Chapter 5: Social Theories of Aging

Question 1

How is median age and dependency ratios related?

Answer 1

The higher the median age, the higher the old-age dependency ratio

Question 2

What countries have the highest dependency ratios

Answer 2

Developed countries

Question 3

Factors that influence dependency ratios

Answer 3

Longer life expectancies, higher birth rates, lower death rates

due to healthcare, education, sanitation, hygiene, conflict, socio-economic disparities, immigration, emigration

Question 4

Why is US’s life expectancy not as long as other developed countries?

Answer 4

Diet, lifestyle, unequal access to healthcare, wealth inequality, sedentary behaviour

Question 5

Life expectancy and per capita healthcare spending

Answer 5

US spends the most amount on healthcare, but have the lowest life expectancy

Question 6

Active life expectancy

Answer 6

number of years spent in good health

Question 7

Dependent life expectancy

Answer 7

number of years spent in poor health

Question 8

Earth’s capacity

Answer 8

10 billion people

Question 9

Does work help people live longer?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

4 Theories of Aging

Answer 10

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)

Question 11

Metastatic aging

Answer 11

the spread of aging
all affect each other, which what causes aging
leads to biological aging, then death

Question 12

What happens to the senses in aging

Answer 12

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”

Question 13

The scientific approach to theory development

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Can a theory be entirely proven or disproven?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What is the reason for recent development of social theories?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Role theory

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Age norms

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Socialization

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Role discontinuity

Answer 19

what someone learned at one age may be useless or conflict with role expectations at a later age

Question 20

T/F: Older adults often display considerable flexibility in creating or substituting roles

Answer 20

True

Question 21

Barriers to moving into new roles

Answer 21

Low-income
elders of colour
Few positive role models for elders

Question 22

Activity Theory

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Disengagement Theory

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Continuity Theory

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Age Stratification theory

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Examples of how baby boomers who are retiring today differ as a whole from the cohort that retired in the 1950s

Answer 26

• 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

Question 27

Social Exchange Theory

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Life course perspective

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Political economy of aging

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Cumulative disadvantage

Answer 30

structural disparities experienced by people earlier in life are intensified in old age

Question 31

Social constructionism

Answer 31

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

Question 32

Social phenomenology

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Feminist Gerontology

Answer 33

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