SOCIAL STRUCTURES & SOCIALPROCESSES OF AGING
...tion of wealth, power & prestige according to socially evaluated traits. 3) Position in social structure gained via ascribed & achieved traits which are differentially valued. Assignment to different position in social structure leads to variation in life chances / lifestyle. 4) One can hold positions of differing status in different substructures. 5) North American stratification system based upon: -age, sex, class, race, ethnicity. TERMS - SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY cohort -group of individuals born in a given timeperiod, -often quantifiable differences between groups. generation -group of individuals or adjacent birth cohorts where large proportion have experienced & reacted to the same historical event in a (relatively) similar manner. -tend to think / behave in ways that make them different from other generations. generational unit -subgroups within same generation with different views of unique group consciousness. Generational Analysis: -macro level analysis of birth cohorts which examines their common social historical experiences. - e.g., baby boomers -types of things considered in generational analysis: maturation or developmental changes with age historical effects- cohort factors or the ways in which cohorts relate to each other. Age Stratification Theory -status attainment approach -social mobility -2 dynamics of interest: 1-changing life course patterns 2-changing social structures Non-normative life events -or life crises -norms (shared rules or guidelines) -every society has “age norms”, prescribe how a person of a certain age should act. -normative life events -non-normative life events = society does NOT prescribe that everyone go through these, people cannot plan for them. Eg: accidents, illness, divorce, widowhood History-Graded Events -non-normative life events describe sudden changes in a person’s personal life. -hx-graded events change the lives of many age cohorts. Eg: born between 1900-1910 experienced two world wars, depression -such historic events left their mark on this cohort, shaping family lives, work lives, their values Tindale (1980) -ethnographic study of older, poor men in a large Canadian city. -most lived th...