Question | Answer |
Age stereotypes | preconceived judgments and oversimplified categorizations of beliefs about the characteristics of members of different age groups. |
What are the stereotypes for young and old people? | young are carefree and old are unhappy, evil, or even childish. |
Infantilization of elderly | Stereotype causes people to speak to the elderly in infantile, demeaning tones. |
What are some common stereotypes for the elderly? | forgetful, set in their ways, meddlesome, conservative, inactive, unproductive, lonely, mentally dim, uninterested in sex, etc. |
Age norms | rules that spell out the expectations at a certain age. "act your age" |
Age differentiation | division of labor or roles in a society on the basis of age. |
Age stratification | hierarchical ranking of age groups. Some ensure different rewards, privileges, and power. |
Age Cohort | a group of people born during the same period. They share the same historical experiences. |
generontology | scientific study of old age and the problems that old people have. |
ageism | discrimination or prejudice of a person based on their age |
general equity | Whether one age group is unfairly taxed to support other age group |
Life course perspective | person attributes, roles, life events, and sociohistory is viewed. |
Medicare | Governmental assistance program to provide health services for older Americans |
Medicaid | Governmental assistance program that provides health care assistance for the poor, including the elderly |
Caregiver | Takes on the stressful job of taking care of an elderly person. Can result in elder abuse. |
Euthanasia | Act of killing a severely ill person as an act of mercy. |
Hospice Movement | Provide care for the dying and their family. |
Age prejudice | Negative attitude about an age group. |
Age discrimination | Different and unequal treatment based on age. |
Quadruple Jeopardy | Phrase referring to the simultaneous effects of being old, minority, female, and poor. |
Functionalist theory and age | Older people are less useful than middle age people who contribute to society. |
Disengagement theory | derived from functionalist theory, predicts that as people age, they drift apart from society |
Conflict theory and age | Assesses differences in age groups in terms of what they want. Competition still exists. Explains that children and old people is a way to bar them away from the job market. |
Symbolic interaction and age | Analyze the different symbol meanings for different age groups. Also analyzes how people manage death. |
Life expectancy | Probably number of years a particular group is likely to live on average. |