After completing this chapter, the student will be able to:

1. Classify the first students of social gerontology and describe what they hoped to learn.
2. Describe the theories of aging the early gerontologists proposed.
3. Identify how later scholars broadened the scope of the study of aging.
4. Explain the relationship between age and social status, accounting for differences from culture to culture.
5. Describe different theories of how race, gender, and class affect the social status of the aged.