Functionalists analyze how the parts of society work together.
Functionalists gauge how society’s parts are working together to
keep society running smoothly. The elderly, as a group, are one of
society’s vital parts.Functionalists find that people with better
resources who stay active in other roles adjust better to old
age.
The earliest gerontological theory in the functionalist
perspective is disengagement theory, which suggests that
withdrawing from society and social relationships is a natural part
of growing old. There are several main points to the theory. First,
because everyone expects to die one day, and because we experience
physical and mental decline as we approach death, it is natural to
withdraw from individuals and society.
Second, as the elderly withdraw, they receive less
reinforcement to conform to social norms. Therefore, this
withdrawal allows a greater freedom from the pressure to
conform.
Finally, social withdrawal is gendered, meaning it is
experienced differently by men and women. Because men focus on work
and women focus on marriage and family, when they withdraw they
will be unhappy and directionless until they adopt a role to
replace their accustomed role that is compatible with the
disengaged state.
According to continuity theory, the elderly make specific
choices to maintain consistency in internal (personality structure,
beliefs) and external structures (relationships), remaining active
and involved throughout their elder years. This is an attempt to
maintain social equilibrium and stability by making future
decisions on the basis of already developed social roles.
One criticism of this theory is its emphasis on so-called
“normal” aging, which marginalizes those with chronic diseases such
as Alzheimer’s.
Theorists working the conflict perspective view society as
inherently unstable, an institution that privileges the powerful
wealthy few while marginalizing everyone else. According to the
guiding principle of conflict theory, social groups compete with
other groups for power and scarce resources.
Applied to society’s aging population, the principle means that
the elderly struggle with other groups—for example, younger society
members—to retain a certain share of resources. At some point, this
competition may become conflict.
For example, some people complain that the elderly get more
than their fair share of society’s resources. The medical bills of
the nation’s elderly population are rising dramatically. While
there is more care available to certain segments of the senior
community, it must be noted that the financial resources available
to the aging can vary tremendously by race, social class, and
gender.
Modernization theory suggests that the primary cause of the
elderly losing power and influence in society are the parallel
forces of industrialization and modernization. As societies
modernize, the status of elders decreases, and they are
increasingly likely to experience social exclusion. Before
industrialization, strong social norms bound the younger generation
to care for the older.
Now, as societies industrialize, the nuclear family replaces
the extended family. Societies become increasingly individualistic,
and norms regarding the care of older people change. In an
individualistic industrial society, caring for an elderly relative
is seen as a voluntary obligation that may be ignored without fear
of social censure.
The central reasoning of modernization theory is that as long
as the extended family is the standard family, as in preindustrial
economies, elders will have a place in society and a clearly
defined role. As societies modernize, the elderly, unable to work
outside of the home, have less to offer economically and are seen
as a burden.
Another theory in the conflict perspective is age
stratification theory.Because age serves as a basis of social
control, different age groups will have varying access to social
resources such as political and economic power. Within societies,
behavioral age norms, including norms about roles and appropriate
behavior, dictate what members of age cohorts may reasonably
do.
For example, it might be considered deviant for an elderly
woman to wear a bikini because it violates norms denying the
sexuality of older females. These norms are specific to each age
strata, developing from culturally based ideas about how people
should “act their age.”
Symbolic interactionists stress that the changes associated
with old age, in and of themselves, have no inherent meaning.
Nothing in the nature of aging creates any particular, defined set
of attitudes. Rather, attitudes toward the elderly are rooted in
society.
One microanalytical theory is Rose’s (1962) subculture of aging
theory, which focuses on the shared community created by the
elderly when they are excluded (due to age), voluntarily or
involuntarily, from participating in other groups. This theory
suggests that elders will disengage from society and develop new
patterns of interaction with peers who share common backgrounds and
interests.
Another theory within the symbolic interaction perspective is
selective optimization with compensation theory. Baltes and Baltes
(1990) based their theory on the idea that successful personal
development throughout the life course and subsequent mastery of
the challenges associated with everyday life are based on the
components of selection, optimization, and compensation.
According to this theory, our energy diminishes as we age, and
we select (selection) personal goals to get the most (optimize) for
the effort we put into activities, in this way making up for
(compensation) the loss of a wider range of goals and activities.
In this theory, the physical decline postulated by disengagement
theory may result in more dependence, but that is not necessarily
negative, as it allows aging individuals to save their energy for
the most meaningful activities.
For example, a professor who values teaching sociology may
participate in a phased retirement, never entirely giving up
teaching, but acknowledging personal physical limitations that
allow teaching only one or two classes per year.
Populations around the world are ageing as life expectancy
increases and as birth rates fall. At present the increased
proportion of elderly people in the population is generally higher
in developed countries than in others, but ageing is increasingly
becoming a global phenomenon.
One reason for this continuing increase of the median age is
that people are living longer, primarily due to improved nutrition
and health and the reductions of disease and injuries.
A second reason, most obvious from the first graph, is that we
are not having as many children as we used to have, curiously for
many of the same reasons. We used to see massive deaths in the
first years of life, and as we have improved the survival of young
people, we have also moved to having smaller families with fewer
children.
A third reason, which speaks to individual countries or
regions, is reduced immigration, that is, reduced movement of
populations between countries or regions. It is primarily families
who do this moving, and the impact on the receiving country is a
net reduction in the median age, as families with children change
the population graph. This of course has no impact on the total
aging of the global population, but shifts the demographic from
place to place.