Background on the Field of Gerontology |
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(Adapted from N. Hooyman and H.A. Kiyak, 1994, Social Gerontology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, Allyn & Bacon, Inc.) Social
Gerontology The growing interest in understanding the process of aging has given rise to the multi-disciplinary field of gerontology, the study of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging. Gerontologists include researchers and practitioners in such diverse fields as biology, medicine, nursing, dentistry, psychology, sociology, economics, political science, and social work. These individuals are concerned with many aspects of aging, from studying and describing the cellular processes involved, to seeking ways of improving the quality of life for older people. Geriatrics is focused on how to prevent or manage the diseases of aging. The field has recently developed as a specialty in medicine, nursing, and dentistry, and is receiving more attention with the increase in the number of older people who have long-term health problems. Gerontologists view aging in terms of the following four distinct processes: 1. Chronological aging is the definition of aging on the basis of a person's years from birth. Thus, a 75-year-old is chronologically older than a 45-year old. Chronological age is not necessarily related to a person's physical health, mental abilities, or social status. 2. Biological aging refers to the physical changes that reduce the efficiency of organ systems, such as the lungs, heart, and circulatory system. A major cause of biological aging is the decline in the number of cell replications as an organism becomes chronologically older. Another factor is the loss of certain types of cells that do not replicate. 3. Psychological aging includes the changes that occur in sensory and perceptual processes, mental functioning (e.g., memory, learning, and intelligence), personality, drives, and motives. 4. Social aging refers to an individual's changing roles and relationships in the social structure -with family and friends, with the work world, and within organizations such as religious and political groups. As people age chronologically, biologically, and psychologically, their social roles and relationships also alter. The social context, which can vary considerably for different people, determines the meaning of aging for an individual and whether the aging experience will be primarily negative or positive. Social GerontologyThe purpose of this web page is to introduce you to social gerontology. This term was first used by Clark Tibbitts in 1954 to describe the area of gerontology that is concerned with the impact of social and socio-cultural conditions on the process of aging and with the social consequences of this process. This field has grown as we have recognized the extent to which aging differs across cultures and societies. Social gerontologists are interested in how the older population and the varieties of aging experiences both affect and are affected by the social structure. Older people are now the fastest growing population segment in the United States, with a growth rate much higher than that for younger age groups. The number of people over age 75 is expected to expand rapidly in the coming decades. This fact has far-reaching social implications for the areas of health care, workplace pension and retirement practices, community facilities, and patterns of government spending. Already, it has led to new specialties in health care-the growth of specialized services such as retirement housing, nursing homes, adult day health programs, and a leisure industry aimed at the older population. Changes in the socio-political structure, in turn, affect characteristics of the older population. For example, the widespread availability of secondary and higher education, health promotion programs, and employment-based pensions offer hope that future generations of older people will be better educated, healthier, and economically more secure than the current generation. Social gerontologists study the impact of changes on both the elderly and our social structures. They also study social attitudes toward aging, and the effects of these attitudes on the older population. For example, as a society, we have tended to undervalue older people and to assume that most elderly are unintelligent, unemployable, nonproductive, senile, and asexual-assumptions not supported by facts. As a result, the activities open to older people, particularly in the areas of employment and leadership in community organizations, have been limited. As Robert Butler has noted, "The tragedy of old age is not that each of us must grow old and die, but that the process of doing so has been made unnecessarily and at times excruciatingly painful, humiliating, debilitating, and isolating" (Butler, 1975, pp. 2-3). However, since stereotypes of old age are socially constructed, they are capable of undergoing change if society's values alter. Fortunately, such changes are beginning to occur as the public becomes more aware of older people's capabilities and realizes that most elderly are not poor, most do not live in nursing homes, most are not victims of senile dementia, and many are capable of productive employment. With the growth in the number and diversity of older persons, societal myths and stereotypes have been challenged. The public has become increasingly aware of older citizens' strengths and contributions. The result of these actions has been to change the status of older people in our society and the way that other groups view them. Contemporary advertising, for example, is beginning to reflect the changing status of older people, from a group that is viewed as weak, ill, and poor, to one perceived as politically and economically powerful. As older people have become more politically active and as advocacy groups have emerged in support of seniors' rights, they have influenced not only public perceptions, but also laws that govern Social Security and other age-based policies and programs. Organized groups of elderly have helped to bring changes in retirement and pension policies, housing options, community facilities, health and welfare organizations, continuing education, and other services. Such political and attitudinal changes, which can profoundly transform the condition of older people, are also important issues in the study of social gerontology. Equally significant in this area of study are the social problems that continue to affect a large percentage of older people. Even though the elderly are financially better off then they were twenty years ago, over 12 percent still fall below our government's official poverty line, with that percentage rising rapidly for women, ethnic minorities, and the oldest of the old. Although less than 5 percent of the elderly are institutionalized, those who are in nursing homes often lack family and other informal supports. Growing percentages of the elderly in the community face chronic diseases that may limit their daily activities. One problem that affects an even larger proportion of the older population is escalating health care costs, with the elderly paying a higher proportion of their income for health care than they have at any time in the past. Therefore, many gerontologists are also concerned with developing policy and practice interventions to address these problems. What Is Old Age?Contrary to the messages on birthday cards, aging does not start at age 40 or 65. Even though we are less conscious of age-related changes in earlier stages of our lives, we are all aging from the moment of birth-although the earlier stages are generally referred to as development or maturation, because the individual develops and matures, both socially and physically, from birth through adolescence. After age 30, additional changes occur that reflect normal declines in all organ systems. This is called senescence. Senescence occurs gradually throughout the body, ultimately reducing the viability of different bodily systems and increasing their vulnerability to disease. This is the final stage in the development of an organism. Our place in the social structure also changes throughout our life span. Every society is age-graded; that is, it assigns different roles, expectations, opportunities, status, and constraints to people of different ages. For example, there are common social expectations about the appropriate age to attend school, begin work, have children, and retire-even though many people deviate from these expectations, and some of these expectations change over time. To call someone a toddler, child, young adult, or old person is to imply a full range of social characteristics. As we age, we pass through a sequence of defined stages, each with its own social norms and characteristics. In sum, age is a social construct with social meanings and social implications. The specific effects of age grading, or age stratification, vary across different cultures and historical time periods. A primitive society, for instance, has very different expectations associated with stages of childhood, adolescence, and old age than does our contemporary American culture. Even within our own culture, those who are old today have different experiences of aging than previous or future groups of elderly. The term cohort is used to describe groups of people who were born at approximately the same time and therefore share many common experiences. For example, current cohorts of older persons have experienced the Great Depression, the World Wars, and other events that have shaped their lives. Its members include large numbers of immigrants who came to the United States before 1920 and many who have grown up in rural areas. Their average levels of education are lower than later generations. Such factors set today's elderly apart from other cohorts and must be taken into account in any studies of the aging process. A Diverse PopulationThroughout this web page, we refer to the phenomenon of aging and the population of older or elderly people. These terms are based, to some extent, on chronological criteria, but more importantly on individual differences in social, psychological, and biological functioning. In fact, each of us differs somewhat in the way we define old age. You may know an 80-year-old who seems youthful, and a 50-year-old whom you consider elderly. Elderly people also define themselves differently. Some individuals, even in their eighties, do not want to associate with "those old people," whereas others readily join age-based organizations and are proud of the years they have lived. Neugarten (1974) and other researchers have pointed to significant differences between the "young-old" (ages 55 to 75) and the "old-old" (over age 75); more recently, Riley and Riley (1986) have identified the "young-old" (ages 65 to 74), the "old-old" (ages 75 to 85), and the "oldest-old" (over age 85), or, as one of the authors likes to express it, the "frisky, the frail, and the fragile." However, there is diversity even within these divisions. Older people vary greatly in their health status ' their social and work activities, and their family situations. Some are still employed full-time; some are retired. Most are healthy; some are frail confused, or home-bound. Most still live in a house or apartment; a small percentage are in nursing homes. Some receive large incomes from pensions and investments; many depend primarily on Social Security and have little discretionary income. Most men over age 65 are married, whereas women are more likely to become widowed and live alone as they age. For all these reasons, it is impossible to consider the social aspects of aging without also assessing the impact of individual variables such as physiological changes, health status, psychological well-being, socioeconomic class, and ethnic minority status. It is likewise impossible to define aging only in chronological terms, since chronological age only partially reflects the biological, psychological, and sociological processes that define life stages. Although the terms elderly and older persons are often used to mean those over 65 years in chronological age, we adhere to the principle that aging is a complex process that involves many different factors and is unique to each individual. Development of the FieldAlthough
the scientific study of social gerontology is relatively
recent, it has its roots in biological studies of
the aging processes and in the psychology of human
development. Biologists have long explored the reasons
for aging in living organisms. Several key publications
and research studies can be identified as milestones
in the history of the field. One of the first
textbooks on aging, The History of Life and Death,
was written in the thirteenth century by Roger Bacon. Focusing
on the potential causes of aging, Bacon suggested
that life expectancy could be extended if health
practices, such as personal and public hygiene, were
improved. The first scientist to explain aging as
a developmental process, rather than as stagnation
or deterioration, was a nineteenth-century Belgian
mathematician-statistician named Adolph Quetelet. His
interest in age and creative achievement preceded
the study of these issues by social scientists by
100 years (Elias, Elias, and Elias, 1977). His training
in the field of statistics also led him to consider
the problems of cross- sectional research; that is,
the collection of data on people of different ages
at one time, instead of the study of the same person
over a period of months or years (longitudinal research).
Demographics of AgingAs we noted earlier, the most important factor affecting current interest in the field of gerontology is the growing size of the elderly population. In 1900, people over age 65 accounted for approximately 4 percent of the U.S. population -- less than one person in 25. By 1985, one in nine Americans, or 11.7 percent of the population, was 65 years or older-a substantial increase. By 2010, because of the maturation of the baby boomers, one in seven Americans will be at least 65 years old (U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, 1986). The growth of the aged population is a worldwide phenomenon. The proportion of people living beyond age 65 is increasing in almost every country, with the greatest increase in the developing nations (World Health Organization, 1982). Many European countries, including Sweden, Norway, Austria, and Great Britain, have a higher proportion of older persons in their populations than does the United States (U.N. Secretariat, 1982). The most significant increase has been among the so-called "old-old" (Neugarten, 1982), those over age 85. In 1984, of the 28 million persons aged 65 and over in the United States, about 8.8 million were ages 75 to 84, and almost 2.6 million persons were age 85 and over (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1986a). This 85 plus population has grown more rapidly than any other age group in our country, up 165 percent from 1960 to 1982; it is expected to increase fivefold by the middle of the next century, when it will form 5 percent of the total population and 24 percent of the 65-plus population. Since World War II, mortality rates in adulthood have declined significantly, resulting in an unprecedented number of people who are reaching advanced old age and are most likely to require health and social services (Rosenwaike, 1985). |