Social aspects of ageing

Question 1

What does ageing encompass?

Answer 1

biological: organic maturation and decay
Sociological: the way that processes are understood and their importance for members of societies. The latter will differ across different cultures.

Question 2

How does the social dimension of human ageing inform health care?

Answer 2

when clinically assessing a patient, there should never be the notion of “this is normal for a 80-year old” type of assumptions

Question 3

What are the social trends in ageing?

Answer 3

1951- 2037
increase in life expectancy (actual and predicted) with a high pensionable age

2037 - predicted increase of 40% >65 within population

Question 4

How do the social ageing trends affect age structure in the UK? How is this kind of info plotted?

Answer 4

pyramid diagram - shows age structure. Population in millions (x-axis) and Age (y-axis)

comparison of 2012 - 2037
higher proportion of people are at >65 category so there is a perceived shifting up of the pyramid diagram shape

Question 5

What is the parameter which reflects a larger proportion of the population >65?

Answer 5

= old age dependency ratio (number of persons >65 expressed as % of number of people aged 15-64)
Note that these are projected values, not bases on actual numbers

Question 6

Where is the analytical emphasis placed in sociology of ageing?

Answer 6

particular and changing social context in which ageing takes place
therefore, older people are not a homogenous group

Question 7

What affects how older people perceive ageing?

Answer 7

social differences: marked by gender, socio-economic class, income and wealth, ethnicity

Question 8

What are the common cohort effects in ageing?

Answer 8

ageist attitudes - lead to age discrimination and social stigma

political and economic implications of ageing population (e.g. widening dependency ratio, pension funding, rising NHS demands)

social psychological consequences - e.g. social isolation

Question 9

What is the overall dependency ratio?

Answer 9

= number of individuals >65 and <18 (e.g. non-working population) as a percentage of those aged 19-64 (assumed to be working)
given as a %

Question 10

Why is ageing considered a largely ambiguous concept?

Answer 10

‘ageing’ often used as synonym for study of old age (which is actually gerontology

Question 11

What are the 2 separate notions to consider when looking at the sociology of ageing?

Answer 11

biographical: personal account of someone’s life (usually recounted by that individual). therefore a subjective account of ageing process.
historical: impact of cohort effects upon the individual experience of ageing

Question 12

Give an example of cohort effects in terms of historical dimension of ageing?

Answer 12

1) impact of war-time Britain: first generation of children growing up since foundation of British Welfare state are now in the >65 age category
War: has a COHORT effect on their individual experience of ageing process

2) Peak in smoking trends: likely to have impact on lung cancer incidence rate ~30-40 years late, but can be tracked to a particular birth group retrospectively

Question 13

How did the ‘Life Course Perspective’ come about?

Answer 13

confluence of several theoretical approaches

e.g. social scientific and biological

Question 14

What is the ‘Life Course Perspective?’

Answer 14

reflects a shift towards dynamic understanding of ageing

contrast to life cycle construct: static representation of the ageing process based almost entirely on the biological processes

Question 15

What is the ‘Life Cycle model’?

Answer 15

Predictable and universal biological stages through which people must inevitably pass through
e.g. childhood, adulthood, old age

Question 16

What is the main caveat with the Life Cycle model of human ageing?

Answer 16

considered to be too deterministic
= all human action is ultimately determined by processes that are external to human will
i.e. we as individuals have no input or control

Question 17

How does the Life course model address the main caveat of Life cycle model?

Answer 17

Main caveat of life cycle model: too deterministic
Life course model: more fluid concept

Life stages are not standardised or fixed points in time.

They can be subject to historical change, cultural diversity and individual diversity

Question 18

What are the advantages of conceptualising ageing? (in life course perspective)

Answer 18

enables variations and continuities in social status
that individuals will experience as they mature
these factors are given emphasis in this model

Question 19

What is the main structural unit in life course model, through which the ageing process traverses?

Answer 19

= LIFE DOMAINS
individual participation passes through these domains from birth to death
this defines that person’s individual ageing process (and is thus dynamic between space, time and people)

Question 20

What do Life domains (Life course model) encompass?

Answer 20

school years
entry into job market 
employment
interruption due to children (not fixed stage) 
retirement 
death

Question 21

What ‘traditional’ life course patterns derive from participation in the Life domains set out in the life course model?

Answer 21

childhood growing up in a family
leaving parental home
Partnership formation
Parenthood 
pursuing a career

Question 22

What does the life course perspective emphasise?

Answer 22

dynamics of social roles played by individuals over a lifetime

Question 23

What are TRAJECTORIES in the life course model?

Answer 23

changing level of individual participation within social structures
e.g. school, work, marriage, parenthood

Question 24

What are TRANSITIONS in the life course model?

Answer 24

mark start and end of a given trajectory, adding a form and meaning to them
e.g. transition from child to adult or employment to retirement

Question 25

What is the purpose of trajectories and transitions in the life course model?

Answer 25

contextualises the ways in which social roles change and develop over a lifetime
Note: transitions are typically shorter in duration than trajectories

Question 26

In practice, what is the nature of trajectories to represent the dynamics of life course in actual terms?

Answer 26

trajectories tend to be multi-role in nature
makes sense, as usually there are multiple trajectories at play at any one given time
this also makes sense given the participation of an individual at multiple levels in society

Question 27

What is the central idea characteristic of the life course model?

Answer 27

Blurring of relationship between chronological age and identifiable life stages
(esp. in relation to older age)

It would seek to ID historical and cultural processes that led to emergence of the conception of ‘old age’ as a specific life stage

Question 28

How has Industrialisation in the West affected the concept of ‘old age’ as a life stage?

Answer 28

pre-industrialised: most people were self-sufficient as they worked for most of their adult lives => less distinction between working life and old age

post-industrialised: old age was more associated with retirement age period as working life could finish ~65yr and then people could enjoy freedom from employment
Since the pensionable age was 65yo this correlated with coining of ‘old age’ as a life stage

Question 29

How does family size affect the economic, social and familial power that is perceived as part of ‘old age?’

Answer 29

pre-industrialisation: families were larger than today and more closely engaged with one another
Therefore the older members were seen to be the ones with the most power (in terms of wealth, wisdom etc)

Today: there is increasing social isolation as families are smaller and parents/older members no longer live with the rest of the family
Different perceptions of ‘old age’ and what this life stage brings to the rest of the family
Older people lost their high social status
Latter time associated older people with a sense of dependency (and burden) on the rest of the working family

Question 30

What was the consequence of industrialisation of older people in terms of economic and social inclusion?

Answer 30

Social and economical segregation

Due to mandatory work retirement and social security dependence

Question 31

How is individual agency included in the life course model?

Answer 31

Allows the interplay and dynamic relationship for it

and between private lives and public events

Question 32

What is the ‘third age’ notion?

Answer 32

demonstrates increased opportunities for ‘active ageing’
-> down to better pensions, early retirement practices and increase in life expectancy (and that this is largely disability free)

more of a positive outlook on old age
Debatable whether this perspective has actually entered social thinking and how we perceive older people