1. summarization
Aging
Aging is both a biological and sociological process. Human beings experience and accomplish stages of biological and social maturation. Aging may be seen as a relatively objective biological process whereby one becomes older and experiences varied biological developments. Aging may also be seen as a subjective series of social processes whereby people interpret, negotiate, and make sense of biological development.
Aging is Both Biological and Sociological
For example, a social being born into the United States in 1980. This person will likely experience a biological development characterized by the addition of years from birth and by biological understandings of the time.
However, this child born in the United States in 1980 will experience social development characterized by many factors. For instance, was this child raised in a family or an orphanage? What kind of education did this child receive, public or private, what types of educational funding and other educational opportunities did this child receive? Was this child born lower, middle, or upper class? Given the many possible answers to these questions, this person can be expected to follow relatively varied patterns of social development that will be interpreted in different ways by others born at the same time.
As a result, this child’s biological age may or may not match this child’s subjective age.
Differential Treatment by Age or Ageism
1. Treatment of the Young
While most people are aware of the mistreatment of the elderly, few people seem to realize that young people are often subjected to discrimination because of their age. Discrimination against young people is primarily in the area of behavioral restrictions, often by parents but also in public places like malls and stores.
While the above are clear examples of discrimination, there are other restrictions placed on young people based on the assumption that they are unable to make decisions for themselves. Examples of such restrictions include:
inability to vote in elections
inability to legally imbibe alcohol or smoke cigarettes
inability to legally engage in sexual activity
inability to hold public office
inability to determine whether or not one can marry
inability to determine whether or not one can get an abortion
2. Treatment of the Elderly
While discrimination toward the young is primarily behavioral restrictions, discrimination toward the elderly ranges from behavioral restrictions to the realm of physical abuse. Abuse refers to psychological/emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse.
Additionally, the elderly are often stereotyped. One stereotype of the elderly is that they are inflexible in their attitudes and that they tend to only become more conservative with time. This is not the case - the elderly are quite adept at changing their views and often they become more tolerant as they age. Another stereotype of the elderly is that they are poorer drivers than younger people. Up to about the age of 75, older drivers are actually safer than drivers of other ages.
Age and Gender
Why women live longer than men is not perfectly understood. Several factors may contribute to this. For instance, men do engage in riskier behaviors than women, reducing their life expectancy. Men are also more "successful" when attempting suicide, which increases the rate of death among men of suicide. Another factor that may contribute to the greater life expectancy of women is the different types of jobs men and women tend to have during their lifetimes.
Age and Race
Aging does not result in similar outcomes for members of different races. There is evidence that black senior citizens are more likely to be abused - both physically and psychologically and suffer greater financial exploitation than do white senior citizens. Further, recent demographic profiles suggest that social aging varies across racial groups, and demonstrates that minority elders typically enter later life with less education, less financial resources, and less access to health care than their white counterparts.
Global Aging Trends
Globally, most countries are seeing the average life expectancy of their populations increase. This translates into a greater percentage of the world's population falling above the age of 65.
However, the rate at which the world's population is aging is not same across countries, and some countries have actually seen decreasing life expectancies, largely as a result of AIDS.
Aging and Health
While aging is often associated with declining health, current research suggests there are some things people can do to remain healthy longer into old age. For instance, maintaining a positive attitude has been shown to be correlated with better health among the elderly. Older individuals with more positive attitudes and emotions engage in less risky behavior and have lower levels of stress, both of which are correlated with better health.
2. Interesting, new items I learned
Aging society of Korea and Other country
We can define country which has over 7%-14% of over 65 years in whole population as aging society. And 14%-20% is aged society, over 20% is super aged society. For France, it took 115 years becoming aged society from aging society. Germany took 40 years, Japan took 24 years. But Korea took only 18 years. Aging speed of people is so fast in Korean society.
Korean people get less children when they get married so Korea has low fertility rate. That accelerate society aging so fast. In this speed, Korean society will be super aging society in 2025.
3. Discussion
We will be super aging society in 2025. By having different age structure, we will have many changed situation and problem. Which situation and problem will our super aging society get in the future?
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