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INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY. AGING AND HEALTH. THE WORLD’S POPULATION IS GETTING OLDER. American children born in 1990 have a life expectancy of 78 years (Natl. Center for Health Statistics-07) 2000 yrs ago, the average newborn Roman baby could expect to live to the age of 22.
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INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY AGING AND HEALTH
THE WORLD’S POPULATION IS GETTING OLDER • American children born in 1990 have a life expectancy of 78 years (Natl. Center for Health Statistics-07) • 2000 yrs ago, the average newborn Roman baby could expect to live to the age of 22
The Population is Aging • In 1800 the average person’s chance of living to the age of 100 was roughly 1 in 20 million-today it’s 1 in 50 • By 2030 there will be more elderly people than young people in the U.S.
The Population is Aging • The young-old(65-74) • The old-old (75-84) • The oldest-old (85 and older)
What is Aging?? • Sociologically aging is the combination of biological, psychological and social processes that affect people as they grow older
Biological Aging • Biological aging typically means things like: • declining vision • Hearing loss • Wrinkles • Decline of muscle mass/accumulation of fat • Drop in cardiovascular efficiency ***These changes can be offset in part by health, diet and exercise
Psychological Aging • These effects are much less well established than physical effects • We assume memory, learning, intelligence, skills and motivation decline but this is a more complex issue • Memory and learning ability don’t decline significantly until very late in life although speed of recall may slow
Social Aging • Refers to the norms, values and roles that are culturally associated with a chronological age • These ideas differ from society to society and change over time
Functionalist theories of aging • Disengagement theory-it is functional for society to remove people from their traditional roles when they become elderly
Activity Theory • Elderly people who are busy and engaged, can be functional for society; the elderly can best serve society by being active
Conflict theory and Aging • The elderly can be seen as competing with the young for increasingly scarce resources • Among the elderly, those who fare worse economically are women, low-income folks and “minorities”
Symbolic Interactionist perpectives and Aging • We modify our behavior through the life course-we adapt to the changing expectations of our culture • Continuity theory- older adults can substitute satisfying new roles for those they’ve lost.