Chapter 9: Late Adulthood Flashcards
Dependency ratio
A demographic indicator that expresses the degree of demand placed on society by the young and aged combined. The more old people the more demand placed on society to help them.
Social gerontology
The social science that studies human aging.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Disengagement theory
Suggests that as elderly individuals grow older, they gradually decrease their social interactions and ties and become increasingly self-preoccupied.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Active theory
States that higher levels of activity and involvement are directly related to higher levels of life satisfaction in elderly people.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Continuity theory
Individuals adapt to changes by using the same coping styles they have used throughout the life course, and they adopt new roles that substitute for roles they lost because of age.
Individuals lifestyle tends to stay the same or reflect earlier lifestyles.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Social construction theory
Suggests that ways of understanding are shaped by the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic conditions in which knowledge is developed, thus values are associated with various ways of understanding.
Conceptions about age arise through interactions of an individual with their social environment.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Feminist theories
Suggest that gender is a key factor in understanding a person’s aging experience.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Social exchange theory
Built on notion that an exchange of resources takes place in all interpersonal interactions.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Life course perspective
Human development is characterized by multidimensional, multifunctionality, plasticity, and continuity in the persons experiences of gains and losses over the life course.
Psychosocial theoretical perspectives on social gerontology:
Age stratification
Falls into the tradition of the life course perspective. Stratification is a sociological concept that describes a given hierarchy that exists in a given society. Society is structured around age and changes in age changes roles we play in society.
Genetic theories of biological aging
Propose that there are genetically determined differences between species in th maximum life span.
Programmed aging theories
Propose that cells can not replicate themselves indefinitely. It slows down as we become older.
Random error theories
Physiological aging occurs because of damaging processes that become more frequent in late adulthood but are not part of the genetic unfolding process.
Molecular/cellular theories of biological aging
Aging is caused by molecular or cellular processes.
System levels theories of biological aging
Propose that aging is caused by processes operating across biological systems.
Mortality rates
The frequency at which death occurs within a population.
Morbidity
The incidence of disease.
Ego integrity verses ego dispair
Integrity involves the ability to make peace with one’s “one and only” life cycle and to find unity within the world.
Keeper of meaning
Takes on task of passing on the traditions of the past to the next generation.
Fluid intelligence
Capacity for abstract reasoning and involves such things as the ability to respond or memorize quickly.
Crystallized intelligence
Based on accumulated learning and included ability to reflect and recognize.
Intentional memory
Events that you plan to remember.
Incidental memory
Relates to facts learned without the intention to retain and recall.
Dementia
Brain disease in which the cognitive abilities deteriorate over time.
Delirium
Impairment of consciousness.
Reminiscence
Thinking and remember and tell stories of the past.
Power of attorney
Legal arrangement by which a person appoints another individual to manage his or her financial and legal affairs.
Life review
Task of late adulthood that is a process of evaluating and making sense of one’s life.
