Module 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is gerontology?

A

The scientific study of old age and the problems that come with it etc. Also looks at the social processes and policy of aging.

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2
Q

What can gerontologists help us to do?

A

Understand our population and how the specific segment of older age groups fits with the others. Helps us understand that age happens throughout life.

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3
Q

What is the life course perpsective?

A

Considers timing, order, and sequence of life events. The interplay between individuals, cohorts, and social structures. Helps bridge both micro/macro perspectives. Life unfolds in a social, historical, and cultural context.

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4
Q

What is the idea of the sociological imagination?

A

The idea that exploring inequality requires us to look beyond the individual and talk about social shaping (structure). Link between personal struggles and larger scale issues. Societal organization and agency.

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5
Q

What are social structures?

A

Recurring patterns of social interaction through which people are related to each other (institutions or social groups). Product of human action and interaction, asks how much agency do we really have?

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6
Q

What is the relationship between agency and structure?

A

Both can exist at the same time, Agency and structure influence each other bidirectionally. Personal problems and public dimensions.

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7
Q

What is lifespan?

A

The fixed, finite, maximum limit for survival of a species.

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8
Q

What is life expectancy?

A

The average number of years a person can expect to live at birth or any other age.

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9
Q

Who was the oldest person ever and how old was she?

A

Madame Jeanne Calment, aged 122 (SUPER CENTARIAN)

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10
Q

What are some examples of how life expectancy varies based on gender, culture, geographic region, race, education, habits, cohorts etc?

A

For Indigenous peoples, LE is around 78 for women and 73 for men. With homeless populations LE is around 34-47 years.

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11
Q

At what point will the lifespan become unfixed?

A

When somebody passes Mme Clement (122 + 64 days(

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12
Q

What age group is the young-old age category?

A

65-74

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13
Q

What age group is the old-old age category?

A

75-84

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14
Q

What age group is the oldest age category?

A

80 or 85+

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15
Q

When will Canada have rapid ageing until, and why will this happen?

A

2031, this is when the last of the baby boomers will hit age 65+.

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16
Q

What accounts for the greatest change in the age of the population?

A

The Baby Boom (1946-64)

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17
Q

What are the 3 causes of population aging?

A

1) Mortality rate decrease
2) Fertility rate decrease
3) Migration

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18
Q

What is mortality rate, and what is the mortality rate decrease?

A

The number of deaths per 1000 people in a population. If LE grows, then mortality rate decreases. LE increases due to sanitation, healthcare, and a drop in infant mortality.

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19
Q

What is fertility rate, and what is the fertility rate decrease?

A

Average number of births per woman during their normal childbearing years (14-49). The replacement rate to maintain a stable population is 2.1 births per woman, and Canada’s has been below that since 1971. Number of babies being born not enough for current pop to replace itself.

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20
Q

What were the fertility rates during the baby boom compared to the baby bust?

A

2.83-3.84 compared to 1.51.

21
Q

What factors make migration more influential on the age of a population?

A

Contextual factors like COVID makes migration more important. Travel limitations, influx and exit of people from a given area (Alberta—- BC). Immigration adds to Canadas demographic age and mortality, but has little effect on overall aging.

22
Q

What is individual aging?

A

The interaction of biological, clinical, psychological, social, societal, and chronological factors on aging.

23
Q

What is the life-course perspective on age related transitions?

A

They begin with birth and entry into school, concludes with retirement, widowhood, and death.

24
Q

What are APC effects?

A

Age, period, cohort effects (gerontologists study these).

25
Q

What are age effects?

A

Effects that occur due to ageing itself- physical decline/change. Can be deeply personal (hair, skin bone density)

26
Q

What are period effects?

A

Occur due to time of measurement (war going on, new health policy/practice. Influences younger and older people differently, also known as environmental effects.

27
Q

What are cohort effects?

A

People born around the same time (within 5-10 years of each other) usually share similar experiences and backgrounds. Cohort effects help us understand how different experiences can change individuals and allows us to compare within vs between.

28
Q

What are the 4 aspects of individual aging?

A

Chronological, biological, psychological, and social.

29
Q

What is chronological aging?

A

The passage of calendar time from one birthday to the next. Legal age. Provides order and control.

30
Q

What is the idea of functional age?

A

Based on the fact that ageing is complex (skills, appearance etc). Chronological perspective on old age should maybe change to something based on functionality (activity gains, LE, disability free time)

31
Q

What is the idea of biological age (age effects)?

A

Genetic and environmentally induced changes in cellular, muscular, skeletal, reproductive, neural, and cardiovascular areas. Affect the number of years a person will survive and extent to experience illness/disability.

32
Q

What is the idea of psychological age?

A

Interaction of individual, cognitive, and behavioural changes in interacting with social or environmental factors.

33
Q

What is the idea of social age?

A

Structures, norms/values, institutions that influence how we move across the lifecourse, social time tables and expectations, interactions with other age cohorts. Social relations change as we age.

34
Q

What is social stratification?

A

Process by which social groups are evaluated and acted upon differently by societal members, influence and are cosequential on identity, life chances, interactions/quality of life. Leads to inequality and inequity.

35
Q

What is equality?

A

Act of treating people equally, regardless of where they come from or their needs.

36
Q

What is equity?

A

Treating people differently depending on their needs.

37
Q

What is ageism according to Robert Butler?

A

Intentional/unintentional discriminatory attitudes/acts on the basis of negative perceptions about actual or perceived chronological age of an individual or group. Can be both individual and structural.

38
Q

What is individual ageism?

A

Individual beliefs that infleunce thinking/behaviour

39
Q

What is institutional ageism?

A

Legislation, media, policy etc and how older people are treated and represented in these areas. Older people are beginning to be seen more positively. Exaggerations foster discrimination and prejudice, fear of ageing population shutting down healthcare.

40
Q

What are population factors?

A

The amount of people, age, and gender distribution.

41
Q

What does a population pyramid do?

A

Predicts trends fo the future.

42
Q

How can you tell if a population is growing?

A

There will be more people at the bottom of the pyramid (in their pre-reproductive years). A country that is a good example is Rwanda.

43
Q

Where is Canada’s population pyramid at the largest?

A

In the mid cluster, reproductive age, indicates slow growth.

44
Q

Where is Japan’s population pyramid at the largest?

A

Post-reproductive age, decline in population.

45
Q

What happens when a country becomes industrialized?

A

Recent industrialization finds an increase in LE and a decrease in child mortality. Birth rates are constant, and the population increases.

46
Q

What happens when industrialization moves farther along?

A

Fall in birth rates, increased education and opportunities for women, urban living with smaller families.

47
Q

What happens when industrialization is at an advanced state?

A

Birth and death rates are low, stable/declining population.

48
Q

What is the sociological imagination according to Mills?

A

To understand ourselves, we must understand the relationship between ourselves and society.