Sociological Theories of Aging

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EXCHANGE THEORY (P.219)

Older Americans receive regular support from family, friends, and neighbors in carrying out activities of daily living (Shanas 1979, Stoller and Earl 1983, S ussman 1976).

This support may be task oriented, meaning help with housework, shopping, transportation, and the like.

Support may also take the from of social or emotional assistance provided in times of stress or illness.

The Norm of reciprocity (互惠規範 ) (P. 219)

Informal helping or social support networks, especially those that involve a ‘ reciprocal flow of valued behavior between the participants’ (Emerson 1976), may easily be placed within an exchange theory approach to social interaction (社會互動交換理論） .

Such an approach views social interaction as governed by rules of fairness or justice.

Gouldner (1960) identified one rule of exchange as the norm of reciprocity. According to him, this norm establishes a set of reciprocal demands and obligations that lend stability to social systems.

One component of the norm of reciprocity is that ‘ people should help those who have helped them’.

A Norm of Beneficence(行善規範 ) (P. 219)

Gouldner proposed what could be described as a norm of beneficence, which requires that individuals help others as necessary without thought to what the others have done or can do in return.

There are groups in society who are identified by their incapacity to engage in strict exchange.

The mentally disabled represent one such group. For them, beneficence supersedes reciprocity as the prevailing norm.

Dowd arguments on the norms of interaction for the very old (p. 219)

Dowd (1984) has suggested that in one’s relations with the very old, the requirements of reciprocity may have been superseded by those of beneficence.

In effect, Dowd believes that the norm of reciprocity will still apply to young—old people who receive in social policy terms what is perceived to be something in balance with the value of their current social worth.

Policy treatment of the very old, Dowd expects, will be regulated by a principle of beneficence—every person or household will receive as much as is needed.

A Rule of Distributive Justice (p. 220)

Homans (1958, 1974) suggests another rule of exchange.

He argues that social exchange is governed by a rule of distributive justice.

This is defined in terms of the relationship between actors’ rewards and costs. The greater the costs, the greater the rewards.

Dowd’s exchange framework between the aged and the society (p. 220)

Dowd (1975) attempts to place aging within an exchange framework. He believes that the problems of the aged in individual societies today are, in reality, problems of decreasing power.

The shift in balance of power between the aged and society reflects the economic and social dependency of the elderly.

The worker who once exchanged his or her skill for wages must comply with retirement in exchange for pension and health care benefits.

three possible categories of social

supports (p. 220)

Thus, supportive activities, given and received, were coded into one of three possible categories :

(1)emotional

(2) social, and

(3) instrumental.

Researches from Kart and Longino (p.221)

Initially, Kart and Longino (1987) examined the amount of support given and received as they separately predicted life satisfaction and feelings of obligation. Low inverse correlations were present between all types of support given, emotional and social support received, and life satisfaction. Thus, the more support given or received, the lower the life satisfaction.

One conclusion to draw from these empirical results is quite simply that the exchange theory fails to explain the relationship between support systems and the well—being or life satisfaction of older persons.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM (P.221)

According to Herbert Blumer (1969), the theoretical framework known as symbolic interactionism is based on the premise that people behave toward objects (including other people) according to perceptions and meanings developed through social interaction.

From this perspective, individuals are seen as conscious actors in the world who adapt to situations and events on the basis of the perceptions and meanings they have constructed for these situations and events.

It is important to note that perceptions and meanings are not constructed in a vacuum. Rather, as Blumer points out, they arise out of social interaction with others :

Aging and its experiences are socially constructed (p. 222)

The emphasis in this theoretical perspective is on the human capacity for socially constructing really.

Symbolic interactionism has important implications for the study of aging.

Symbolic interactionism may provide a basis for understanding how older people perceive and assign meaning to the experience of old age in

U. S. society (or in any other society), for that matter.

Three ideas based on symbolic interactionist perspective to age and aging (p. 222)

Clair, Karp, and Yoels (1993) specify three important ideas

(1) like any other symbol, age has a multiplicity of meanings;

(2) those meanings emerge out of interaction with others; and

(3) the meanings of age may be modified and reinterpreted, depending on the definitions of the situations in which one acts.

Ward’s argments on the aging (p. 222)

Ward (1984) sees this perspective as essential to recognizing the importance of change in the social and symbolic words of the aging.

He argues that role losses, residential mobility, health problems, and other age—related changes pull the elderly from family groups and situations.

Thus, they may become alienated from past worlds and identities and, at the same time, be granted the potential for new worlds and new identities.

This creates the possibility of satisfying personal change and growth, but also may result in stress, marginality, and unhappiness (Ward 1984 p. 360).

Spence researches on Aging (p. 222)

Spence (1986) has explored the implications of the symbolic interactionist perspective for understanding developmental issues of later life.

From his view, His perspective is unique because it emphasizes the subjective and focuses on process and change in identity as one develops.

Marshall’s researches on aging and status passage (p. 222)

Marshall (1979) has applied the symbolic interactionist perspective to aging through his use of the concept of status passage (身份通越） .

Status Passage refers to the image of an individual negotiating a passage from one age-based status to another, finally coming to the end of the passage through life, at death.

The degree of control over the passage becomes of central importance for aging persons.

Marshall’s researches on aging and status passage (p. 222-223)

People may differ in their degree of awareness that they are even undergoing a passage.

A status passage may have both an objective as well as a subjective reality.

For the symbolic interactionist, the objective and subjective dimensions of the status passage set the parameters within which the lives of individuals [ in this context, aging individuals ] will be shaped by themselves.

Control over oneself (status passage) and life review (p. 223)

One theme of this status passage, according to Marshall, is that preparation for death involves the attempt to make sense of death itself and to make sense of one’s life.

This theme appears in psychoanalytic theory and in Butler’s [1963] concept of life review.

An important difference for symbolic interactionists is their recognition that control over one’s own biography involves reconstruction of the past through reminiscence.

Socializing settings and the control of the status passage (p. 223)

Marshall [1979] argues that this process (reminiscence) is most successful when it is conducted socially.

Unforunately, Socializing agents, such as institutional settings (including hospitals, nursing homes, retirement communities), may severely threaten an aged person’s ability to maintain control of the status passage.

Status passage control becomes a dilemma for the aged who must choose between allowing others to shape his or her passage and isolation.

Critics on this Interactionist approach (p. 223)

A major limitation of this approach is that it focuses on the individual and fail to account fully for the structural component of social behavior (Passuth and Bengson 1988).

One can be optimistic about any framework that suggests that older people retain the human capacity to construct and share meanings and the human tendency to attempt to maintain control over their own lives.

Aging and Society

(p. 223-)

The Subculture of the Aging (p. 223)

In an attempt to clarify the nature of relations between older persons and the rest of society, Rose (1965) offers the concept of an aged subculture. A subculture may develop when particular members of a society interact with each other significantly more than they do with others in the society.

This pattern of interaction develops when group members have common backgrounds and interests and / or are excluded from interaction with other population groups in the society. Rose believes that both circumstances exist for the large proportion of older people in U.S. society.

trends contributing to development of age subculture (p. 224)

Rose outlines a variety of demographic, ecological, and social organizational trends that contribute to the development of an aged subculture.These trends are:

(1) the growing number and proportion of persons who live beyond the age of 65,

(2)the self—segregation of older persons in inner cities and rural areas (caused by migration patterns of the young);

(3)the decline in employment of older people;

(4)the development of social services designed to assist older people.

What are the consequences of the development of an aged subculture ? (p. 224)

Rose discusses two areas: Aging self-conception and Aging group consciousness.

(1)On the negative side, many Americans suffer a change in self—conception as they grow older, largely as a consequence of the negative evaluation of old age in U. S. culture. The development of an aged subculture, rather, may simply facilitate identification as old. This is a negative consequence of the development of an aged subculture.

(2) On the positive side. Development of an aged subculture may stimulate a group identification and consciousness, with potential for social action. Rose envisioned older people becoming a voting bloc that exerts political power either within the existing political party structures or on its own.

Subculture study by Longino et al. (p. 224)

Longino,Mcclelland, and Peterson (1980) compared elderly residents of eight midwestern retirement communities (five age—segregated residential settings and three age— concentrated neighborhoods) with a shadow sample of elderly respondents drawn from a national survey of public attitudes toward older Americans (national Council on Aging 1976) The shadow sample involved random selection of older people in such a way as to replicate or shadow the characteristic of the residents of the retirement communities..

Study results (p.225) Comparisons were made using measures of social participa

tion, preferences for age—based interaction, general perceptions of elders, and self—conception.

The study provided partial support for Rose’s subculture of aging theory.

Although Longino, McClelland, and Peterson [1980] admit that aging group consciousness exists in some local settings among the elderly, they point out that it may not necessarily arise in response to age—segregated residence. Further, they suggest that as applied to retirement communities, aged subculture theory may need modification to take account of this essentially retreatist phenomenon.

MODERNIZATION THEORY (p.225)

In their book, Aging And Modernization, Cowgill and Holmes (1972) developd a theory of aging in cross—cultural perspective.

As the theory emerged, and was subsequently revised (Cowgill 1974), it described the relationship between modernization and the charges in role and status of older people. The theory was originally expressed in 22 propositions.

Modernization theory held that with increasing modernization, the status of older people declines. This declining status is reflected in reduced leadership roles, power, and influence, as well as increased disengagement of older people from community life.

What is modernization? (p. 225-226)

Modernization is the transformation of a total society from a relatively rural way of life based on animate power, limited technology, relatively undifferentiated institutions, parochial and traditional outlook and values, toward a predominantly urban way of life based on inanimate sources of power, highly developed scientific technology, highly differentiated institutions matched by segmented individual roles, and a cosmopolitan outlook which emphasizes efficiency and progress (Cowgill 1974m, p. 127)

Four subsidiary aspects of modernization (p. 226)

Each of these aspects of modernization helps produce the lower status of older people in society (Cowgill 1974)

(1) scientific technology as applied in economic

production and distribution.

(2) urbanization

(3) literacy and mass education, and

(4) health technology.

Figure 9.2 Aging and Modernization (p. 227)

This figure presents briefly the causal sequences ( 因果先後關聯 )depicted in the figure can be described as follows—

(1) The application of health technology, including public health measures, nutrition, and all aspects of curative and surgical medicine. It dramatically affects the age structure of a society. There is an aging of the population.

(2) The application of economic and industrial technology leads to new occupations located increasingly in an urban setting. Geographically and socially mobile youth migrate to these jobs, while older people are left in position that are less prestigious and often obsolete.

the old suffer dependency.

Figure 9.2 Aging and Modernization (p. 227)

(3) Urbanization, including the separation of work from home and the geographical separation of youthful urban migrants from their parental homes, profoundly changes the nature of intergenerational relations. Residential segregation of the generations changes the bonds of familial associations. Increases social distance between generations and leads to a reduced status of the aged.

(4) Promoting literacy and education (almost always targeted at the young in modernization efforts) generates a situation in which children are more literate and have greater skill than their parents do. This imbalance has the effect of inverting(倒轉 ) roles in the traditional society.

Studies by Palmore supporting the modernizationist approach (p. 228)

The work of Erdman Palmore has generally supported the modernization theory.

Palmore and Whittington (1971) found that the status of the aged was lower than that of the younger population on a series of socioeconomic measures and had declined significantly from 1940 to 1969.

Relationship between modernization and the economic status of the aged (p. 228)

Palmore and Manton (1974) explored the relationship between modernization and the economic status of the aged in 31 countries.

Indicators of modernization included the gross national product (GNP) per capita, the percentage of the labor force engaged in agriculture, the change in the proportion of the labor force engaged in agriculture, the percentage of literate adults, the percentage of people age 5 to 19 in schools, and the percentage of the population in higher education.

The relative status of the aged was measured by indexes that compared the differences in employment and occupation of the older population (age 65 and over) with those age 25 through 64.

Varied results from the studies (p. 228-229)

In general, correlation between the indicators of modernization and measures of the status of the aged demonstrated the theory. The relative status of older people was lower in the more modernized nations.

Another findings from Palmore and Manton

Interestingly, Palmore and Manton discovered some patterns within their data that imply that the status of the aged decreases in the early stages of modernization (exemplified by nations such as Iran, El Salvador, and the Philippines), but, after a period of modernization, status may level off and even rise somewhat [ exemplified by New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

Culture and the impact of modernization on the

aged (p. 229)

Palmore has used the case of Japan to show how culture may mitigate the impact of modernization on the status of the aged.

Palmore, the social and ethnic homogeneity of the Japanese population, the attitude of the Japanese toward time, the tradition of respect for the aged reflected in filial piety, and the prominence of ancestor worship have all helped maintain the relatively high status and integration of older Japanese.

Palmore quotes from Japan’s 1963 National Law for the Welfare of the Elders, a law comparable in the United States to the Older Americans Act of 1965.

Hong and Keith study on Korea (p. 229)

Although Cowgill’s theory of the effects of modernization employs society as the unit of analysis, Hong and Keith (1992) were interested in the extent to which individual modernity and the modern circumstances of the family affected the status of the elderly within the family in Korea.

They hypothesized that—

(1) the more modern the family environment, the less power the elderly have in family decision making , and

(2) the greater the individual modernity of the elderly, the less power they have in family decision making.

Study on Korean (p. 229)

Face—to—face interviews were carried out with 252 Korean men and women 60 years or older in Soul, Korea.

All sample members were living with one of their married children and other relatives.

Key indicators of modern family circumstances included urban residence and high educational attainment of the children.

Study design of Korean study (p. 229)

The measure of individual modernity was an index of 13 items assessing attitudes toward different areas of Korean life. For example,

respondents were asked to give their opinions about equal education opportunities for both daughters and sons.

Family decisions were divided into four dimensions and respondents were asked who made the final decision in each of 13 different family matters.

Results of the Korean study (p. 230)

Individual modernity among the elderly was found to be positively related to decision—making power in the family.

Young—old married men with modern attitudes and highly educated children had the most power in decision making.

Hong and Keith speculate that individual modernity is a resource that aids the elderly in negotiating with the younger generation to gain more involvement in decision making within the family.

Results of the Korean study (p. 230)

It also may be the case that the children, especially those with higher levels of education, find these modern attitudes supportive and of value in contemporary Korean life.

Older people can protest themselves from the ravages of modernization by becoming modern themselves. Being young—old, having good health, and having a higher education were predictive of individual modernity among these Korean aged.