11 1 Aging

Hey, it's hard for me to believe we're

here, almost at the end of the term.

This for me has gone by very quickly.

This week we're talking about aging,

and we're talking
about the field of gerontology.

In sociology,
we do a lot of study of stratification.

In one area of stratification
is age.

So people are treated differently
at different points

in their lifespan by our social system.

Let's talk about
some of the trends that we see

in changing demographics,

and also some of that stratification.

First off, the field of gerontology
is the study of aging.

It looks at how life changes as you age.

It matters as we look at health care;
it matters as we

look at how much of the population
is working at any given time,

or is relying on programs
like Social Security.

It matters as we look at caring
for our elderly,

and social expectations around care.

When we look at the sociology of aging,
the baby-boom cohort

has really created a need
for understanding aging better.

You can see here
in this chart that I've got,

how the age pyramid used to look
more like a pyramid, where it

was smaller at the top
and larger at the bottom.

But that dark section
is the baby boom generation.

And we've seen a lot of changes
to the age structure

of our society in the last few decades.

A large part is
because of the baby boomers.

It's also because people
started having fewer children.

And people started living longer.

So, in less developed countries,
we see very few people

living to that,
to those old ages at the top.

People have a lot of kids
at the bottom, because they

know that they're less likely to

live to adulthood or to live to old age.

Our age pyramid looks
much more like a bowling pin now,

than it did in the past,
where it looked more like a pyramid.

And as we
look at the baby boomers aging,

this has had an effect on,
oh, things like

where advertising is spending its money

and trying to get consumers to purchase.

Uh, it looks, there's changes
in things like Viagra,

and access to healthcare
and how much of our healthcare

is being utilized
by an older portion of the population.

There's differences on
how long men and women live.

So, some of the demographic differences

are that people overall
are living longer,

but women live
about five years longer than men.

Whites also live longer
than minority groups,

because of, um, racism
and discrimination within the system

that leads to shorter overall longevity.

Different cultures
treat aging differently.

In some cultures,
if you grow old, it's something that's

revered and really
seen as a great advantage,

to be able to grow old and gain wisdom.

However, in other cultures we
tend to hide the elderly

or fear the elderly
or not really respect the elderly.

And here within our culture,
we see less respect of the elderly

than what we see in,
in other cultures that have more of a,

a reverence or a, um, revering
of the elder population.

When we look at sociology

and what we're studying for elderly,

or across the life course, we tend to

look at the transitions in later life.

So, things like retirement
as a transition,

health changes, maybe loss of partners,

change in family form
because of a loss of partner

or because of children moving out.

Erik Erikson
was a psychosocial researcher

who looked at how these transitions

could lead to identity crisis.

Like if you no longer have your job,

that's part of your identity,
or your health goes down,

or as you get older,

your physical features change

and it can change your sense of self,

or your psychological well-being.

Sociological researchers
are interested in looking at

sexuality for the elderly,
and how sexuality or sexual expression

is often dismissed
or denigrated with old age.

We assume that elderly
are not sexual beings.

We look at ageism among LGBTQ seniors,

and how one's access to care

or who provides care
for them might change,

depending on whether
you have children or not,

whether you are LGBTQ or heterosexual.

We also are interested
in knowing the cultural aspects

behind death and dying.

We as a culture really
don't talk about death a lot,

and aren't really comfortable
discussing death

or the idea that our lives
will at some point end.

We, as sociologists
are really interested

in looking at stratification by age.

So, when you're looking at
age stratification of power,

property and prestige,
the elderly over 65

used to be the poorest group,
but Social Security

has really made a safety net.

Children are now the most likely
to be poor.

Older people do have power,
in that they're

more likely to vote,
and more of our politicians are elderly.

There's also the factor that all of us

have our old age ahead of us.

Or so we hope, right?

And so when we are voting
or making decisions,

we often make those decisions
with that in mind,

that someday they're going to affect us.

We're less likely to vote for,
or look at policies for children

in the same way,
because our childhood is behind us,

it's already past,
and we're less likely to vote for

or to vote in favor
of policies that help children.

Children also can't vote,
which puts them at a disadvantage.

Prestige can vary depending on culture.

Some cultures really hold their elderly

in high status and high esteem.

This is not the case
in the United States,

especially for women who are seen

as less valuable as they get older.

Our focus in the United States

tends to be on the youth culture,

on innovation, technology,
and we really don't value

that wisdom of the elder population
like is done

in many other countries and cultures.

Some examples of institutional
and individual age discrimination

might be infantilization
of the elderly, that is,

treating the elderly as a child.

We see this sometimes
in care centers and care facilities.

We also have an assumed decline

of mental faculties for the elderly.

We assume that as someone gets older,
their mind

is not going to be as sharp.

There's ageism in hiring and firing,

where you're more likely
to be laid off or fired

if you're elderly,
and less likely to be seen

as a good candidate for a job.

So these are factors that play
into discrimination of elderly.

And finally,
for our objectives this week,

is to compare
and contrast how different theories

look at age stratification.

Well, structural functionalists think

that aging is a natural process.

There should be a true,
smooth transition

from the tasks of production in society

to retiring, so that those jobs
can open up for younger people.

Conflict theorists
look at inequality in aging.

They look at inequality
for men and women,

in access to retirement.

In saving retirement money,
they look at differences

in lifespan and life expectancy.

And symbolic interactionists
really focus on the micro level.

They look at how aging
shapes our own identities

and our own relationships,
and might study the ways

in which we change, in our relationships
to others, as we age.

So these are the main things
that you'll be looking for,

in the readings and assignments
that focus on aging this week.

See you next time.