Exam 1

Front 1

Successful Aging

Back 1

Freedom from disease and disability, an intact mental capacity, and an active engagement with life.

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Senescence

Back 2

The application of evolutionary principals to understand decline leading to death in humans and other living organisms.

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Gerontology

Back 3

Scientific study of the biological, psychological and social aspects of aging.

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Social Gerontology

Back 4

Concerned with mainly the social versus physical aspects of aging.

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Chronological Age

Back 5

Marker of old age...example, in the U.S. 65 is considered old because then you can eligible for social security and medicare.

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Young-old, Middle-old, oldest-old

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65-74, 75-84, 85+

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Functional Age

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Based on how people loo and what they can do...a person becomes old when he or she can no longer perform the major roles of adulthood.

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Subjective Age Identity

Back 8

People who are successful in compensating for functional limitations to maintain a version of themselves as young.

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Cohort

Back 9

The "group of individuals who have experienced the same event within the same time frame".

Front 10

Cohort Aging

Back 10

The continuous advancement of a cohort from one age category to another over its life span.

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Generation

Back 11

For studies of family processes...kinship linkages

Front 12

Cohort Effect

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Distinctive experiences that members of a birth cohort share and that shapes them throughout their lives.

Front 13

Stereotypes

Back 13

A composite of ideas and beliefs attributed to people as a group or a social category.

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Life Course

Back 14

Social Gerontologists who study the road map of individual patterns of growth and development.

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Life Course Framework

Back 15

an approach to the study of aging that emphasizes the interaction of historical events, individual decisions and opportunities, and the effect of early life experiences in determining later life outcomes.

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Transitions

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The role changes individuals make as they leave school, take a job, get married, have children, or retire.

Front 17

Countertransitions

Back 17

Produced by others' role changes; when you marry, your mother automatically becomes a mother-in-law.

Front 18

Period Effect

Back 18

The impact of a historical event on the entire society; like the Great Depression.

Front 19

Longitudinal Research

Back 19

Follow the same group of people over times instead of cross-sectional studies that compare subjects from different cohorts.

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National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP)

Back 20

The goal of this study is to better understand the told that social support and personal relationships play in healthy aging.

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Participant Observation

Back 21

Type of qualitative research; researchers observe people in a natural setting, keep copious notes on what they observe, and then organize their observations to help understand patterns of behavior, decision-making processes, and the social character of communities.

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Open-Ended Interviews

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Studying retirement, not as a single decision at one point in time, but as a process that for most people takes place over many years.

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Social Clock

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Age norms for a prescriptive timetable that orders major life events.

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Theory of Cumulative Disadvantage

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Highlights the influences of earlier life experiences on the quality of life in old age.

Front 25

The Kansas City Study of Adult Life

Back 25

Coupled the emphasis on adjustment with measures of social role performance across the life span.

Front 26

Disengagement Theory

Back 26

The first formal theory of aging; by Elaine C. and William Henry.

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Activity Theory

Back 27

Normal aging, the "implicit" theory of aging.

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Subculture Theory

Back 28

Shared several traits with activity theory and disengagement theory - a conviction that people lost status in old age, a focus on role changes in later life, and a belief that activity enhanced the lives of the elderly.

Front 29

Exchange Theory

Back 29

Similar to the psychosocial theories previously discussed in its interest in explaining why some older people withdraw from social interaction.

Front 30

Social Constructionism

Back 30

Do not perceive society as a set of real structures distinct from people.

Front 31

Modernization Theory

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If a country would follow the American example, they too could achieve prosperity and economic growth.

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Age Stratification Theory

Back 32

Shared with modernization theory that a concern for the status of the aged...not from population aging but from sociological research on status attainment.

Front 33

Political Economy Theories

Back 33

Highlight the structural influences on aging and emphasize the relevance of social struggles embedded in power relationships for understanding how the aged are defined and treated.

Front 34

Feminist Theories

Back 34

Of aging, are less a formal body of theory than an approach that reflects a commitment to use theory in certain ways.

Front 35

Critical Gerontology

Back 35

Most recent theoretical approach...proponents of this argue that research on aging has often been based on uncritical reliance on images from popular culture from theories that are outdated.

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Echo Boomers

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are the generation of American born between 1977 and 1994.

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Baby boomers

Back 37

Are the generation born between 1946 and 1964.

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Demography

Back 38

The combination they determine a population's age structure...

Front 39

Age Structure

Back 39

The proportion of people in various age cohorts.

Front 40

Population Aging

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A gradual increase in the proportion of older people to younger people.

Front 41

Sex Ration

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Defined as the number of males to ever 100 females.

Front 42

Fertility Rate

Back 42

A measure of the incidence of births or the inflow of new lives into a population.

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Mortality Rates

Back 43

reflect the incidence of death in a population

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Migration

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The movement of people across borders (least influential on a population)

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Population Pyramid

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A bar chart that reflects the distribution of a population by age and sex.

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Demographic Transition

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The three-stage shift from high mortality and fertility rates to low mortality and fertility rates occurs through a socioeconomic process.

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Dependency Ratio

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Calculated as the number of persons aged 65 and older per 100 persons of working age (18 to 64 years old).

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Child Dependency Ratio

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indicated the number of persons under age 18 relative to those of working age.

Front 49

Total Dependency

Back 49

The combined ratio of children and older people to workers.