Social Structures and Aging Individuals
Continuing Challenges
K. Warner Schaie, PhD
Ronald P. Abeles, PhD
[A] useful reference book. Readers will find themselves returning to chapters again and again...
--PsycCritiques
This is the 20th and final volume in the "Societal Impact on Aging" series. It focuses on what has been learned over the span of the previous volumes regarding the continuing challenges for older persons in a rapidly changing society and tries to forecast what may be the next set of issues to lie at the intersection of social structures and the individual aging process. The editors therefore invited major organizers of, and contributors to, the 19 earlier volumes to review both the accomplishments and omissions of their efforts, discuss some timely new topics, and provide guidelines for future research and theoretical explanations.
The book is divided into five broad topics: health and wellbeing, including the role of religion; personality and cognition; the impact of changes in technology and the work place; issues of socio-cultural change and historical context; and the familial and societal contexts of aging.
- Contributors
- The Waters We Swim: Everyday Social Processes, Macro-Structural Realities and Human Aging, Dale Dannefer
- To Act or Not to Act: Using Statistics or Feelings to Reduce Disease Risk, Morbidity and Mortality, Howard Leventhal, Tamara J. Musumeci, and Elaine A. Leventhal
- Religion, Health, and Health Behavior, Neal Krause
- Commentary: Assessing Health Behaviors Across Individuals, Situations, and Time, David Almeida, Susan T. Charles, and Shevaun D. Neupert
- From Static to Dynamic: The On-going Dialectic About Human Development, Nilam Ram, Sylvia Morelli, Casey Lindberg, and Laura L. Carstensen
- Those Who Have, Get: Social Structure, Environmental Complexity, Intellectual Functioning and Self-Directed Orientations in the Elderly, Carmi Schooler and Leslie J. Caplan
- Commentary: Personality, Emotion, and Cognition: Some Comments, Freda Blanchard-Fields
- Technology as Multiplier Effect for an Aging Work Force, Neil Charness
- No Career for You: Is That a Good or Bad Thing? David Ekerdt
- Commentary: New Employment Structures: Varieties of Impact on Aging Workers, James L. Farr and Alexander R. Schwall
- Aging, History, and the Course of Life: Social Structures and Cultural Meanings, Thomas Cole, W. Andrew Achenbaum, and Nathan Carlin
- Cultural Transformations, History and the Experiences of Aging, Christine Fry
- The Aging Experience, Social Change, and Television, Rukmalie Jayakody
- Religion and Intergenerational Transmission over Time, Vern L. Bengtson, Casey E. Copen, Norella M. Putney, and Merril Silverstein
- How Have Social Institutional Forces Shaped Family Structure and Well- Being Over the Past 50 Years, Mark D. Hayward
- Commentary: Marital Trends and Familial Influences: Toward Developing an Understanding of Context, Chalandra Bryant and Michelle Bragg
Preface, K. Warner Schaie
Preface to the first volume in the series: Why this book?, Matilda White Riley
Introductory Overview
Section 1: Health and Well-Being
Section 2: Personality and Cognition
Section 3: Technology and the Workplace
Section 4: Sociocultural Change and Historical Context
Section 5: Family and Societal Context
Author Index
Subject Index
- Release Date: July 2, 2008
- Hardback
- 412 Pages
- Trim Size: 6in x 9in
- Number of Illustrations: 10
- Features: 5 tables; 5 figures
- ISBN: 9780826124081
- eBook ISBN: 9780826124098
- Series: Social Impact on Aging Series
