Study Guide Exam 1 1 Be able to define chronological age functional age and subjective age identity In the U S usually 65 is the market Chronological Age May differ from one nation or group to another Functional Age Based on how people look and what they can do Can categorize people as well elderly somewhat impaired elderly frail elderly Subjective Age You re as young as you feel Influenced by class and gender 2 What is a cohort A Cohort is the aggregate of individuals who experience the same event within the same time interval o Children born the same year are a cohort o College freshman Aging is the advancement of a cohort from one age to another Generation is used interchangeable with cohort o Emphasizes family processes o Refers to kinship linkages Cohort can be classified by historical eras Dates are on PowerPoint o Swing Generation is the oldest o Silent Generation o Baby Boomers Biggest cohort o Echo Boomers The children of the baby boomers o Millennial Children who were born at the dawn of a century Cohorts vary in composition and character o Differ in the racial gender and ethnic composition o Differ on the basis of demographic factors Family size and life expectancy o Differ in terms of size with the baby boomers being an especially large cohort 3 Define the term ageism A set of beliefs about attitudes toward the aged Includes two distinct activities 1 Discrimination denying people opportunities because of their age 2 Prejudice holding negative stereotypes about older people Ageism can also involve patronizing the elderly 4 What are transitions Life course framework emphasizes how historical events individual decisions and available opportunities affect later life outcomes o When is the best age to have a child o When should people be finished with school Making life decisions Role Transitions As people age they move through different social roles that provide them with different identities student husband or wife worker parent Transitions refers to the role change individuals make as they leave school take a job get married have children or retire 5 Be able to distinguish between an age effect a cohort effect and a period effect Age Effect a change that occurs as a result of advancing age o Ex Declining health Period Effect the impact of a historical event on the entire society o Ex How did 9 11 affect the lives of all Americans Cohort Effect the social change that occurs as one cohort replaces another o The baby boomers are the newest cohort to grow old 6 What is the difference between longitudinal research and cross sectional research Longitudinal Research follow the same group of people over time o Advantages better than cross sectional studies for distinguishing age effects from cohort effects o Make it possible to make inferences about age change within each cohort and the effect of living through a period across cohorts o Disadvantages costly because people are re interviewed several times o Can have biases as people drop out of the study Cross sectional Research The same information is collected on people in several age groups o Advantages less costly than longitudinal studies o Can draw conclusions about cohort effects that cannot be gained through the o Disadvantages cannot determine whether age differences are due to aging or o Do people grow more conservative as they age or have older people always study of a single age group to cohort effects been more conservative 7 What are the major life course transitions that most people experience Timing refers to the idea that there are appropriate ages for making various life course transitions Leaving home returning home getting married becoming a parent completing childbearing becoming a grandparent 8 What is a social clock children retiring Age norms are continually being transformed Age norms form a Social Clock that orders major life events like marriage having 9 Know the difference between disengagement theory activity theory and continuity 1961 by Cumming and Henry theory Disengagement Theory first formal theory of aging Normal aging involved a natural and inevitable process of disengagement Because of the inevitability of death the society and the individual mutually sever their ties in advance so that the death of the individual will not be disruptive to the social system It results in decreasing interaction between aging person and social system This process is universal and inevitable Activity Theory by Havighurst Believed the person who aged optimally managed to stay active and resist the shrinkage of his or her social world Successful aging was active aging Continuity Theory Proposed by Atchley Represents a more formal elaboration of activity theory using a life course perspective to define normal aging Emphasizes that personality plays a major role in adjustment to aging and that adult development is a continuous process Definition of normal aging is controversial 10 What is a subculture By Arnold Rose Based on the idea that older people share o Common interests o Common role changes o Common generational experiences o Excluded by younger people Develop when people share similar interests concerns or when people have long Develop when groups of people are excluded from full participation in the wider Within subculture of elderly high status is conferred on those who have good standing friendships society physical and mental health The idea that the aged form a single subculture is now discounted 11 Know the basic premises of exchange theory and the concept of deferred exchange strategies Basic thesis is that social interaction between individuals is based on rational calculations People seek to maximize their rewards from these exchanges and minimize their costs Resources are often unequal and actors will continue to engage in exchanges only as long as benefits are greater that costs Interaction between the old and the young decreases because older people have fewer resources to bring to the exchange o lower income o poorer health o less education 12 What is the main thesis of modernization theory in regard to the aged Central premise is that there was once a golden age of aging o The old were few in o Held great power and authority in the community and in the family Modernization was responsible for the decline in status of the aged o As work moved from the home to the factory the of people who were self employed declined o The aged lost their economic independence and were forced into retirement o