Term
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Definition
| The study of the human aging process from maturity to old age |
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Term
| What is chronological, biological, psychological, and social aging? |
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Definition
Chronological: time “the number”
Biological aging: anatomy & physiology; the body
Normative vs. pathology
Normative: things that are expected to happen; ex: organs become less efficient
Pathology: disease
Psychological: the mind
Adaptive capacity: ability to adapt to a given situation
Social aging: community |
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Term
| How do we define old age? What are the 3 old age categories? (young-old, old-old, and oldest-old) |
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Definition
• Standard legal definition:
o In the U.S. the definition of old age = 65
• 3 categories of old people:
o Young-old: 65-74 years old
o Old-old: 75-84 years old
o Oldest-old: 85^ |
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Term
| What is a historical cohort? |
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Definition
Historical cohort – key historical events that shaped who a generation was
• WWI, WWII, Vietnam war, Civil Rights Movement, Feminist movement
• For us... 9/11: terrorism, military based, stereotypes
o Technology
o Convenience
o Higher education |
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Term
| What is the modernization theory? |
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Definition
Modernization theory (proposed by Cowgill):
o Industrial revolution was key event that helped to decrease status of the elderly and youth is respected and valued
o Characteristics:
Health technology
Scientific technology
Education |
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Term
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Definition
| o A group in a species that have lived long enough to reproduce |
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Term
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Definition
| A group that are defined by their age EX: baby boomers |
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Term
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Definition
| Something that the people in the same age cohort have in common because of their age or generation EX: depression era, people tend to save more and hoard more |
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Term
| Define demography. Demography is influenced by what 3 things? |
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Definition
o The study of populations
o Influenced by 3 things:
Birth rate
Death rate
Migration – movement from one place to another |
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Term
| What state has the largest number of elderly? What state has the highest percentage of older people? What states have the highest number of elderly over 85 years? |
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Definition
o California has the largest # of elderly (65^)
o Florida has the highest percentage of elderly
o Farm-belt states = Largest number of people 85^ (Iowa, Nebraska, Dakotas, Kansas) |
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Term
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Definition
| People a hundred years old or older |
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Term
| What is life expectancy? What is life span? |
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Definition
Expectancy: average number of years of remaining life from a particular point in time (prediction)
Span: maximum possible length of life for a species(absolute) |
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Term
| Terms: morbidity, mortality, mean, median, mode |
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Definition
o Morbidity: disease or illness rate
o Mortality: the death rate
o Stats:
central tendency – looking at the middle
• mean – mathematical average (most accurate)
• median – absolute middle (2nd most accurate)
• mode – number that occurs the most times |
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Term
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Definition
| at the very least an aversion, could be even as strong as hatred; could lead to prejudice against elders |
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Term
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Definition
| Coined by the media; describing older people in terms of cars and how obsolete they are |
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Term
| What is sociogenic aging? What is the biomedicalization of aging? |
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Definition
• Sociogenic aging – ageism that is imposed upon the elderly by the beliefs and values, folklore, myths, prejudice, stereotypes etc. that prevail in society
Ex: slow drivers, not very good with technology, forgetful, religious
• Bio medicalization of aging – the belief that problems associated with aging are biological rather than social or behavioral |
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Term
| What is gerontophilia? What is gerontophobia? |
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Definition
• Gerontophobia - Youth is honored; being able to work hard is valued
• Gerontophilia – love of old people; elderly is honored and respected |
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Term
| Name the central predictors for long life. |
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Definition
o Long lived parents/ grandparents/great grandparents
o Being near an ideal weight
o Low blood pressure
o Low cholesterol
o No smoking
o Moderate alcohol consumption
o Vigorous exercise at least 4-5 times a week
o Eating a healthy diet
o Good stress management and coping skills
o Protecting your skin from the sun
o People who live in poverty and have lower socioeconomic status have a lower life expectancy
o The single greatest predictor of dementia and disability is hypertension
o People who lack long term relationships have higher rates of death from all causes
o Sleeping 7-8 hours a day
o Safe sex life
o Wearing seat belts
o Engaging in life |
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Term
| What is the age-dependency ratio? |
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Definition
• Age dependency ratio: the number of people 65^ compared to the working population, so anyone younger than 65 who’s not retired
• If the proportion of 65^ and working population shows that 65^ grows faster than the working population, the cost of that goes to the tax payers |
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Term
| What are the causes of death in the 65+ population? |
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Definition
• Heart disease*
• Cancer
• Stroke* *a lot to do with diet/exercise
• COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema, asthma)
• Pneumonia & Influenza
• Chronic liver disease (alcohol)
• Accidents - falls
• Diabetes (some connection to heart disease)
• Suicide [old white men over 65 years old are most at risk]
• Homicide |
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Term
| Terms: biomedicalization of aging versus compassionate stereotyping |
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Definition
o Compassionate stereotyping: portray old aged as disadvantaged and need help
o Biomedicalization as they are frail, old, helpless, a burden |
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Term
| Hummert: golden agers, perfect grandparent, severely impaired, despondent |
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Definition
o The Golden ager – aging well, old people who are lively and adventurous and active and social, independent, successful
o Perfect grandparent – understanding, generous, kind, loving, grateful, knowledgeable, family oriented, generous, wise
o Severely impaired – idea that older people are slow thinking, incompetent, senile, incoherent, feeble and frail, inarticulate
o Despondent – idea that older people are depressed and hopeless and neglected, sad, afraid |
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Term
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Definition
| method of questioning /inquiry, understand what is the meaning of certain life events |
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Term
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Definition
| Most stressful events occur most frequently in the later years of life (illness, death in family) Highly stressed feel they have little control over their lives, and they have limited social support, and feel the have little control over their life |
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Term
| Children’s attitudes of aging versus College student’s attitudes of aging |
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Definition
Children:
-Children are greatly influenced by outside forces
-Let children have positive interactions with older people
-Researchers found that children believe the physical, psychological, and social economic powers of old people decline; therefore children believe older people have skills that are less useful than skills of the young
College:
-66% of college students believed that older people did not have enough money to live on
-61% believes that loneliness and isolation are a serious problem
-Over 50% believed that physical decline was a problem |
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Term
| Look at both the media and advertising and the aging process |
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Definition
-The media is the primary source of ageist messages that children receive
-Aging experts believe both the media and television need to revise their unrealistic portrayal of aging and should reflect a more current one
-Advertisement tells us that aging is lonely, ugly, and bothersome
-Advertisers should be careful because the elderly watch the most TV, which alienates them because of all the negative stereotypes |
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Term
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Definition
authoritarian: people who are less educated, rigid in their belief system, untrusting, and insecure. Hold prejudice more tightly
frustration-aggression: people who are frustrated by their life circumstances
Selective perception: see what we expect to see (if our perception is negative then we will only see negative) we selectively ignore what we do not expect to see. Therefore the perceptions we have confirm our stereotypes |
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Term
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Definition
1. Senility inevitably accompanies old age.
2. Most old people are alone and isolated from their families.
3. The majority of old people are in poor health.
4. Old people are more likely than younger people to be victimized by crime.
5. The majority of old people live in poverty.
6. Old people tend to become more religious as they age.
7. Older workers are less productive than younger workers.
8. Old people who retire usually suffer a decline in health and early death.
9. Most old people have no interest in, nor capacity for sexual relations.
10. Most old people end up in nursing homes and or other long care institutions. |
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Term
| Discuss the differences between the transitions of middle and older adulthood |
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Definition
Middle adulthood- transition between young adult hood and old age
-Time when people are at their peek economic base
-They are also at the peek of work life where they are the most competent
-They are at their highest earring
-They probably have the highest professional respect
-Have an established partner/relationship |
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Term
| Midlife: a transition or a crisis? |
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Definition
| -When you reach mid-life and our body changes, you realize you are getting closer to the end and it makes some people have a midlife crisis, it’s more of a transition |
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Term
| Havinghurst: 6 tasks of later life |
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Definition
1. Adjusting to a decrease in strength and physical health
2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income
3. Adjusting to the death of a spouse or life partner
4. Establishing an explicit association with one’s age group
5. Adopting and adapting societal roles in a flexible way
6. Establishing satisfactory physical arrangements (housing) |
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Term
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Definition
personality, how our personality helps us adapt to change. Proposes that a person’s ability to adapt in young adult hood and middle adult hood will predict how the person adapts to old age
Personality remains stable, it does not change |
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Term
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Definition
Trait: enduring response pattern, no matter what the context is we are going to respond the same way no matter what the challenge is
States: changes depending on the context |
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Term
| Trait Theory- Costa and McCrae |
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Definition
| personality stability is crucial for successful aging, life (state) might change but the personality (trait) remains the same |
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Term
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Definition
1. Neurotic: feelings of anxiety, worry, hostility, and depression
2. Extroverted: person’s tendency to be outgoing, active, and assertive
3. Open: have a receptiveness to new experience/ideas/changes, seek adventure
4. Agreeable vs. Antagonistic: scale/range –continuum
Agreeable: people pleasers, put others before themselves, trusting/never skeptical
Antagonistic: purposely set themselves up against the grain, to be in opposition against others, skeptical, mistrustful, stubborn to the point of rudeness
5. Conscientious vs. Undirected: continuum
Conscientious: very hard working, responsible, drive to compete or achieve Undirected: no focus, float through life, analyst, lazy, no drive |
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Term
| Longitudinal Studies: Maas Kuypers, Elder-Liker, and the Baltimore Study |
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Definition
Maas-Kuypers: observed personality in men and women over a 40 year period Found that personality remained stable throughout the life
Elder-Liker: assessed the coping mechanisms and consequences for women who lived through the great depression of the 1930’s
Found that the women who were able to manage and master traumatic events were more self reliant, more resourceful, and more self-confident as they aged
Baltimore: confirmed that personality remains stable with aging, but stress does at times alter that pattern |
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Term
| Locus of Control: internal versus external |
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Definition
Internal locus of control: see themselves as having control in life and their ability to make decisions, make the decisions they want (sees their own actions as positive outcomes)
External locus of control: feels like essentially they don’t have control in their life and things outside of their life have control over them, do what people tell them to do (see that fate, luck, or someone else has more power over their lives then they do)
-Internal locus of control is more powerful in the aging process – more likely to improve life, adapt to changes, higher life satisfaction compared to people with external |
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Term
| Cross sectional versus longitudinal studies |
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Definition
Longitudinal: looking at the same group over a long period of time (20-100 years)
Cross sectional: studies done at one point in time looking at a variety of groups
-Able to generalize better if you do a longitudinal study |
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Term
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Definition
Physical and social activity is the essence of life for people of all ages
Studies found that positive personal adjustment correlates highly with activity |
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Term
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Definition
- There is a mutual withdrawal of the elderly from society and society from the elderly in order to preserve or ensure optimal functioning of both the individual and society
-Aging individuals would like to escape the stress of recognizing their own diminishing capacity
-The timing and form are different based off the individual
-Initially, the elderly are kind of depressed and anxious about this, but that over time they come to accept their new status as disengaged |
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Term
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Definition
Based on the premise that individuals and groups act to minimize costs and maximize rewards
o Norm of reciprocity – involves maintaining a balance in relationships by paying for goods and deeds with equivalent goods and deeds EX: parents took care of you when you’re young, and you take care of them when they’re old
o Norm of beneficence (love/compassion) – calls into play certain emotional states; things like loyalty, gratitude, faithfulness, etc. |
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Term
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Definition
| The persons evaluation of how they feel about themselves and they’re using internal criteria as opposed to external criteria |
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Term
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Definition
Life Satisfaction Index A
Scale related with psychological wellbeing
Bernice Neugarten
Most frequently used, best known instrument for measuring life satisfaction and researchers like to debate using this scale
o Debate how valid this instrument is, how reliable it is, and consistent with its results, and if the scale is one-dimensional or multidimensional |
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Term
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Definition
| The degree to which something is central, important, meaningful |
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Term
| Phenomenological Theory of Aging |
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Definition
| Idea that older people actually we listen to the voices of the people that are aging so we attempt to find what aging is all about by people telling us stories and experiences is |
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Term
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Definition
| The study of salience and phenomenology, the technique in how we find out what is central and meaningful for an older person’s life |
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Term
| Discuss the concept of life satisfaction and meaning & purpose in life |
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Definition
-Researchers believe life satisfaction AND wellbeing are based off of what kind of positive interactions or negative interactions and also how they manage their stress
-High satisfaction=
Activity, relationships, good health, good income, having a spouse, interacting with friends and family including your kids and grandkids, being involved in the community, fostering a sense of wisdom
-Low satisfaction =
Limited choices, responsibilities, resources
Poor health: lack of meaning and purpose in life
Pessimism: bad attitude |
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