Theory of Social Ageing

7/29/2019 Theory of Social Ageing

1/13

THEORY OF SOCIAL

AGEING

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Mr K.K BANSAL SANDEEP

BHATTACHARJEE


2/13

INTRODUCTIONThis assignment presents some answerstheoretical statements that have

been placed in two broad categories(1) theories that attempt to conceptualize the adjustment of individuals to

their own aging and

(2) theories that deal with the relationship between a societys s ocial

system and its older members.Theorizing in social gerontology

Theorizing in social gerontology has a long way to go. In part, thisis the case because theory has become devalued in gerontology.

Also, student and professionals are attracted to gerontologyprecisely because it provides an opportunity to help people in need,

not because it provides an opportunity to develop social theory. In addition, as bengtson, rice, and johnson [ 1999 ] point out, the

postmodernist critique of science as truth as well as the resistanceto interdisciplinary investigation in gerontology have alsocontributed to the devaluing of theory development in gerontology.

Four pragmatic justifications for the usefulness of theory in gerontology

According to bengtson, rice, and johnson (1999)

(1) Integration of knowledgea good theory summarizes findings from

different empirical studies and describes linkages among keyconstructs

(2) Explanation of knowledgea useful theory describes in a logically

sound way how and why empirically observed phenomena are

related.Four pragmatic justifications for the usefulness of theory in gerontology(3) Predictions about what is not yet known or observedresearch based

on theory can lead to new discoveries based on principles proposed in

earlier theories.(4) Interventions to improve human conditionstheory is valuable when

applied to existing knowledge in order to solve problems or alleviate

human suffering. Theory can inform public policy.


3/13

DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES ON AGINGAGING AND THEINDIVIDUALS

Role theory, activity theory, disengagement theory, continuity theory,

socioenvironmental theory, exchange theory, symbolic interactionism AGING AND SOCIETY

Subculture of the aging, modernization theory, age stratification,

political economy of aging,

EMERGENT THEORIESCritical gerontology, feminist gerontology

..AGING AND THE INDIVIDUAL

ROLE THEORY

The earliest attempt in social gerontology to understand the adjustment of

the aged individual was placed within a roletheory framework (cottrell

1942).

Generally speaking, research done within this framework was practically

oriented.researchers were concerned with the problems of adjustment due to role

changes in later life.Two changes categories in aging process

(1) The relinquishment of social relationships

and roles typical of adulthood and (2) Their replacement by retirement and the acceptance of social

relationships typical of the later years, such as dependency on

offspring [ cavan et al 1949 ] The special dilemma of role change for older people is that they are more

likely to lose roles than to acquire new ones.

Further, these losses, such as the loss of the worker role with retirement,are largely irreversible and may lead to erosion of social identity and

decline in selfesteem. (rosow 1985) . Phillips study under the role theory framework

In his study of almost 1000 individuals age 60 and over, he foundsignificantly more maladjustment to old age in the retired when

compared with the employed. Maladjustment is measured by self.

Another important variable used by phillips is labeled identificationas old. This item, a measure of selfimage, simply asks, how do

you think of yourself as far as age goesmiddleaged, elderly,old ?


4/13

Individuals, who perceive themselves as elderly of old aresignificantly more maladjusted than are those who perceive

themselves as middleaged.

SEX-ROLE DIFFERENTIATION AND LIFE

SATISFACTION

Sinnott [1977], after reviewing many studies on middle and oldage, came to the conclusion that survival and satisfaction in old ageoften accompany flexibility in sex roles.

Reichard, livson, and Petersonv [1962] studied how 87 menbetween the ages of 55 and 84 adjusted to aging. the best adjusted

exhibited personalities not dominated by male traits. the researchersconcluded that growing old may make it possible for a man tointegrate formerly unacceptable feminine traits [ e. g. nurturance or

passivity ] into his personality. their data show that those best ableto make the integration are rewarded by a more successful old age.

Neugarten, Crotty, and Tobin [1964] found older men and women

who were the most satisfied with life to be those who had best

achieved an integration of straits culturally defined as masculine

with traits culturally defined as feminine. While studying the structure of selfconcept, Monge [1975] found

certain continuity as well as discontinuities across the life cycle.

monges results suggest that as men and women become older, they

become more androgynous that is, more alike and perhaps moreaccepting of traits of the opposite sex in themselves.


5/13

ACTIVITY THEORY

States that aging brings individual unadjustment. through activity, however, readjustment and life satisfaction can be

achieved.

The theory holds that, although aging individuals face inevitablechanges related to physiology, anatomy, and health status, their

psychological and social needs remain essentially the same .the social world may withdraw from older people, making it more

difficult for them to fulfill these needs.

the person who ages optimally is the one who stays active andmanages to resist the withdrawal of the social world.

the individual who is able to maintain the activities of the middleyears for as long as possible will be well adjusted and satisfied with

life in the later years.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES AND LIFE SATISFACTIONLemon, Bengtson, and Peterson [1972] attempted a formal and explicit

test of the activity theory. using a sample of 411 potential inmovers to

a southern california retirement community. they distinguishing among informal activity (with friends, relatives, and

neighbors), formal activity (participation in voluntary organizations), and

solitary activity (maintenance of household). they found that only social

activity with friends was significantly related to life satisfaction.social activities and life satisfaction

Knapps (1977) study of 51 elderly people residing in the south ofengland lends support to these findings.

Within this sample, there was a strong positive relationshipbetween the number of hours spent in a typical week with friends

and relatives [ informal activity ] and life satisfaction.

Several measures of formal activity were also found to be stronglyrelated to life satisfaction.

THEORETICAL PROBLEMS IN THE ACTIVITY

APPROACHFIRST PROBLEMthe activity perspective assumes that individuals have a great deal of

control over their social situations.


6/13

it assumes that people have the capacity to constructor, more

appropriately, reconstructtheir lives by substituting new roles and

activities for lost ones.

Clearly, this may be the case for the uppermiddleclass individual

whose locus of control has always been internal and whose social andeconomic resources allow for such reconstruction.In this regard, the theory may be more about the relationships among

socioeconomic status, lifestyle, health, and psychological wellbeing

than about the relationship between activity and life satisfaction.SECOND PROBLEM

The activity perspective emphasizes the stability of psychological andsocial needs through the adult phases of the life cycle. but what about the

person whose environment changes at a particular agefor example,

when he or she retires, is deprived of status, or is widowed? might thisindividuals social and psychological needs change in the face of thesubstantial change in environment?THIRD PROBLEM

An important problem in activity theory is the expectation thatactivities of any kind can substitute for lost involvement in work,marriage, and parenting.

DISENGAGEMENT THEORYput forth by Cumming and Henry (1961), stands in contrast to role theory

and activity theory.Disengagement theory represents a transformation or new way of

thinking about aging that shifted the focus away from the individual tothe social system as the source o f explanation (Lynott and Lynott 1996).cumming and henry asked, how does this affect the needs of social

system functioning?

MAIN POSTULATES OF DISENGAGEMENT THEORY

(1) The aging individual acceptsperhaps even desiresthe decrease inn

interaction.

(2) Proponents of this theory argue that gradual disengagement is

functional for society, which would otherwise be faced with

disruption by sudden withdrawal of its members.


7/13

(3) The disengagement theory postulates that society withdraws from the

aging person to the same extent as the person withdraws from

society. this is , of course just another way of saying that the

process is normatively governed and in a sense agreed upon by all

concerned.(4) Cumming and Henry (1961) argue that the process of disengagementwas both inevitable and universal.

All social systems, if they were to maintain successful equilibrium,would necessarily disengage from the elderly.

disengagement was seen as a prerequisite to social stability. olderpeople could be released from societal expectation that they work and beproductive.IMPORTANT DISENGAGEMENT

Important disengagement included the departure of children fromfamilies as well as retirement for men or widowhood for women. itwas not concerned with nonmodal cases.

Early widowhood or late retirementnor was it concerned with thespecial effects of poverty or illness.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY AND

DISENGAGEMENT ELAINE CUMMING, one of the originators of disengagement

theory, published a paper in which she discussed the relationshipbetween personality [ or what she called temperament ] anddisengagement.

she wrote that all people have a style of adaptation to theenvironment and went on to identify two different modes ofinteracting with the environment: THE IMPINGING MODE ANDTHE SELECTING MODE.

THE IMPINGING ACTIVIST AND THE SELECTOR the impinging activist, willing to try out his or her style of

adaptation on others, the impingers judgment may not be as good as it was, but he or she

is likely to be viewed as an unusual person for his or her age. ultimately, as he becomes less able to control the situations be

provokes, he may suffer anxiety and panic through failure both toarouse and to interpret appropriate reactions.

his problem in old age will be avoid confusion. the selector

the selector can be expected to be more measured in his or herways.


8/13

as a youth, this individual may have appeared to others aswithdrawn.

with age, this style seems more appropriate in oldage, becauseof his reluctance to generate interaction, he may, like a neglect edinfant, develop a kind of marasmus.

his foe will be apathy rather than confusion (cumming 1963 )CRITICS ON DISENGAGEMENT THEORY(1) through the 1960s and 1970s, most research efforts were unable to

offer empirical support for the theory.YOUMANS (1967) foundthat a sample of the rural elderly did not, in general, experiencedisengagement.

(2) TALLMER AND KUMER(1970) found that physical and socialstress, rather than aging perse, often produces disengagement. this

suggests that the extent to which a person disengages may be afunction of that individuals occupation or position in thecommunity.

HOCHSCHILDS CRITICS(PROBLEMS) ON

DISENGAGEMENT THEORY(1) First, Hochschild argues that the disengagement theory allows no

possibility for counterevidence.(2) Second, the major variables in the theoryage and disengagementturn out to be umbrella variables, which are divisible into numerous

other promising variables (social and psychological disengagement). carp[1969] distinguishes among types of social disengagement,(3) Third, the disengagement theory essentially ignores the aging personsown view of aging and disengagement. behavior that looks likedisengagement to the observer may have a completely differentmeaningfor the aging person.


9/13

FOUR OTHER THEORIESInto the 1980s, the activity and disengagement perspectives dominated

the theoretical discussion in social gerontology, but several alternative

perspectives have since been put forth. four somewhat related theories

that deserve mention are theCONTINUITY THEORY

SOCIOENVIRONMENTAL THEORYEXCHANGE THEORYSYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM.

CONTINUITY THEORY

RY HOLD THAT MIDDLEAGED AND OLDER ADULTSMAKE ADAPTIVE CHOICES IN AN EFFORT TO PRESERVE

TIES WITH THEIR OWN PAST EXPERIENCES(ATCHLEY1989).

CONTINUITY IS A SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENON AND CAN BEINTERNAL, EXTERNAL, OR BOTH.

INTERNAL CONTINUITY

INTERNAL CONTINUITY requires memory and is tied to aremembered inner structure, such as the persistence of a psychic

structure of ideas, temperament, affect, experiences, preferences,dispositions, and skill.

pressures and attractions that move people toward internalcontinuity include the importance of cognitive continuity formaintaining mastery and competence, a sense of ego integrity, andselfesteem.

EXTERNAL CONTINUITY

EXTERNAL CONTINUITY involves memory of the physical andsocial environments of ones past, including role relationships andactivities. older people may be motivated toward external

continuity by the expectations of others, the desire for predictablesocial support, or the need to cope with physical and mental healthchanges as well as changes in social roles involving the empty nest,widowhood, or retirement.

according to atchley, individuals classify the degree of continuity intheir lives into threegeneral categories : too little, optimum, andtoo much.


10/13

SOCIOENVIRONMENTAL THEORY socioenvironmental theory directs itself at understanding the effects

of the immediate social and physical environment on the activitypatterns of aged individuals.

the chief proponent of this theory is JABER GUBRIUM [1973,1975].

Gubrium concerns himself with the meaning old people place onlife and with the effect different physical and social contexts mayhave on that meaning.

this approach is based on the understanding that people respond tothe social meaning of events rather than to some absolute aspect of

these events.

the responses of persons might easily be different if the socialmeaning placed on the event by one varies from the meaning placedon that event by the other.

two factors affecting the meaning old people placed on events (p. 218) according to gubrium (1973), two factors that affect the meaning

old people placed on eventsand thus their interaction patternsare the physical proximity of other persons and the age

homogeneity of an environment.

ROSOWS (1967) seminal work on elderly people in clevelandshows that old people residing in apartment buildings with a highconcentration of aged people were more likely to developfriendships with neighbors than was the case for old people residing

in buildings with a low concentration of elderly.GUBRIUMS TYPOLOGY OF SOCIAL CONTEXT

on the basic of the possible contributions of the two variables, physicalproximity and age homogeneity, gubrium developed a typology of socialcontexts.type 1. age homogeneous, close physical proximity. type 2. age heterogeneous, close physical proximity. type 3. age homogeneous, distant physical proximity. type 4. age heterogenous, distant physical proximitystudies

a number of studies show the relationship between agehomogeneity and friendship patterns. messer [ 1967] found thatelderly people in agehomogeneous public housing projects inchicago interacted more frequently than did elderly persons livingin ageheterogeneous settings.

socioenvironmental theory posits that type 1. social contexts havethe highest degree of age concentration and are thus quite


11/13

conductive to social interaction. residential apartment buildings forthe elderly are the type 1 variety.


12/13


13/13

f utmost importance to the socioenvironmental theory is the recognition

that different social contexts generate different sets of activity norms for

aged.

(2)To the extent such norms place behavioral demands on individuals, it

becomes clear that different social contexts place different demands onthe elderly.(3)Gubrium suggests that individuals who have the resources (health,

financial solvency, and social support)] to meet the demands of the

environment will show high morale and selfsatisfaction.(4)Incongruence between environmental expectations and activityresources leads to low morale and diminished life satisfaction...

Documents

Theory of Social Ageing