Gerontology: The Basics

Jennifer Sasser, Harry Moody

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351113212
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Human aging is a complex, multi-faceted experience that unfolds over an entire lifetime. While human aging is universal, it is also wildly variable, shaped by individual, social, cultural, political, geographic and historical contexts. Gerontology: The basics explores the field of research, education and practice which takes on the complex and multi-faceted questions, issues and problems of adult aging and old age.

Intended for anyone interested in understanding the origins of gerontology and its unique purview, we invite the reader to join us in a critical examination of what we think we know about becoming and being old and, perhaps, be inspired to engage more deeply in their own travels through the life-course.

1

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD OF GERONTOLOGY

Time for a short quiz.

Gerontology is:

1. The scientific study of rocks and minerals.

2. That cool new pop band from France.

3. The study of family lineage and history.

4. The medical speciality that addresses the diseases of aging and later life.

5. None of the above.

6. All of the above.

(The answer: None of the above)

Given the name of this book, Gerontology: The Basics, you, the reader, probably assume that we, the authors, have a straightforward, definitive description of Gerontology to offer you. Alas, we don’t. As you’ll soon discover, there are almost as many definitions of Gerontology as there are people working within the field. Add to that the definitions of people working outside of the field but interested in some of the same questions, issues and problems related to adult aging about which Gerontologists are preoccupied, and the situation gets rather complicated, even confusing. However, when you think about the complex nature of the phenomena upon which Gerontology focuses – the multifaceted aspects of the human aging journey – it makes a certain kind of sense that “Gerontology” means many different things to many different people.

For starters, let’s be upfront about what Gerontology is not, as that’s an easier task than describing what Gerontology is. Gerontology is not the same thing as Geriatrics, though they are often mistaken for one another. Geriatrics is the medical speciality that focuses on the diseases and disabilities associated with aging and later life, as well as the health and long-term care needs of older adults. Geriatric medicine is an area of training and expertise chosen by some physicians and nurses, though you might come across Geriatric Social Workers as well. Professionals working in Geriatrics hold in common a concern with the special healthcare needs of older adults and the prevention, treatment and management of the diseases and disabilities associated with (but not necessarily caused by) adult aging and old age, most commonly heart disease, certain cancers, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, and hypertension. Gerontologists are concerned with these issues as well, but as you’ll discover as we venture deeper into our exploration of what constitutes the field of Gerontology, the way Gerontologists think about these and other adult aging issues is quite distinct from how these issues are taken on in Geriatrics. One of the questions we’ll pursue in this book is: How do Gerontologists think about and address human aging?

Gerontology, on the other hand, is commonly defined as the scientific study of aging and old age. The term “Gerontology” is attributed to Metchnikoff, who first started using it in 1903. (Interestingly, it was a few years later when Nascher offered the term “Geriatrics” to designate the medical speciality concerned with aging issues.) However, this definition of Gerontology, while pithy and straightforward, belies the complexity of the field. Here are a few of the kinds of descriptions you might come across were you to attempt to suss a definition of Gerontology:

• Gerontology is both a professional practice and an academic discipline that focuses on issues and problems of old age.

• Gerontology is the scientific study of aging, old age and later life.

• Gerontology is an area of healthcare that focuses on the needs of older persons.

• Gerontology is a multidisciplinary field that includes perspectives on aging borrowed from other disciplines and professions, such as biology, psychology, sociology, epidemiology, public policy, nursing and social work.

• Gerontology is an interdisciplinary enterprise involving the integration of research, theory, and practice from across multiple disciplines.

• Gerontology is only in part a scientific endeavor; Gerontology also includes perspectives from the arts and humanities in order to more deeply understand the lived experience of aging and old age.

We’ve just scratched the surface. But let us just say that there are multiple, often contradictory – even highly contested – ideas regarding what constitutes Gerontology. Another way into this question is to take a look at the complex and multifaceted phenomenon upon which Gerontologists focus: human aging in adulthood.

FOCUS ON ADULT AGING, LATER LIFE, AND OLD AGE

While human beings – and all living organisms – begin aging from the moment they come into existence, and while Gerontology acknowledges aging as a life-course experience, Gerontology focuses primarily on the issues of adult aging, later life, and old age. But there are some important questions we need to ask before we can even land upon a provisional definition of these terms. For starters, what do we mean by “adult aging”? If aging is a condition of living, what distinguishes aging in adulthood from aging at other points in the life-course? A related set of questions has to do with the origins of and markers for “later life” – a stage in the life-course – and “old age,” an individual and social status. Put another way, when does adult aging begin, when do we become an “old person,” and when does one enter “later life”?

So, those are some important questions we might want to ask about the focus of Gerontology. We’ll be saying more – a lot more – about that later. But there are parallel questions we might ask about the people who are doing the work of Gerontology: Gerontologists.

What do Gerontologists think they are doing when they are doing Gerontology? What makes Gerontology different from other academic disciplines and fields of study and practice? (That is, in what essential ways is Gerontology distinct from other related disciplines and fields, such as Geriatrics, psychology, sociology, social work, etc.?) How do we know Gerontology is being done when we see it? What are the questions, issues, and problems around which Gerontology organizes and institutionalizes itself? How are these questions, issues, and problems quintessentially gerontological rather than something else? How do you know a Gerontologist when you “see” one?

Here are some of the questions, issues, and problems that preoccupy Gerontologists:

• Gerontologists seek explanations for the causes of aging. Specifically, in Gerontology we want to understand what changes happen to all members of the human species, no matter what, as a consequence of the aging process. These changes are often referred to as “normal aging” and “intrinsic aging.” As human beings travel through the life-course and grow older, what changes can be expected to occur as a result of normal, intrinsic aging processes, regardless of the historical, social and cultural contexts in which persons are aging?

• Gerontologists want to be able to tease apart “normal aging” processes from diseases associated with growing older as well as from the effects of living in a particular environment or engaging in particular lifestyles and activities. For example, is it a normal part of the aging process to develop heart disease, or is heart disease correlated with (or associated with) particular lifestyle habits and genetic predispositions which have a cumulative negative effect over time and are, thus, associated with advancing age?

• Gerontologists pursue explanations for how aging processes play out in multiple domains of human experience: body, mind, social world, political economy, and spirit. As well, we wish to understand how aging experiences are both shared and vary between individuals and across individuals living in different historical times, geographic contexts and social spaces.

• Gerontologists seek a deeper, richer understanding of how individuals embody, engage, interpret and narrate the complexities and contradictions of their lived experiences of growing older in particular times, places and spaces.

• Gerontologists are also concerned with how to improve the lives of older adults through political processes, social and economic policies, and community-based programs and services. In other words, creating new knowledge about adult aging, later life and old age isn’t enough, Gerontologists want to apply this knowledge in the here-and-now in positive, meaningful ways to improve the quality of life and promote the well-being of persons as they age within their families, communities and societies.

I (Jennifer) was having a conversation with a colleague who directs an undergraduate Gerontology program at a large university in the US about the struggles within the field to articulate a shared definition of what constitutes the field. We agreed that it is difficult to make the case about why Gerontology is an important educational and professional focus when the very people who are responsible for producing and disseminating gerontological knowledge are confused about the nature of the field and how best to talk about it. If we don’t have a shared understanding, if not agreement, about what it is we do and why we do it, then how can we expect to continue to nurture and grow the field, as well as communicate with people outside of the field, about what Gerontology is and why it is a worthy and important pursuit? The colleague suggested that perhaps we can understand something about the historical origins and ongoing development of Gerontology by comparing it to a more well-established and well-known discipline: psychology. But I wasn’t so sure that this was the approach to take, though analogies can have heuristic value, serving to highlight not only similarities between things, but their differences as well.

Psychology, like Gerontology, considers itself fundamentally to be a scientific discipline in that there is a commitment to basing the body of psychological knowledge on empirical evidence. While psychology has an organizing and shared focus – the individual level of analysis – it is composed of multiple theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and foci for inquiry and practice. What holds the diversity of approaches within psychology together, what gives psychology coherence, is the focus on the individual unit of analysis. Of course, the social, cultural, political and historical contexts in which individuals are situated, as well as the influence of biology, are all important factors in psychological research and practice, but they make up the background; in the foreground is the individual and their emotional, intellectual, and behavioral experiences. So far, so good. But what happens when we extend what we know about psychology as a discipline and use it as a template for describing Gerontology?

What Gerontology is and how aging and later life are constructed have much to do with where one stands in terms of their involvement in the field, to such an extent that the outside viewer paying attention may find it difficult reconciling the different problematizations of aging and being an older person. For example, in senior citizen advocacy in the US there’s a history many decades’ long of fighting for the rights of older adults as if the status of being an older adult was, in and of itself, a minority status and that most older individuals are disadvantaged in some way, necessitating political intervention. As another example, Gerontologists working in community-based social service settings, such as social workers and case managers, often address the needs of older adults who are struggling with chronic physical and mental health issues, economic hardship, and other challenges that aren’t necessarily aging issues but which create the causes and conditions for a later life of difficulty.

Given the disparate definitions of Gerontology, and given the complex multifaceted nature of the phenomena at the center of gerontological work, it may be more accurate to describe Gerontology as a professional field that includes practitioners, researchers, educators, policy makers etc. coming from different disciplinary traditions all of whom are committed to understanding, explaining and addressing issues related to adult aging, later life and old age. There are, as such, several related (even nested) dimensions upon which one might describe gerontological work: The disciplinary background from which the individual Gerontologist comes (which has much to do with their education and training – their socialization process into the field – as it does the gerontological “niche” in which they work); within their disciplinary background, the theoretical and/or philosophical commitments that shape how they see the aging phenomena at the center of their work; the context of the work they do as a Gerontologist – are they a researcher, an educator, a policy maker, a service provider? That is, is the work they do primarily about the construction and dissemination of knowledge about aging phenomena from a gerontological perspective – research, theory, and teaching – or about the application of that knowledge in the context of practice? And then there is the specific aging phenomenon or set of phenomena that a particular Gerontologist is interested in understanding more deeply and perhaps developing an explanation for and, hopefully, addressing in some way.

For example, Jennifer’s educational preparation for the field of Gerontology included an undergraduate major in psychology and music, and graduate work in multiple Human Sciences disciplines and areas of study: lifespan developmental psychology; critical sociology and anthropology; women’s studies; and Gerontology. While she engaged in applied internships and paid work throughout her undergraduate and graduate education in the areas of long-term care, social services, rural health care, and senior citizen advocacy, her primary focus educationally and then professionally has been on educational Gerontology – creating and teaching in educational programs and courses focused on the field of Gerontology for both higher education and community settings. Her scholarly work has been on a parallel track, focusing not on scientific research on aging issues but, rather, on the meanings individuals and collectives make of their experiences traveling through the life-course. She specializes in cross-generational interdisciplinary collaborative inquiry, writing and community-based teaching and learning which focuses on questions about what it means to be a human, including what it means to grow older and experience the last phase of one’s life-course.

By comparison and in contrast is Jennifer’s colleague A. who focused her educational training at every level on the psychology of aging, specifically on cognitive aging and dementia. A. considers herself to be a “Gero-Psychologist” and works in private practice in the community. She specializes in cognitive assessment for older adults and helps them and their families make decisions about medical and long-term care related to the unique and challenging journey of Alzheimer’s Disease. She doesn’t conduct research and her primary professional affiliation is as part of the psychological community, and only as an ally to the gerontological community. Yet the work she does is a necessary and important piece of the overall gerontological landscape.

For yet another example, consider L., who doesn’t have any educational training in Gerontology but has worked in long-term care settings for several years. The focus of his job is to support the leisure and educational programming of an assisted living community – lifelong learning opportunities, tours, and special events. He interacts with older adults every day and, thus, considers himself to be a Gerontologist.

What do these three professional paths in the field of Gerontology have in common? They each focus in one way or another on issues of aging, later life and old age. But the educational background, specific professional context, and particular focus of each path is very distinct, if not unrelated except for the shared focus on aging phenomena in some fashion. In actual fact, there isn’t agreement about what the baseline educational and professional requirements are for being a Gerontologist, though there is an effort in the US, spearheaded by the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, to establish criteria for Gerontology programs and standardize Gerontology curricula. But in the absence of a unifying paradigm for the field of Gerontology, upon what set of criteria would such standards be predicated?

So, we might ask: What does the world look like through the eyes of a Gerontologist? Do Gerontologists even have enough in common to answer this question? Is there a unitary gerontological lens or, rather, a kaleidoscope composed of multiple lenses? Ferraro, and Neugarten before him, suggests that there is a “gerontological imagination” that might serve as a unifying framework for the gerontological community. We might ask: What are t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on the authors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to the field of Gerontology
• 2 The aging body
• 3 The aging mind
• 4 Aging in society
• 5 The political economy of aging
• 6 The meaning of old age
• 7 Epilogue
• Glossary
• Index