Who were the first students of social
gerontology, and what did they hope to
learn? Social gerontology originated as a distinct
field of study during the Depression. Its first
practitioners were developmental psychologists
who had traditionally studied growth and maturation.
They viewed the basic task of research as
documenting the inevitable decline that occurred
in old age. Then during the 1940s researchers
became interested in "normal" processes of aging.
The basic premise underlying this research
was that growing old meant surrendering the social
relationships and social roles typical of adulthood:
thus, retirement, widowhood, the loss of
distant goals and plans, and the growing dependence
of the elderly on others for support, advice,
and management of daily activities.
What theories of aging did early gerontologists
propose? Disengagement theory was the
first formal theory of aging. It was based on the
premise that normal aging involved a natural
and inevitable withdrawal of the individual from
society. Life satisfaction was highest among
those who successfully disengaged. Subsequent
research found that some people did disengage
but that disengagement was neither universal
nor inevitable.
Activity theory became an explicit theory of
aging in response to disengagement theory, but its
core premise—that successful aging was active
aging—was implicit in most prior aging research.
Activity theory asserts that older people have the
same psychological and social needs as younger
people and that it is neither normal nor natural
for people to disengage.
How did later scholars broaden the scope
of the study of aging? Scholars broadened the
scope of the study of aging to include how social
forces and large-scale societal processes influenced
individual aging processes. For example,
subculture theorists argued that the aged are
likely to form a subculture because they share
physical limitations and role losses. Another explicitly
social theory of aging is age integration
theory, which recognizes that societies use
chronological age as a criterion for entrance,
exit, or participation.
What is the relationship between age and
social status, and does it vary from one culture
to the next? Modernization theory attempts
to understand the relationship between
age and social status. Its basic premise is that
older people were revered in the past and in preliterate
societies and that their status declines
with economic development. Yet historical evidence
indicates that a "golden age of aging"
never existed, while cross-cultural evidence suggests
there is great variation in how older people
are treated in preliterate societies.
Which theories of aging consider how
race, gender, and class affect the social status
of the aged? Political economy theory is concerned with explaining how and why social resources are unequally distributed. A central focus of research stemming from the political economy tradition is on how public policies reproduce existing forms of inequality. Feminist theory also attempts to illuminate the gendered nature of society. Feminists criticize traditional research for creating separate models of aging for men and women, for using "male models" to interpret women's experiences, and for failing to recognize how various social welfare programs reproduce gender inequality. Critical gerontology is derived from political economy and feminist approaches to aging. It differs in its emphasis on how forces of globalization affect the lives of aging individuals and their families.
