Tips from ODSW August 2015: Gerontological Theories
theories of
G E R OinNsocialT work
OLOGY
Focus of Theory
Focus of Theory
How successful aging occurs
when older adults stay active
and maintain social interactions.
Problems can be alleviated by
engaging in activities in order to
continue with psychological and
social needs of earlier life. This
can be achieved by taking on
new roles, friends and
activities.
Criticisms
ACTIVITY THEORY
Practice Interventions
- Overlooks inequalities
in health and economics
which affects the ability
to participate in
activities.
Considers most of everyday activity to be the acting out of socially
defined categories. Each social role is a set of rights, duties,
expectations, norms and behaviours that a person has to face and
fulfill.
ROLE
THEORY
- Some older adults may
not desire to engage in
new challenges.
Main Concepts
Main Concepts
- Roles identify and describe a person as a social
being and are the basis of self concept and
identity.
- Roles are associated with age or stage of life.
- Assumes a positive relationship between activity and life satisfaction.
- Age norms assume age-related capacities or
limitations.
- Proposes that older people are happiest when they stay active and maintain social
interactions.
- Older adults take on new roles and have to
deal with role losses (eg. work, spouse)
Criticisms
- Asserts that older people have the same psychological and social needs as younger
people.
- Role theory places greater emphasis on social conformity than questioning social policies.
- Reflects the functionalist perspective that the equilibrium an individual develops in middle
age should be maintained in later years, predicting that older adults that face role loss will
substitute former roles with other alternatives.
- Human agency is not sufficiently addressed in role theory.
Focus of Theory
How older adults usually maintain the same activities, behaviours,
personalities, and relationships as they did in their earlier years of
life.
Main Concepts
CONTINUITY THEORY
- Older adults try to maintain their continuity
of lifestyle by adapting strategies that are
connected to their past experiences.
- can be viewed from the functionalist
perspective in which the individual and society
try to obtain a state of equilibrium.
Criticisms
- Does not take into account the influence of social institutions on individual’s aging.
- Does not take into account individuals with chronic diseases.
Focus of Theory
suggests that normal human aging includes a range of vital
and commonly overlooked components.
- The socialization process, as depicted by role theory, lacks comprehensiveness.
- Role theory promotes the notion of segmented rather than enfolded occupations.
Focus of Theory
Human life is divided into 8 stages where developmental tasks
at each stage needs to be accomplished.
GEROTRANSCENDENCE
THEORY
- Values contemplation and solitude in old age.
Criticisms
- Failed to provide systematic evidence that gerotranscendent wisdom is exclusively typical for
old age or qualitatively different from other ages
Focus of Theory
Analysis of people's lives within structural,
social, and cultural contexts.
LIFE COURSE
APPROACH
Criticisms
- Attempts to answer why
social interaction and activity
often decrease with age.
- The balance of interactions
between older people and
others determines personal
satisfaction.
Focus of Theory
How persons minimize costs
and maximize rewards through
social exchange.
- Withdrawal and social
isolation result from an unequal
exchange process of
"investments and returns"
between older persons and
other members of society.
Criticisms
Reduces human interaction to a purely rational
process
Focus of Theory
How the “self” is perceived.
SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM
Main Concepts
- Old age, and aging, are socially constructed and
attitudes towards the elderly are rooted in society
- The interaction of factors like the human
environment and relationships with others affect
how people experience aging.
Infographics produced by MSF Office of the Director of Social Welfare | Aug 2015
Main Concepts
- Examines an individual’s life history and sees for
example, how early events influence future decisions
and events, giving particular attention to the
connection between individuals and the historical and
socioeconomic context in which they lived.
- Ageing and its meaning shaped by structural
influences of cohort and context.
- Human development do not necessarily proceed in a
given sequence but is interactive, fluid and non-linear
affected by gains and losses in roles and functions,
structured advantages and disadvantages.
Failure to adequately link the micro world of individual and family lives to the
macro world of social institutions and formal organizations.
the hierarchical ranking of people into age
groups within a society
SOCIAL EXCHANGE
- Older adults need to look back at life and feel
a sense of fulfilment. Successful resolution of
conflict leads to a sense of fulfilment while
failure results in regret, bitterness and despair.
Erikson’s theory is more of a descriptive overview of human social and
emotional development that does not adequately explain how or why this
development occurs.
Focus of Theory
Main Concepts
- Stage 8: Ego integrity vs despair
Criticisms
Main Concepts
- Focus on inner self, shift from materialistic, rational
view of world to more cosmic and transcendent one
expressed as wisdom, spirituality.
Main Concepts
ERIKSON'S 8th STAGE
OF PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
Main Concepts
- Older adults born during different time periods form
cohorts that define "age strata".
- There are two differences among strata: chronological
age and historical experience.
AGE
STRATIFICATION
- This theory makes two arguments:
1. Age is a mechanism for regulating behavior and as a
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