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I. Aging Theories 

1. Theory attempts to predict how one might respond to old age. Besides being interdisciplinary, gerontology is also inter-actionist. That is, there are at least two broad ways to predict and explain aging. I'm going to review something you read in chapter one.

Our challenge is to integrate the two models; individual experiences with the larger social structure. In other words, how can an individual affect society at large or how might society at large affect an individual? Not enough is known about these interactions and additional research is needed. 

II. Psychologist vs. Scientist Exercise-

Many students see psychologists as mental health people.

A few teach, but many conduct scientific research and are scientists.

Exercise:
1. Fold a piece of paper longwise down the middle so you have two   
    columns. Now, at the top of the left hand side write the word "scientist" 

2. Under scientist, write five traits that describe a typical scientist

3. Now, write the word psychologist at the top of on the right hand side

4. Under psychologist, write five traits that describe a typical psychologist

When complete read below:

If you are like most students, under scientist you probably wrote words like methodical, analytical, resourceful, intelligent, test tube, lab, experiments or white coat. 

Under psychologist you might have written words like accepting, caring, genuine, personable, attentive and maybe even things like couch, therapy or crazy.

Actually, psychologists are scientists too and use labs, conduct experiments, are analytical and all of the other things you used to describe a scientist. 

The differences lie in the type of science they are conducting.

III. Natural Science vs. Social Science 

Traditionally, when you think of a scientist, the prototype is a natural scientist. Natural science includes fields such as physics, chemistry, or biology. 

They deal with matter, energy, transformation and objectively measurable phenomena. Their experiments are carried out traditionally in a laboratory.

Social Scientists are  more likely to use the social setting as their laboratory.

They measure and observe behaviors to gather their data by watching people in their natural setting.

Both scientists conduct experiments using a scientific approach to explain, predict or understand behaviors.

We all develop our own personal theories in a very informal and often unconscious way. We might develop ideas or thoughts about aging from our own experiences. We observe elderly people in our families and communities and make generalizations about them. 

IV. Understanding theories and theory development using the scientific  
     method:

1. Theories take into consideration available facts and evidence. Your doctor, eye doctor and therapist used the available facts to create a theory about your headache. They have predictive value and provide an explanation for things we observe.

No one theory explains aging because theories are defined from moment to moment depending on one's perspective or the lenses through which we see the world . 

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2.  Different Perspectives

There are many different theories used to explain human behavior. These sometimes seem unrelated but are not necessarily contradictory. Many are actually complementary. They identify and explain the problem from different perspectives.

Lets look at the example of your persistent headache again. Your eye doctor may tell you to get your eyes checked, your therapist may tell you that you are under too much stress, and your family doctor would want you to lower your blood pressure. Which is right?  In some ways, they all are. We tend to look at problems from our familiar perspective. 

Exercise: Lets analyze this poem:

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.

                                                                      Henry David Thoreau

3. Just like the poem, the different perspectives in psychology are not necessarily contradictory. They are different ways of looking at the same behavior.

The various academic disciplines (psychology, biology, anthropology, philosophy, theology) offer complementary perspectives on human experience. The most relevant one depends on your major interest.

For example: the concept of emotional growth, or maturity, as described in the verse can be described in a number of ways:

1. A physiologist (or biologist) might describe maturity growth as a state of cell reproduction and division.
   
2. A psychologist would look at how growth is affected by emotions, beliefs, and past events. Maybe explain some human development theories like Erickson or Jung.
   
3. A poet would praise the images and the noble experience that growth can sometimes be. Maybe describe the pain of growing up.
   
4. Or perhaps a theologian would describe growth and maturity as the goal of civilized people.

 

Successful explanations of human functioning at one level need not invalidate explanations at other levels.

Different perspectives of physical, emotional , mental and social development, as we will see, can complement each other.

IV.  An Elementary look at Hypothesis development: Back to the Scientific Method of Theory Development

Scientists conduct studies using longitudinal methods or cross-sectional methods. A longitudinal study looks at individuals over a long period of time. Some longitudinal studies follow participants for 30, 40, or more years, such as the Elder-Liker study or the Baltimore study mentioned in your text. 

Studies that can follow individuals for a long period of time (longitudinal) can develop more accurate generalizations about the cause and effect of a phenomenon. But it is not always possible to conduct this type of research. Instead, many studies look at people at one point in time and use the date for comparison to other similar groups. This is referred to as a cross-sectional study. 

1. Before scientists develop a theory, they first try to predict what they think will happen. 
   

1. A hypothesis is a prediction; what the researcher expects to find. Because there are so many things that can come into play (variables) we can never be sure that what we observe is actually what caused the behavior, so we test the opposite of our hypothesis or the null hypothesis.

2. Let me show you. I have a hypothesis that being the first to post in the discussion area of class will not kill you.
   

I can’t prove that being the first to post will not kill you because, if you  fall over dead after you post, there might be many other reasons why you died.

Maybe you had a bad ticker to begin with, or you were already on your last breath. But I can dis-prove that being the first to post will kill you. 

If you post and don’t die, then I know that the experience did not kill you. That is called testing the null hypothesis. The null is the opposite for what the researcher expects to find. 

Random Sample: or you don't have to eat the whole cake

Once we have a testable hypothesis (the null), we need to select students to test our hypothesis. To save time, instead of asking everyone in the class to be the first to post over a period of weeks, I can save time by testing a sample of the class. 

Anyone of us could choose the sample, but we might pick a particularly healthy or sickly looking sample and bias the test in accordance with how we want the hypothesis to come out (everyone wants to prove they are right, right?). So to make it fair, we would need to  select a random sample. In a random sample, each student has the same likelihood of being selected for the test.

If we were in a physical class room, I could wad a piece of paper, turn my back to the class, and toss it into the air for someone to catch. That would be the first subject selected for the study. Then, that person would turn his or her back to the classroom and toss the paper in any direction, subject #2 would then be selected. We would continue until 10 people had been selected for the study.

Electronically, machines randomly select phone numbers or names from a list to select a sample. That's why you get calls from researchers, usually at dinner time when they expect most people to be home. Remember, the idea of a sample is that one does not need to eat the entire cake to know what one piece tastes like. I do not need to test my hypothesis on each student in the course to determine if the null is true or not. 

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Pre-test:

To provide a fair test of the hypothesis, we must conduct a pre-test to be sure that all the subjects chosen are alive. The test would be tainted if some subjects were already dead when we began.

First, we  must define what we mean by alive. How alive must one be? How do we define alive? Breathing, thinking, feeling? We must be sure of a definition or it will taint our study. So, perhaps, a fair test would be to test the breathing and pulse rates of each subject to be sure they are normal and that they start the study alive. Researchers can determine their own pre-test, but remember that studies are printed in Journals for peer review. Researchers want their peers to agree with the methods they chose so the study will be  found to be valid.

The Test: 

Now, what would be a fair test of the rival or null hypothesis? Let's have the selected students post first, directly to the class discussion board, each week until they all have had a chance to be the first to post. They could give us their major, the number of units they are taking and how many hours they work each week (I won't actually conduct this study and hope that you are following along). 

Post-test  

When the test is complete, we need to see if those who spoke are still alive.  We would need to go back and test their breathing and pulse rate or whatever method we selected as our pre test. Assuming nobody died as a result of this scientific study, students could safely conclude that at least in this course, being the first to post in the class discussion will not kill them.

Theory:

We now have a theory, based on our hypothesis. Our theory is that being the first to post in the discussion area of this class will not kill you.

We infer that this is true for everyone in this class based on a sample. Can we generalize our results to this entire class? Can we generalize to all other classes in the school?  In the world?

The answer is yes, we can generalize to all students in this class because we randomly sampled this class. But, we can not include the entire school or the world, because we didn’t sample the entire school or entire world. We can not tell what every cake in the bakery tastes like by sampling just one cake.

Additional Information: or descriptive statistics

In this hypothetical scientific test, we would have more than just our theory. We also collected some data about students in the course. For example, we could calculate the average number of units each student carries by adding up the total of everyone's units and dividing by the number of students in the study. We could also calculate the average number of hours each student in the class works per week. Data that describes a sample or the population is referred to as descriptive statistics. 

 

Want more? Check out what Kenny Felder (http://www.felderbooks.com/papers/) has to say on the Scientific method of inquiry. It is a great story to help draw it all into perspective http://www.felderbooks.com/papers/scientist.html
 

V. Activity vs. Disengagement: Many students are also confused by activity theory thinking that physical exercise is the key to aging successfully. The theory is not advocating starting jumpy jacks. Try to keep continuity theory in mind as you read this next section.

1. One of the earliest theories that attempts to explain successful aging was the activity theory. It is still a dominant theoretical perspective in social gerontology. To a large extent, proponents see it as a common sense theory.
   

1. Activity theory presumes that a person’s self-concept remains intact by taking part in activities that mimic the activities of middle age. According to this theory it is desirable for older people to remain as  socially and physically active as possible. They do this by substituting new roles for those that are lost through widowhood or retirement. For example, a retired teacher may take on the role of a tutor.
   
2. According to this theory, in order to minimize society’s withdrawal from the elderly, which occurs against older people's will or desire, older people must maintain a middle-age lifestyle for as long as possible. They do this by remaining active, keeping busy and staying young! Sort of staying in the loop idea.
   
3. Activity theory implies that social activity is the essence of life for all people of all ages. Early studies found that a positive personal adjustment is correlated with activity. The more active people are the better adjusted they are.

2. This attitude creates a big problem for some because the word "activity" many interpret as physical work. Many older people want a somewhat more relaxed lifestyle as they age. So activity theory might be catching up on some old movies or staying in by the fire with a good book instead of nights out on the town. Some never were active and are not going to suddenly begin a lifestyle of activity with age (continuity theory). The core personality does not usually change with age, we just get more entrenched in who we are. If an elder never was a person who "joined" in, the likelihood is they never will. Yet, our nursing home law require people "join" in or risk being labeled as depressed or an isolationist.

1. Research results in support of activity theory are mixed, which suggests that variables other than level of activity are needed to explain life satisfaction.

2. To a large extent, this perspective is consistent with society’s value system which emphasizes work and productivity. It has resulted in policies that stress continued social activities as a way to assist the elder's social integration.
   
3. The theory fails to acknowledge a personality dimension. It does not explain the fact that some older persons are passive and happy, while others are highly active and happy.

VI. Disengagement Theory- 

Disengagement came about a year later arguing that it is normal and inevitable for people to decrease their activity and seek more passive roles as they age.

1. This theory challenges the assumption that older people have to be active in order to be well adjusted. Instead, it descries a process whereby older people decrease their activity levels, seek more passive roles, interact less frequently with others , and become increasingly preoccupied with their own inner lives-- this is viewed as normal, inevitable, and personally satisfying. 
   

1. It is based in the assumption of an inevitable decline in abilities with age and the universal expectation of death. 
   
2. This is presumed to be a mutual withdrawal between an individual and society with positive consequences for both.

The theory suggests that the the elderly withdraw because of their declining energy and the desire for role loss (in response to stress from diminishing capacity). This process loosens social ties. 

Society benefits because all societies need an orderly way to transfer power from older to younger generations.

1. Retirement policies, for example, are assumed to be a way to ensure that younger people with new energy and skills will move into occupational roles.
   
2. When the elderly have disengaged from the mainstream of society, their deaths are also thought to be less disruptive to society’s optimal functioning.

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Disengagement is thus seen as adaptive behavior. Allowing older people to maintain a sense of self-worth and tranquility while performing more peripheral social roles.

Disengagement holds that social services should not seek to revitalize the aged, but encourage their withdrawal.  

2. Critics point to other cultures where the elderly move into new roles of prestige and power, such as Japan and China and in most third world countries.

Activity theory and disengagement theory both fail to account for variability in individual preferences and individual positions in the social structure.

e.g. A retired college professor has more opportunities to remain professionally involved than a retired steelworker.

Disengagement also does not appear to be universal. A person may disengage socially but remain fully engaged psychologically.

7. Problems with both theories:

1. Both theories reflect the bias of an industrial society; one that finds value in productivity and in making room for more productive members of society.
   
2. There are many unanswered questions as to why some choose to disengage and others do not.
   
3. These theories create a population with a role-less role. That is, they see the elderly as useless with no meaningful place in society.
   
4. Both theories lack an agreement on the rules to guide the behavior of older adults and, therefore, provide no support or guidance from society.
   
5. Some explanations (variables) of disengagement may be that as we age we disengage from contacts that are not totally satisfying.
   
6. Disengagement occurs at different rates and in different aspects of behavior.
   
7. Some enjoy solitude and find disengagement a pleasant experience.

We must consider the role of the individual and the role of society to explain the satisfaction versus dissatisfaction with activity or disengagement. How might these theories affect your expectations about the activities of your parents or grandparents? Do you expect them to remain active? Do you see inactivity as "giving up"? What was their activity level before they aged? One must consider all these factors. 

8. Psychological well-being:

9. Sociological Well-Being:

1. One problem with theory development is the problem of separating out the effects of aging from other social phenomena. How do we know that what we are seeing is the result of aging and not the result of societal or past events?

1.We already looked at the cultural factors (the social clock), socially approved activities for a given age and culture (i.e. kids under a certain age go to school).

2. We also looked at age grading, or social norms (approved activities for a certain age). Age norms serve to open up or close off the roles that people of a given chronological age can play (elementary school age children can't get married).

2. Another method is to look at Cohorts or stratification. Stratification is the study of older people in relation to all other age groups.
   

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1. As you may recall from earlier readings, cohorts are any group of individuals who experienced similar historical events together. Usually born within a 5-10 year period.
   
   For example, World War I &II veterans have a very different mindset about war than do the Viet Nam era veterans . For one thing, WWII vets might have a bumper sticker, on their American-made truck, that says something to the effect of, "America, love it or leave it". 
   
   Viet Nam era vets, on the other hand are most likely to have a sticker that reads, " I love my country, but I fear my government" on their foreign-made car. 
   
   How these two groups participated in the war was also very different. WWI veterans sang the songs of their fathers. Check out the titles of some of these patriotic songs.

Even though they want you to purchase the CD's, if you look towards the bottom of the page, parts of the songs play for free, World War 1 Songs
Early Recordings from 1918 Victrola http://www.besmark.com/ww1.html

1. Separating the effects of age from these cohort effects involves looking at changing social environments and how different groups of people adapt to the events they are exposed to.

By contrast, the Viet Nam war vets were singing, "Hell No, We Won't Go" and  Country Joe McDonald's famous 1960's words . . . "and it's 1,2,3 what are We fight'n for."

4. By looking at your handout from last week, Cohort, Money, Motto and Sex Mindset, you can see the different mind sets of several generations regarding important issues. The era one grows up in ultimately has a big influence on one's perspective and, thus, one's personality development. 

I have a wonderful video that makes the cohort point very well. "What You Are Is Where You Were When You Were Value Programmed."  Part one and Part two The video is located at the assignment link week one, video list. Watch both parts and email  me your reaction for three extra credit points.  Be sure to put Gero 302 or Psych 374 in the subject line of your email along with the tag line Extra Credit.

X    Social Theories

1. Exchange theory
   
   Exchange theory is based on the premises that individuals and groups act to maximize rewards and minimize costs.
   

1. Older people who complain do not increase their desirability to visit or spend time with. To spend time might involve a  negative exchange. Youth gives of time and energy and the elder complains.
   Power is thus derived from imbalances in social exchange.
   
   This pattern has been used to explain the patterns among family members. Some older people have little power and families feel obligated to visit.
   
2. Those elders who have other sources of power, such as financial resources or interesting stores to tell, love, and affection, are in a better position. They have an exchange and can hold power positions over dependent relatives.
   
3. Remember the cottage industry of early America? Older adults held the property and knowledge to run the business. This was given to younger members of the family at retirement in exchange for the elder's  care.

2. Reciprocity:

 

1. Similar to the exchange theory the norm in reciprocity involves maintaining balance in relationships by paying for goods or deeds with equivalent goods or deeds. It is a social rule that requires us to return favors to those who do something nice for us.
   
2. Goods can be tangible or intangible (such as services).
   
3. If someone in society is unable to repay what they received, a beneficence becomes the norm. The norm of beneficence calls into play such non-rational sentiments as loyalty, gratitude, and faithfulness. Many older adults will feel as if they have been given charity, a gift few are comfortable with.
   
4. This can be a problem for care providers of frail and vulnerable people who must constantly give but see little in return. 
   
5. Older people’s gifts must be acknowledged with gratitude. The norm of reciprocity dictates that one does not gain at the expense of another's act. Balance must be given for one to keep ones pride and self esteem.

THE END

See you at the discussion link

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