Study Guide Exam 1 PowerPoint Book Notes Chapter 1 The Field of Social Gerontology What is Gerontology Gerontology the scientific study of the biological psychological and social aspects of aging The term was coined by immunologist Elie Metchnikoff in 1904 Social Gerontology is a sub field that focuses on the social aspects of aging such as family relationships health retirement widowhood and care of the frail elderly How is successful aging defined What factors create a fulfilling and healthy life in old age Prevention of disease and disability Attainment of peak physical and psychological functioning Participation in rewarding and productive activities The focus on successful aging represents a shift from the negative to the positive It involves both the individual and society 1 1 Be able to define chronological age functional age and subjective age identity Chronological Age may differ from one nation or group to another In the U S usually 65 is the market generally a pretty arbitrary marker Problematic because it lumps together people of widely varying generations into a single category 3 sub categories 1 Young old 65 74 2 Middle old 75 84 3 Oldest old 85 and above Social Roles sets of expectations or guidelines for people who occupy given positions such as a widow grandfather or retiree Age as indicated by a social role Functional Age based on how people look at you and what they can do Can categorize people as well elderly somewhat impaired elderly frail elderly 1 Well Elderly people who are healthy and active 2 Somewhat Impaired Elderly those who are in a transitional stage beginning to experience chronic ailments and need some assistance from family or community service agencies 3 Frail Elderly they show some mental or physical deterioration and depend on other for carrying out their daily activities need more care from family members and may be in institutions In other words a person becomes old when he or she can no longer perform the major roles of adulthood May also be measured by such normal physical changes as stiffness of joints diminished short term memory reduced skin elasticity and diminished aerobic capacity May be determined by appearance Ex Gray hair wrinkles Subjective Age Identity You re as young as you feel Influenced by class and gender people of lower SES view the onset of old age as occurring at a younger age more likely to feel older than their chronological age women hold ore youthful age identities than men People who are successful in compensating for functional limitations are able to maintain a subjective age identity The most important factors in subjective age identity are activity level and health health is the most important factor 2 What is a cohort Cohort a cohort is the aggregate of individuals who experience the same event within the same time interval Ex Children born in the same year Cohorts are used to identify age differences Can also consist of people who enter a particular system at the same time Ex College freshmen regardless of age Cohort aging the continuous advancement of a cohort from one age category to another over it s lifespan Sometimes the term generation is used interchangeably with cohort however social scientists usually reserve the term generation for studies of family processes in this sense then generation refers to kinship linkages There are six identifiable birth cohorts that spanned the twentieth century 1 Swing Generation 1900 1926 many have died 2 Silent Generation 1927 1945 during the Great Depression and World War II 3 Baby Boomers 1946 1964 the biggest cohort lives were transformed by the civil rights movement the women s liberation movement and the anti Vietnam War movement which uprooted traditional social institutions and social norms 4 Baby Bust 1965 1976 a small cohort 5 Echo Boomers 1977 1994 the children of the Baby Boomers 6 Millenials 1995 2005 children who were born at the dawn of a new century Cohorts vary in racial gender ethnic composition family size life expectancy and overall size Baby Boomer cohort is much larger than the others Cohort Effect the distinctive experiences that members of a birth cohort share and that shapes them throughout their lives 3 Define the term ageism Ageism is defined as a set of beliefs and attitudes toward the aged Ageism also is a tendency to patronize the elderly and be over solicitous to them People who hold ageist attitudes don t look at the aged as individuals but instead judge them as members of a social category People with ageist attitudes often view women more harshly than they view men This is because women are more likely to be evaluated by their sexual attractiveness whereas men are more likely to be evaluated by their occupational success for women avoiding age discrimination depends on maintain a youthful appearance Ex A man with gray hair and wrinkles may be looked at as distinguished looking but a woman is just simply thought to be old Includes two distinct activities 1 Discrimination denying people opportunities because of their age Age Discrimination occurs when people act on the basis of negative stereotypes most common in the workplace Ex When employers do not recognize the value of older workers when physicians treat older people differently than younger patients 2 Prejudice holding negative stereotypes about older people Stereotypes are a composite of ideas and beliefs attributed to people as a group or a social category may incorporate some characteristics of attributes that accurately describe some people who belong to the group but they always fail to capture the diverse qualities of all the individuals in the group Ageism in the Media TV elderly not in much TV and when they are they are shown as more comical stubborn and foolish than other characters although this has greatly improved since the 1970s Print although some studies of the print media have found that the elderly are more likely than other age groups to be portrayed negatively others have noted an equal number of positive portrayals particularly in fiction In contrast to adult fiction which presents the aging and the aged in a realistic and often positive way children s books consistently portray the elderly in a stereotypical and negative fashion Film the theme of aging as a journey of self revelation has also been prominent in films despite an increasing number of realistic portrayals of the elderly in books and films stereotypes of the aging abound in the media as well as in