Chapter 12

Aging and the Elderly

Growing Old Biology and Culture
Gerontology derived from Greek word,
geron, which means an old person, refers to
the study of aging and the elderly.
Aging as a concept includes biological,
psychological, and sociological processes that
occur throughout life.
Social Gerontology a specialized area of
gerontology dealing with the study of aging as
a social experience.
 Importance of Studying Aging
A social science that focuses or stresses on aging
is very important because it allows for a more
complex understanding of what it means to be
old in a given society.
Understanding the aging, and the physiological,
psychological, and the sociological concerns and
issues related to them will make the younger
generation understand better their aging parents
and grandparents.
 What Causes Aging?
Biological aging is known to occur as a result of
changes in the body cells, yet, what makes these
changes occur is not clear. There are two widely
theories that explain this:
1. the wear and tear approach this includes the
thought that aging may be due in large part to
deterioration in the integratory homeostasis between
cells of the same tissue and those of other tissues. It is
a fact that the human bodys DNA is known to have a
self-repair capacity, which is said to decline over time.
 What Causes Aging?
2. The genetic clock approach this maintains the
view that aging is the result of some form of
present genetic program. It suggest that we all
have some sort of built-in timer that sets off aging
at a prescribed point in time. Along this, there are
four possibilities:
1. That the clock is cellular since normal cells have been
found to have a finite life span. However, some
abnormal cells like cancer cells do not age, unlike
normal cells;
 What Causes Aging?
2. That the clock is at the base of the brain in the area
housing the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland,
which controls the release of hormones to the body. A
certain hormone which is currently unidentified may be
released to the body causing aging;
3. That there is a relationship between cellular and
brain triggers in the aging process; or
4. That there may be some combination of genetic
clock and the effects of the wear and tear on the
human body.
 What Causes Aging?
Primary aging occurs over time
Secondary aging usually due to a certain
disease or psychological trauma, and where
aging happens prematurely.
The most common indicators of aging are:
1. The persons capacity for sight and hearing;
2. The brain also begins to shrink from loss of cell;
3. Muscles also shrink and become weaker and
joints stiffen and swell;
 What Causes Aging?
4. The heart, kidneys, lungs, bladder, and other
organs begin to operate at reduced levels of
effectiveness;
5. The bodys output of hormones begins to
diminish; and
6. The body becomes susceptible to infection,
injury, and degenerative diseases such as cancer,
coronary heart disease, and even diabetes.
 What Causes Aging?
There are certain reasons or factors that separate
aging from other biological processes:
1. Physical aging comes on gradually from within the
organism instead of from the external environment;
2. Physical aging has a negative effect on physical
functioning; and
3. Physical aging is universal in that the physical
changes happen to everyone. If any of these criteria is
missing, then that change is not part of aging.
 Who Lives the Longest?
The American believed to have the longest life is
Charlie Smith who arrived as a slave from Africa in
1854 and died in 1979 in Florida, supposedly at the age
of 137. The longest life that has been documented in
the world, however, is for an American woman, Carrie
C. White, who was also 115 years old in 1990 and lived
in a Florida nursing home. She was born in 1874 when
Ulysses S. Grant was president.
The oldest man with a birth certificate to show his age
was John Evans, a retired British coal miner, who was
born in 1877 and died in 1990 in the age of 112
 Who Lives the Longest?
Features or characteristics of people with longevity:
1. They tend to come from families whose members typically
live longer.
2. Persons at the upper end of the socioeconomic scale tend to
live longer than members of lower socioeconomic groups.
However, an affluent lifestyle involving a rich diet, heavy
smoking, and lack of exercise can also be detrimental to a
persons death. On the other hand, poverty clearly decreases an
individuals life span because it enhances exposure to crowded
living conditions, poor diet, inferior housing, violence,
alcoholism and problem drinking, and drug abuse.
3.People who are relaxed and not greatly affected by stress, and
who have a family history of longevity and live a healthy lifestyle
appear to be the most long-lived.
 Who is Old?
Tradition In many countries, 65 is regarded
as the onset of old age based on the security
laws.
Some social scientist categorize the elderly
into the ff:
The young-old(60 to 69); the middle-old(70 to 79);
the old-old(80 and older).
 Who is Old?
Body functioning some social scientist say that aging
begins at conception. Other use it to refer to the
process of decline following the peak in the biological
characteristic of muscle strength, skin elasticity, blood
circulation, and sensory activity. We spend one-fourth
of our lives growing up, and three-fourths growing old.
Mental Functioning comprises the capacities to
create, remember, and learn. Many think that this
decline with age. The wide range of variations in
mental functioning among older people may be caused
by disease, genetic makeup, or effect of stress.
 Who is Old?
Self-Concept it affects the psychology of the
human person. It comprises of sense of
identity, self-image, and self-esteem. It plays a
significant role in aging.
Occupation a person becomes old
depending on the nature of his or her job.
Because job that involves too much stress and
hard work will easily wear and tear out the
body.
 Who is Old?
Coping with stress and illness stress has
been proven as one major cause of early aging
since it usually causes anxiety, depression,
migraine headaches, and even peptic ulcer.
This is the reason why people who are
chronologically young can become old before
their time.
 The Concept of Aging
Chronological Aging from the point of birth,
chronological, biological, psychological, and
sociological clocks tick to mark sequels of our aging
processes. Chronological age is the most common way
of expressing ones age. Life expectancy is the average
length of life.
Biological Aging Age may also be described in terms
of biological or physical change that affect the human
body. Post-maturational aging or senescence refers to
the processes occurring with the bodies of all human
beings that contribute to functional decline, and finally
to death.
 The Concept of Aging
Psychological Aging this includes changes that
occur in sensory and perceptual process, mental
functioning(such as memory, learning, and
intelligence), personality, drives, and motives.
Senility and senile dementia this is another
description of aging, specifically its later stage.
Senility is a term generally used to refer to wide
range of aged behavior that characterize mental
incapacities.
 The Concept of Aging
Sociological Aging this refers to an
individuals changing roles and relationship in
the social structure with family members,
peer, friends, with the work world, and other
associates.
 The Concept of Aging
Biological Theories of Aging:
1.The wear and tear theory this views the
bodily functions much like the functioning of a
machine.
2. The programmed theory holds the view
that aging is genetically programmed and that
cellular reproduction is limited to a fixed number
of times.
 The Concept of Aging
3. The error theory this is another genetic
theory. It explains the aging of body cells as
caused by errors in the synthesis of protein.
4. The immunological theories these theories
refer to the ability of the bodys immune system
to recognize and combat substances in the body
that cause harm or damage with antibodies.
 The Concept of Aging
Social Theories of Aging
Disengagement theory is based on the
structural-functionalist perspective especially the
work of Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons. This
is important in the social dimension of aging since
the structural-functionalist approach was
significant to the development of social
gerontology in the mind-1950s and 19060s.
 The Concept of Aging
The significance of the disengagement theory
may be summed up into the following:
1. It is able to describe the social processes that occur
when older individuals withdraw from their usual
roles due to old age.
2. It is applicable to situations where people are
forced to cease being involved when the rules or
policies of certain institutions or organizations require
3. It is important in the realization that at a certain
time the interests of the society prevails such that
younger people should take over the roles of older
one.
 The Concept of Aging
4. Through the set age(usually 65, or 60 for some
countries), retirement and disengagement
becomes institutionalized, orderly and inevitable.
5. Some degree of disengagement becomes
inherent to the aging process, hence, older people
understand what to do when this time comes.
6. With the proper understanding of the theory,
one is able to experience smooth transition from
work to retirement, regardless of the desires of
the individual.
 The Concept of Aging
Role theory roles identify the persons as social
beings and are the basis of self-concept. This
theory acknowledges the fact that the role of
dependent person is not inevitable with age.
Instead, the life course is characterized by varying
periods of greater or lesser dependency in social
relationships, with most people becoming
emotionally dependent on others regardless of
age. This theory underlie two aging theories, the
activity theory and the disengagement theory.
 The Concept of Aging
Social Exchange theory this theory attempts
to explain the structured inequality that exists
among different age strata. Aging is a struggle
between classes. According to this theory, a
key factor in defining an elderlys status is the
balance between their contributions to
society, which is determined by their control
of power resources, and the costs of
supporting them.
 The Concept of Aging
Activity theory the theory is founded on three
premises:
1. That the majority of normally aging people
maintain fairly constant levels of activity;
2. That the amount of engagement or disengagement
will be influenced by pool lifestyles and
socioeconomic factors, rather than by some inevitable
process; and
3. That it is necessary to maintain or develop
substantial levels of social, physical, and mental
activity if the aging experience is to be successful.
 The Concept of Aging
This theory tells us that most people do not
disengage from society when they become old.
Continuity theory it is based on two
assumptions: (1) people tend to maintain their
own peculiar personality over time; (2) the only
major internal dimension of the personality that
changes with age is the tendency to experience
greater introversion by turning ones attention
and interest inward on the self.
 The Concept of Aging
This theory believes that successful aging will
depend on whether people are able to
maintain or continue retaining the traits,
interests, and behavior they have always had
while in the process of aging.
This theory shows us that the personality of
people in old age tends to be much the same
as it was in middle age.
 The Concept of Aging
Age-Stratification theory this theory holds
the view that society is stratified into various
cohorts. Each of these life cohorts has life
course and history. The life course aspect
refers to the various stages of the peoples life
cycle.
 The Concept of Aging
Modernization theory a popular theory in
sociology. A macro-level theory of global social
change. There are four stages leading to
modernization:
1. the traditional stage where mortality and
population growth decline and life expectancy
increases as a result of improved health care and
living conditions;
2. The take-off stage which consists of growth in the
market economy and an increased achievement
orientation among the population;
 The Concept of Aging
3. The drive to technology maturity which covers a
growing industrial economy, urbanization, and
mass education; and
4. The high mass consumption stage in which a
wide range of consumer goods and services
appear.