1. Who were the first students of social gerontology, and what did
they hope to learn?
Social gerontology originated as a distinct field of study during the Depression.
Its first practitioners were developmental psychologists who had traditionally
studied growth and maturation. They viewed the basic task of research as documenting
the inevitable decline that occurred in old age. Then during the 1940s researchers
became interested in "normal" processes of aging. The basic premise
underlying this research was that growing old meant surrendering the social
relationships and social roles typical of adulthood: thus, retirement, widowhood,
the loss of distant goals and plans, and the growing dependence of the elderly
on others for support, advice, and management of daily activities. 2. What theories of aging did early gerontologists propose?
Disengage-ment theory was the first formal theory of aging. It was based on
the premise that normal aging involved a natural and inevitable withdrawal of
the individual from society. Life satisfaction was highest among those who successfully
disengaged. Subsequent research found that some people did disengage but that
disengagement was neither universal nor inevitable. Activity theory became an explicit theory of aging in response to disengagement
theory, but its core premise-that successful aging was active aging-was implicit
in most prior aging research. Activity theory asserts that older people have
the same psychological and social needs as younger people and that it is neither
normal nor natural for people to disengage. 3. How did later scholars broaden the scope of the study of aging?
Scholars broadened the scope of the study of aging to include how social forces
and large-scale societal processes influenced individual aging processes. For
example, subculture theorists argued that the aged are likely to form a subculture
because they share physical limitations and role losses. Another explicitly
social theory of aging is age integration theory, which recognizes that societies
use chronological age as a criterion for entrance, exit, or participation. 4. What is the relationship between age and social status, and does
it vary from one culture to the next?
Modernization theory attempts to understand the relationship between age and
social status. Its basic premise is that older people were revered in the past
and in preliterate societies and that their status declines with economic development.
Yet historical evidence indicates that a "golden age of aging" never
existed, while cross-cultural evidence suggests there is great variation in
how older people are treated in preliterate societies. 5. Which theories of aging consider how race, gender, and class affect
the social status of the aged?
Political economy theory is concerned with explaining how and why social resources
are unequally distributed. A central focus of research stemming from the political
economy tradition is on how public policies reproduce existing forms of inequality.
Feminist theory also attempts to illuminate the gendered nature of society.
Feminists criticize traditional research for creating separate models of aging
for men and women, for using "male models" to interpret women's experiences
and for failing to recognize how various social welfare programs reproduce gender
inequality. |