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11 1 Aging

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    Hey, it's hard for me to believe we're
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    here, almost at the end of the term.
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    This for me has gone by very quickly.
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    This week we're talking about aging,
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    and we're talking
    about the field of gerontology.
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    In sociology,
    we do a lot of study of stratification.
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    In one area of stratification
    is age.
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    So people are treated differently
    at different points
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    in their lifespan by our social system.
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    Let's talk about
    some of the trends that we see
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    in changing demographics,
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    and also some of that stratification.
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    First off, the field of gerontology
    is the study of aging.
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    It looks at how life changes as you age.
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    It matters as we look at health care;
    it matters as we
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    look at how much of the population
    is working at any given time,
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    or is relying on programs
    like Social Security.
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    It matters as we look at caring
    for our elderly,
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    and social expectations around care.
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    When we look at the sociology of aging,
    the baby-boom cohort
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    has really created a need
    for understanding aging better.
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    You can see here
    in this chart that I've got,
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    how the age pyramid used to look
    more like a pyramid, where it
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    was smaller at the top
    and larger at the bottom.
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    But that dark section
    is the baby boom generation.
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    And we've seen a lot of changes
    to the age structure
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    of our society in the last few decades.
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    A large part is
    because of the baby boomers.
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    It's also because people
    started having fewer children.
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    And people started living longer.
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    So, in less developed countries,
    we see very few people
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    living to that,
    to those old ages at the top.
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    People have a lot of kids
    at the bottom, because they
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    know that they're less likely to
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    live to adulthood or to live to old age.
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    Our age pyramid looks
    much more like a bowling pin now,
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    than it did in the past,
    where it looked more like a pyramid.
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    And as we
    look at the baby boomers aging,
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    this has had an effect on,
    oh, things like
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    where advertising is spending its money
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    and trying to get consumers to purchase.
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    Uh, it looks, there's changes
    in things like Viagra,
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    and access to healthcare
    and how much of our healthcare
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    is being utilized
    by an older portion of the population.
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    There's differences on
    how long men and women live.
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    So, some of the demographic differences
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    are that people overall
    are living longer,
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    but women live
    about five years longer than men.
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    Whites also live longer
    than minority groups,
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    because of, um, racism
    and discrimination within the system
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    that leads to shorter overall longevity.
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    Different cultures
    treat aging differently.
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    In some cultures,
    if you grow old, it's something that's
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    revered and really
    seen as a great advantage,
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    to be able to grow old and gain wisdom.
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    However, in other cultures we
    tend to hide the elderly
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    or fear the elderly
    or not really respect the elderly.
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    And here within our culture,
    we see less respect of the elderly
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    than what we see in,
    in other cultures that have more of a,
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    a reverence or a, um, revering
    of the elder population.
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    When we look at sociology
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    and what we're studying for elderly,
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    or across the life course, we tend to
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    look at the transitions in later life.
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    So, things like retirement
    as a transition,
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    health changes, maybe loss of partners,
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    change in family form
    because of a loss of partner
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    or because of children moving out.
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    Erik Erikson
    was a psychosocial researcher
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    who looked at how these transitions
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    could lead to identity crisis.
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    Like if you no longer have your job,
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    that's part of your identity,
    or your health goes down,
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    or as you get older,
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    your physical features change
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    and it can change your sense of self,
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    or your psychological well-being.
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    Sociological researchers
    are interested in looking at
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    sexuality for the elderly,
    and how sexuality or sexual expression
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    is often dismissed
    or denigrated with old age.
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    We assume that elderly
    are not sexual beings.
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    We look at ageism among LGBTQ seniors,
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    and how one's access to care
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    or who provides care
    for them might change,
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    depending on whether
    you have children or not,
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    whether you are LGBTQ or heterosexual.
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    We also are interested
    in knowing the cultural aspects
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    behind death and dying.
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    We as a culture really
    don't talk about death a lot,
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    and aren't really comfortable
    discussing death
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    or the idea that our lives
    will at some point end.
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    We, as sociologists
    are really interested
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    in looking at stratification by age.
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    So, when you're looking at
    age stratification of power,
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    property and prestige,
    the elderly over 65
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    used to be the poorest group,
    but Social Security
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    has really made a safety net.
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    Children are now the most likely
    to be poor.
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    Older people do have power,
    in that they're
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    more likely to vote,
    and more of our politicians are elderly.
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    There's also the factor that all of us
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    have our old age ahead of us.
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    Or so we hope, right?
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    And so when we are voting
    or making decisions,
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    we often make those decisions
    with that in mind,
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    that someday they're going to affect us.
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    We're less likely to vote for,
    or look at policies for children
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    in the same way,
    because our childhood is behind us,
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    it's already past,
    and we're less likely to vote for
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    or to vote in favor
    of policies that help children.
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    Children also can't vote,
    which puts them at a disadvantage.
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    Prestige can vary depending on culture.
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    Some cultures really hold their elderly
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    in high status and high esteem.
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    This is not the case
    in the United States,
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    especially for women who are seen
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    as less valuable as they get older.
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    Our focus in the United States
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    tends to be on the youth culture,
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    on innovation, technology,
    and we really don't value
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    that wisdom of the elder population
    like is done
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    in many other countries and cultures.
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    Some examples of institutional
    and individual age discrimination
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    might be infantilization
    of the elderly, that is,
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    treating the elderly as a child.
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    We see this sometimes
    in care centers and care facilities.
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    We also have an assumed decline
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    of mental faculties for the elderly.
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    We assume that as someone gets older,
    their mind
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    is not going to be as sharp.
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    There's ageism in hiring and firing,
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    where you're more likely
    to be laid off or fired
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    if you're elderly,
    and less likely to be seen
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    as a good candidate for a job.
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    So these are factors that play
    into discrimination of elderly.
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    And finally,
    for our objectives this week,
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    is to compare
    and contrast how different theories
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    look at age stratification.
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    Well, structural functionalists think
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    that aging is a natural process.
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    There should be a true,
    smooth transition
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    from the tasks of production in society
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    to retiring, so that those jobs
    can open up for younger people.
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    Conflict theorists
    look at inequality in aging.
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    They look at inequality
    for men and women,
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    in access to retirement.
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    In saving retirement money,
    they look at differences
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    in lifespan and life expectancy.
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    And symbolic interactionists
    really focus on the micro level.
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    They look at how aging
    shapes our own identities
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    and our own relationships,
    and might study the ways
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    in which we change, in our relationships
    to others, as we age.
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    So these are the main things
    that you'll be looking for,
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    in the readings and assignments
    that focus on aging this week.
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    See you next time.
Title:
11 1 Aging
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Video Language:
English
Duration:
07:57
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