After reading Chapter Fifteen, you should be able to:
- Describe the transitions and challenges of aging.
- Discuss the causes and consequences of the "graying" of the U.S. population.
- Define gerontology.
- Describe the biological and psychological changes that accompany aging, as well as the role of cultural factors in determining how aging is defined in any given society.
- Examine how age stratification varies according to a society’s level of technological development.
- Identify and describe four personality types identified by Neugarten and their responses to the aging process.
- Examine the transitions and challenges of aging, including social isolation, retirement, poverty, caregiving, and elder abuse.
- Define ageism.
- Discuss the extent to which the elderly can be analyzed as a minority group.
- Compare and contrast three theoretical approaches to the sociology of aging.
- Compare and contrast historical patterns of death with the modern separation of life and death.
- Discuss ethical issues surrounding death.
