Title: Who Are the Elderly? Aging in Society | Introduction to Sociology
Headings: Who Are the Elderly? Aging in Society
Who Are the Elderly? Aging in Society
Learning Objectives
Studying Aging Populations
Phases of Aging: The Young-Old, Middle-Old, and Old-Old
The Graying of the United States
Baby Boomers
Aging around the World
Summary
Question #1
Short Answer
Glossary
Further Research
References

Content: Because of their specialization, social gerontologists are in a strong position to advocate for older adults. Scholars in these disciplines have learned that “aging” reflects not only the physiological process of growing older but also our attitudes and beliefs about the aging process. You’ve likely seen online calculators that promise to determine your “real age” as opposed to your chronological age. These ads target the notion that people may “feel” a different age than their actual years. Some sixty-year-olds feel frail and elderly, while some eighty-year-olds feel sprightly. Equally revealing is that as people grow older they define “old age” in terms of greater years than their current age (Logan 1992). Many people want to postpone old age and regard it as a phase that will never arrive. Some older adults even succumb to stereotyping their own age group (Rothbaum 1983). In the United States, the experience of being elderly has changed greatly over the past century. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many U.S. households were home to multigenerational families, and the experiences and wisdom of elders was respected.