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Aging, particularly the discrimination against the elderly, is inextricably linked with the field of sociology because it affects the way in which humans behave. Moreover, it is an important social issue because societal attitudes toward aging inform the construction of social institutions. The plight of the elderly is often overlooked in favor of other underrepresented groups, but an analysis of media, politics, and other social constructs reveals that there the elderly are segregated at an analogous level to other marginalized groups. This paper explores aging as it pertains to sociology, exploring the myriad ways in which the elderly are discriminated against and why the study of aging is an integral component to sociology.
As a field of inquiry, sociology is concerned with the construction of society and the analysis of the ways in which human behavior is shaped by society. On first glance, aging may not appear to constitute a viable component of sociological research, since all animals age, regardless of their socioeconomic status or ideological beliefs. However, upon further review, it becomes quickly apparent that the elderly are represented differently from younger age groups, and are often portrayed negatively or in wildly inaccurate ways. This paper examines the injurious portrayal of the elderly in society, as well as the relevancy of aging within the greater field of sociology.
The pejorative treatment of the elderly is perhaps best represented by the term "ageism,"...
The progression from middle to old age is thus portrayed as the deterioration from productivity to dependency on the sacrifice of others. American culture is a progress-driven culture, and the inability of many elderly people to work is largely responsible for the discrimination against them as a cultural group in the United States. Despite the fact that aging is unavoidable, the elderly are made to feel increasingly inadequate as they get older. To this end, the pejorative way in which the term "ageism" is deployed attests to a dominant perception in which the elderly are responsible for their physical ailments and physical and financial dependency.
Perhaps the foremost area in which the elderly are portrayed in society is through having an inextricable association with disease and illness (Rozanova 2006). Indeed, television commercials that involve the elderly nearly always portray them as being afflicted with disease or as advertising a product that has helped them overcome their disease. Moreover, the vast majority of these diseases are ones that are particularly germane to the elderly. For example, the elderly are often shown in commercials advertising solutions for diseases such as shingles or diabetes. Because illness has canonically been conveyed as constituting a deviation from the mainstream, such a depiction is unfavorable to the elderly (Rozanova 2006). Although…
References
Hamil-Luker, J. (2001). The prospects of age war: Inequality between (and within) age groups. Social Science Research, 30(3), 386-400.
Jensen, T., & Deller, S. (2007). Frontier issues in rural and regional development. The Review of Regional Studies, 37(3), 303-343.
Rozanova, J. (2006). Newspaper portrayals of health and illness among Canadian seniors: Who ages healthily and at what cost? International Journal of Aging and Later Life, 1(2), 11-139.
An opportunity has been identified in a growing niche that has been largely untapped to date. The opportunity further can be described as being at a crossroads that exists where many factors come together in an intersection in which many social changes are present. The business model that is being proposed in this report consists of developing prepped meal service for seniors, where prepared, nutritionally-balanced meals are delivered to seniors
Psychological effects of aging on African-Americans The field of study on the aging process has gained significance in the United States of America in the recent past. The reason for this is that there is a rapid increase in the number of citizens of the United States of America who are above the age of sixty five and the quickest growing age segment is those who are above the age of
Moreover, older persons perform less accurately on the witness stand, the authors continue. One particular study of 51 senior citizens and 62 college students reflected the fact that the older people "forgot more details and were more easily swayed by suggestions from the people administering the test, as compared with college students" (Gaydon, 679). These seniors were not suffering from Alzheimer's or any other malady; they just didn't have a
Society's Views Of The Aging Populace This is not an undisclosed secret that the contemporary society is obsessed with beauty and perfection. A world in which no one ever gets sick, crops and animals grow faster and better and parents choose the physical features of their children sounds great. This perfect way of life has been made possible due to the advancements in genetic engineering. However, this technological modification has both
Yet, the working class poor elderly person (officially defined as such by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics (2011) who, despite working 27 weeks or more -- tedious heard labor- and around the clock still show income that are at, or below, the official poverty threshold) in particular have the most difficult situation since they do not reach Poverty Guidelines that are defined by the U.S. Department of Health
In a study of the prevalence of elder abuse in the United States, financial difficulties on the part of the abuser did appear to be an important risk factor (Krug, 2002, pp. 130-131). Relationship factors - in the early theoretical models, the level of stress of caregivers was seen as a risk factor that linked elder abuse with care of an elderly relative. While the accepted image of abuse depicts