Social Aspects of Ageing

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Social Aspects of Ageing

• The Good News
• The Bad News
• The Ugly News

2
Definitions of Age

• Chronological
• Biological
• Psychological
• Subjective
• Functional
• Sociological

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Progeria

• Werner syndrome
• Hutchison-Gilford Progeria
• Genetic and incurable

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Who is old?( Burnside et al, 79)

• Young-old (60-69) major role changes
• Middle-aged old (70-79) marked by loss (e.g. of
  friends) and illness
• Old-old (80-90) increased difficulty in
  adapting.
• Very old-old (90) health problems more acute.
  Can be joyful and serene if previous crises
  resolved satisfactorily.

5
Eternal Flame Foundation

• This is Bernie and Jim who believe that they are
  immortal

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Demographics

• In 1999 world population 6 billion
• In last 50 yrs life expectancy rises from 67-76
  in 1st world and 41-65 in 3rd world
• Proportion of dependents to workers15 now but
  12 in 2040

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More Demographics
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Even More Demographics

• In UK in 1991 58 of over 65s are women
• 68 of over 85s are women

9
Ambivalence of widowhood

• My husband used to say some really awful things.
  Especially when he was angry at me which was all
  the time..and he was meanIt was a difficult
  marriage We were married 46 years and for 25
  years of it, he was sick and I had to take care
  of him. The last 10 years were really badAfter
  he died, my sister said it was like a bird being
  let out of a cage It will be 10 years next
  month!
• (Anne in Hurd 1999)

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Ageism a special prejudice

• A pejorative image of someone simply because of
  their age
• Unique prejudice because we will all become old
  ourselves
• Often held by old people themselves
• Try to distance ourselves from reminders of our
  our own fragility and mortality
• Affects women more than men

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Why are we ageist?

• Fear of death
• Emphasis on youth
• Emphasis on productivity
• Early research into ageing was flawed and
  produced negative results

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Theories of ageism

• Realistic Conflict Theory
• Social Learning Theory
• Social Identity Theory
• Psychodynamic Theory
• Cognitive Theories
• Accentuation Theory

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Challenges Ahead

• Genuine decline (cognitive and physical)
• Loss of physical attractiveness
• Nearer and nearer to death
• Loss of loved ones
• Loss of social roles

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Decline

• Phsical decline - from early middle age all body
  systems show a general decline in function
• Cognitive decline - most systems show some
  decline but great variation across abilities and
  between individuals

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Old Sex?

• Comparatively few studies
• Main predictor of sex in old age sex in youth
• Sexual interest remains high while actual
  activity levels drop
• Many individual differences

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Theories of Ageing

• Social Disengagement
• Activity Theory
• Social Exchange Theory
• Eriksons Life Cycle Theory
• Reminiscence
• Gerotranscendence

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Eriksons 8 stages

• 0-1 Trust vs mistrust
• 2-3 Autonomy vs shame
• 4-5 Initiative vs guilt
• 6-12 Industry vs inferiority
• 13-18 Identity vs role confusion
• 19-25 Intimacy vs isolation
• 26-40 Generativity vs stagnation
• 41 Ego integrity vs despair

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Ego Integrity

• Life has (had) a purpose
• It all somehow made sense
• We have learnt from all that happened
• Forgiveness of parents
• Seeing the cyclical nature of life

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4 Possible Outcomes(Walaskay 83)

• Integrity achieved
• Despair
• Foreclosed
• Dissonant

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Peck (1968) and later life

• Further divided middle and old age
• Saw later life more positively as a time for
  growth
• Criticised for cultural specificity

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Pecks stages

• Middle age
• Wisdom v physical powers
• Socialising v sexualising
• Cathectic flexibility v impoverishment
• Old age
• Ego differentiation v work-role preoccupation
• Body transcendence v body preoccupation
• Ego transcendence v ego preoccupation

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Gerotranscendence

• Cosmic communion
• redefinition of time
• lt fear of death
• lt interest in small talk
• lt in material things
• lt self-centredness
• more time spent in meditation

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Development?

• Increased leisure
• Ego integrity
• Coming to terms
• Grand-parenting
• Wisdom
• Creativity

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WISDOM

• Factual Knowledge
• Procedural knowledge
• Lifespan contextualism
• Value relativism
• Management of uncertainty
• (Staudinger 1999)
• Age is necessary but not sufficient for the
  attainment of wisdom

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Successful Ageing (Fisher Specht 1999)

• Sense of purpose
• Interaction with others
• Personal Growth
• Self Acceptance
• Autonomy
• Health