and how this perpetuates gender inequities
they also take into account of the intersections of gender with race, social class, sexual orientation and disability
