About the Author/Editor | |
Preface | |
Prologue | |
Note to Students | |
A Life Course Perspective On Aging | |
Age Identification | |
The Stages of Life | |
The Life Course and Aging | |
Life Transitions | |
Theories of Aging | |
Modernization Theory | |
Disengagement Theory | |
Activity Theory | |
Influences on the Life Course | |
Social Class and Life History | |
Social Institutions and Policies | |
Aging in the 21st Century | |
Time and the Life Course | |
The Moral Economy of the Life Course | |
The Biology of Aging | |
The New Science of Longevity | |
Mechanisms of Physical Aging | |
Wear and Tear | |
Free Radicals | |
The Immune System | |
Aging and Psychological Functioning | |
Self-concept and Social Relationships | |
Social Roles | |
Cognitive Functioning | |
Conclusion | |
Toward a New Map of Life | |
Does Old Age Have Meaning? | |
The Meaning of Age | |
Leisure Activities in Later Life | |
Changing Leisure Participation Patterns | |
Explaining Patterns of Leisure | |
Religion and Spirituality | |
Spiritual Practice and Religious Participation Over the Life Course | |
Spiritual Belief, Religious Participation, and Well-Being | |
Spirituality and the Search for Meaning | |
Social Gerontology and the Meaning of Age | |
The Meaning of Aging in the 21st Century | |
Activity or Reflection? | |
Focus on Practice: Reminiscence and Life Review | |
Readings | |
The Coming of Age | |
Vital Involvement in Old Age | |
Successful Aging | |
The Measure of My Days | |
Why Do Our Bodies Age? | |
The Process of Biological Aging | |
Biological Theories of Aging | |
Wear-and-Tear Theory | |
Autoimmune Theory | |
Aging-Clock Theory | |
Cross-Linkage Theory | |
Free Radicals | |
Cellular Theory | |
Is Aging Inevitable? | |
Ways to Prolong the Life Span | |
Environmental Approach | |
Genetic Approach | |
Compression or Prolongation of Morbidity? | |
Focus on Practice: Health Promotion | |
Readings | |
Why Do We Live As Long As We Do? | |
Vitality and Aging: Implications of the Rectangular Curve | |
We Will Be Able to Live to 1,000 | |
Don't Fall for the Cult of Immortality | |
The Compression of Morbidity Hypothesis: A Review of Research and Prospects for the Furure | |
Health Trends in the Elderly Population: Getting Better and Getting Worse | |
Focus on the Future: "I Dated a Cyborg!" | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Does Intellectual Functioning Change With Age? | |
Elements of Cognitive Functioning | |
The Classic Aging Pattern | |
Measures of Intelligence in Later Life | |
Studies of Age and Cognitive Function | |
Memory and Aging | |
Correlates of Cognitive Stability | |
Mature Cognition | |
Focus on Practice: Older-Adult Education | |
Readings | |
Age and Achievement | |
Age and Achievement: A Critique | |
Growing Old or Living Long: Take Your Pick | |
The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain | |
Aging | |
Focus on the Future: Late-life Learning in the Information Society | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Aging, Health Care, and Society | |
The Challenge of Longevity | |
The Case of the Struldbruggs | |
Normal Aging | |
Longevity and Disease | |
Epidemiology of Aging | |
Major Diseases in Old Age | |
Responses to the Geriatric Diseases | |
Economics of Health Care | |
Reimbursement Systems | |
Prospects for the Future | |
Long-term Care | |
Housing for Older Adults | |
Chronic Care in Old Age | |
Functional Assessment | |
The Continuum of Care | |
Paying for Long-term Care: An American Dilemma | |
Self-Determined Death | |
Late-Life Suicide | |
Conclusion | |
Should We Ration Health Care for Older People? | |
Precedents for Health Care Rationing | |
The Justification for Age-Based Rationing | |
Rationing as a Cost-Savings Plan | |
The Impetus for Rationing | |
Cost Versus Age | |
Alternative Approaches to Rationing | |
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide | |
The Debate Over Age-Based Rationing | |
Focus on Practice: Managed Care | |
Readings | |
Why We Must Set Limits | |
Pricing Life: Why It's Time for Health Care Rationing | |
The Pied Piper Returns for the Old Folks | |
Letting Individuals Decide | |
Aim Not Just for Longer Life, but Expanded "Health Span" | |
Focus on the Future: Scenarios for Rationing: Fiction or Forecast? | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Should Families Provide for Their Own? | |
Aging and the American Family | |
Abandonment or Independence? | |
Family Responsibility | |
Medicaid and Long-Term Care | |
Financing Long-Term Care | |
Medicaid Planning | |
Focus on Practice: Long-Term Care Insurance | |
Readings | |
Medicaid and Long-Term Care | |
Shame of the Rich: Making Themselves Poor | |
The Fallacy of Impoverishment | |
The Case Against Paying Family Caregivers: Ethical and Practical Issues | |
For Love and Money: Paying Family Caregivers | |
Focus on the Future: Genetic Screening for Alzheimer's Disease? | |
Questions to Ponder | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Should Older People Be Protected From Bad Choices? | |
The Vulnerabilities of Older People | |
Interfering When People Make Bad Choices | |
Elder Abuse and Neglect | |
Perceptions of Quality of Life | |
Sexuality in Later Life | |
Crime and Older Adults | |
Intervention in the Lives of Vulnerable Older People | |
Focus on Practice: Adult Protective Services | |
Readings | |
The Right to Freedom From Restraints | |
Ethical Dilemmas in Elder Abuse | |
A Legal Perspective on Elder Abuse | |
Elder Self-Neglect: A Blurred Concept | |
Focus on the Future: Inheritance in an Aging Society | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Should Older People Have The Choice To End Their Lives? | |
Depression and Suicide | |
The "Right to Die" | |
Outlook on the Future | |
Focus on Practice: Advanced Directives | |
Readings | |
Why Do People Seek Physician-Assisted Death? | |
A Time to Die: The Place for Physican Assistance | |
Last Rights: Aunty's Story | |
Neither for Love or Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill | |
Focus on the Future: Neighborhood Suicide Clinics? | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Social And Economic Outlook for An Aging Society | |
The Varieties of Aging Experience | |
Social Class | |
Race and Ethnicity | |
Gender and Aging | |
Multiple Jeopardy | |
Economic Well-Being | |
The Economic Status of Older Americans | |
Sources of Retirement Income | |
Changing Financial Outlook | |
Public Policy on Aging | |
The Aging Network | |
Aging Interest Groups | |
Trends in Public Policy and Aging | |
Conclusion | |
Should Age Or Need Be The Basis for Entitlement? | |
A Tale of Two Generations | |
Generational Equity | |
Poverty Among the Old | |
Poverty Among Children and Young People | |
The Dependency Ratio | |
Taxation and Generational Accounting | |
Power and Competition for Scarce Resources | |
The Least-Advantaged in the Older Population | |
Help for Those Most in Need | |
The Targeting Debate | |
Focus on Practice: Intergenerational Programs | |
Readings | |
Growing Older | |
Gray Dawn: Target Benefits on the Basis of Need | |
"Generational Equity" and the New Victim Blaming | |
The Generational Equity Debate | |
Focus on the Future: Walled Retirement Villages? | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
What Is The Future for Social Security? | |
Main Features of Social Security | |
Success-and Doubts | |
Pay as You Go | |
Social Security Trust Fund | |
Eligibility | |
Privatization | |
Women and Social Security | |
Debate Over Security | |
Focus on Practice: Investment Decisions For Retirement Income | |
Readings | |
How to Save Social Security: A Balanced Approach | |
The Necessity and Desirability of Social Security Reform | |
Social Security Reform and Benefit Adequacy | |
Social Security for Yesterday's Family? | |
Focus on the Future: Two Scenarios for the Future of Social Security | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Is Retirement Obsolete? | |
History of Retirement | |
Origins of Late-Life Leisure | |
Changes in the American Economy | |
A New View of Retirement | |
Productive Aging | |
Debate Over Retirement Policy | |
Focus on Practice: Pre-retirement Planning | |
Readings | |
Achieving a Productive Aging Society | |
Prime Time | |
The Busy Ethic: Moral Continuity Between Work and Retirement | |
Moving Toward a Creative Retirement | |
Focus on the Future: The U.S. Wisdom Corps? | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Aging Boomers: Boom Or Bust? | |
Who are the Boomers? | |
What is a Generation? | |
Social Constructions of the Boomer Phenomenon | |
Boomers in the Years Ahead | |
Focus on Practice: Marketing to Aging Boomers | |
Readings | |
Boomsday | |
No Country for Young Men | |
The Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders | |
The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation | |
Focus on the Future | |
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate | |
Epilogue | |
Appendices | |
How to Research a Term Paper in Gerontology | |
Internet Resources on Aging | |
Bibliography | |
Glossary/Index | |
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