Aging Throughout the semester we have tried to understand individual choice and individual experiences in the context of social forces and constraints, and the patterning of experience by location in the social structure. Present your understanding of this very sociological perspective. Use examples and readings to support your position. Illustrate your points by referring to a specific phenomenon. Many times when asked about aging, people will respond with the statement, "Aging is what you make of it." This statement places the responsibility to cope in society on the individual. Through careful analysis of the sociological perspective, this can be understood to be another blame the victim situation. Social forces are incredibly strong. They influence every one of our lives on a daily basis. Some may argue they create who we are today and who we will become tomorrow. Most importantly they place restraints on the possibilities for the individual, especially the aging individual. The statement, "Aging is what you make of it" is false because society constructs the aging experience. Everything is socially constructed through a process of society. From the time we are born be are socialized to know how society works. In America we have been socialized to go to the bathroom in a certain orderly manner, with social rules such as washing your hands afterwards, being very important. In other cultures this same procedure may be completely different because they are socialized to follow a different procedure. One procedure may not be better than the other may, but because society has decided to follow the procedure it is part of the socialization process when we are children. Just as we are socialized to go to the bathroom... ... middle of paper ... ... aging experience is shaped by society through structural dependency, ageism, and all aspects of society. The statement "aging is what you make of it" is an example of a blame the victim attitude about aging. In the 'blame the victim' attitude people blame the victim for their situation, they see it then in the power of the individual to find the solution to the problem. The better attitude would be a 'blame the system approach" to problems. This approach says that society is the source of the problem and the solution. People must be conscious of their social imagination, so that they are able to analyze their place in society. As shown, aging is not what you make of it. An individuals aging experience is constructed by society. In order to make the most out of aging, society will have to fix problems such as ageism, structured dependency, and many others.
Aging is a phenomena we are all familiar with, a trait characteristic of all humankind, in fact, of all living organisms. What are the effects of aging, especially those which go beyond the biological aspects and effect the social aspects of changing roles, seniority, and treatment of the aged? What was the original human condition before high-tech medical interventions redefined death and dying, before the industrial age changed the nature of the nuclear and extended family? Going back still farther, what can the behavior of chimpanzees tell us about the origins of our responses to the aging of those around us?
Aging occurs in every species. Over time a change occurs on a cellular level in a person’s body, which causes degenerative effects on the brain, muscles, organs, bones, hormones, and DNA. In 1991, the book Evolutionary Biology of Aging, offered the following definition of aging: a persistent decline in the age-specific fitness components of an organism due to internal physiological deterioration.1 Aging affects the body physically and mentally. Many people dread getting older due to the numerous changes the body goes through. The geriatric population experiences many pains and is inflicted with various diseases. There are a few who are lucky enough to not get diagnosed with a life altering disease, such as Alzheimer’s, type II diabetes, high blood pressure, macular degeneration, or some form of cancer. Studies have shown that genetics play a vital role in the aging process.
In today’s society, what was once said to be true and taken as fact regarding older people is no longer the whole story. As Laslett states, “At all times before the middle of the twentieth century and all over the globe the greater part of human life potential has been wasted, by people dying before their allotted time was up.” (1989a), and to a great extent a lot
Atchley, R. C. (1997). Social forces and aging: An introduction to social gerontology (8th ed.).
Ageing is something that everyone will eventually experience if they are fortunate to live a long life. The process of ageing comes with various negative and positive outlooks. In western culture, ageing for both genders is particularly condemned. In the media in particular, the process of ageing for men and women vary greatly. Where, women are condemned for ageing more than men are. Media greatly highlights on the stereotypical notion of ageing especially in the aspect of portraying men and women and their social roles through advertisement. I will be discussing
Theories concerned with ageing are constructed in an attempt to objectively satisfy the inquiries that arise after studying ageing and to provide evidence based clarifications. In the context of this essay, they allow troubleshooting regarding issues around the type of support would be expected to be needed by Betty and her son. Bengtson et al, (1999) accepts the potential pragmatism of the theories nevertheless he argues that they can be generalised and unimaginative. The controversy regarding theorising ageing becomes especially relevant when they are applied in isolation failing to address that “the science and positivism are severely limiting… for understanding aspects of ageing.” Bengtson et al (1999)
The article “What is Successful Aging”, thoroughly explained the author’s thoughts on what aging successfully actually means. I think it is extremely vital to try our best to be content with our lives and what we have done at a later age. Integrity versus despair, as we learned in class kept coming to mind while reading the article. It is important that when one reaches this age he or she doesn’t feel like there is more to look back on than to look forward to. I agreed with the author’s views on self-efficacy and different opportunities in aging successfully.
Older adults are a very knowledgeable population and have had a lot of life experiences. As people age, things start to change physically, mentally, and socially. It’s important to understand the process of aging, so that older adults can be taken care of properly. I interviewed P.R. who is a 71-year-old male that lives alone in his home. P.R. is a retired coal miner, and is currently living off his social security and savings. He lives close to both his daughter and son, who frequently help him out with things that are needed. P.R. was able to give me a lot of insight about specific challenges that he has experienced in his life that is associated with aging. I will be discussing challenges that P.R experienced physically, mentally,
305). Society is constantly bombarded by messages informing us about how to reduce the signs of aging, instead of accepting the natural process (Germov, 2014, p. 305). These beliefs have lead to ageism being very common in society. Ageism is best defined as the negative attitudes, which are associated with the aging process (Novak, 2006, p. 3). Ageism involves an individual or group being stereotyped and experiencing discrimination due to their biological age (Novak, 2006, p. 3). This discrimination can be direct or indirect discrimination, victimisation or harassment (Johnson, 2013, p. 27). Unlike other individuals and groups who are stereotyped and discriminated against, those who are making these comments will one day themselves be of old
When we are young we never think about what we are going to be like when we are 80 or 90. We just think of the present. Aging is something almost everyone experience’s in their lifetime. Everyone ages at their own rate and time, thus no one has the same experience. Some theorists believe that as we age we become disengage from society, others believe it’s the choices we make that cause disengagement from society. It’s something psychologists have argued for a long time. There is not a lot of research done on how adults age because of participant drop outs for a numerous amount of reasons; for example health issues, death or forgetting about the study all together. Older adults do not choose to become disengaged from society; the choices they make are the ones that fit their personal lifestyle the best.
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
C. Wright Mills describes the sociological imagination as a way of recognizing the pervasiveness of social influences when understanding human behaviours and social patterns. It helps people understand personal problems by understanding them in a broader context (class lecture, September 22, 2015). The sociological imagination is the key to understanding how societies control and change their members, and how societies are changed by the actions of their members (Curtis & Tepperman, 2006). Some of these sociological concepts that have influence on a person’s life include: gender, class, race/ethnicity, education, inequality, technology, and many more. In this essay I am going to use the sociological imagination to analyze how my personal life has been influenced by these larger social forces particular to the time and place in which I have grown up. More specifically, I am going to look at social forces such as class, gender,
Aging Aging is the process of growing older. It’s defined in Evolutionary Medicine “as a decrease with age in the intrinsic ability to survive and reproduce” (Stearns, 64). Aging can be influenced by natural selection. Natural selection is the mechanism by which an organism that is best suited to its environment will survive and pass on its beneficial traits in increasing numbers to the generations. For example, some animals are capable of catching their own prey, while others cannot.
Aging is about the experiences and there are several chapters in older people’s lives. We can learn from the elderly and their lives. (Tappen, 1981). The interview was very interesting to discover how people thought and lived in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, how hard it was to get opportunities to get educated and get a job. People were stricter about specific topics such as sexual orientation, morality, sex. The majority of older people lived in poverty, and they married underage, as well as they had a lot of children. Also, older people had to do hard work because they don’t have a chance to get a college degree. Parenthood was very different in these days, and they were stricter to their children, and the