In the past few years the topic of work and ageing has received much public and professional interest. The progressive "greying" of the population and its impact on work is a problem of widespread and growing concern, with major consequences for the economy in terms of productivity, performance, health care, work design and entry opportunities; and for the individual older worker. A European Symposium on Work and Ageing was held in Amsterdam in 1993. It was intended not only for a forum of scientists but also for practitioners and policy-makers who are actually involved in this growing field of social interest.; "Work and Aging," a multi-disciplinary book derives, in part, from this symposium, but also includes especially invited contribributions from experts in occupational health and safety, organizational psychology, cognitive science, and ergonomics.; Throughout the diverse chapters, incentives are suggested on how and why an organization could benefit from the asset of an ageing worker. Training programmes for human resource management, with respect to the elderly and disabled worker in particular, are offered in order to deal effectively with vocational rehabilitation.

Increasingly, scholars from many disciplines have begun to incorporate various modalities from the humanities and arts - novels, films, artwork, and other forms of expression - to help connect students with the experience of aging in deeply meaningful and person-centered ways. This collection examines how these approaches are incorporated into gerontology and geriatrics education. Rather than focusing solely on measurable outcomes, such as changes in learning over time - which is the purview of empirical pedagogy - chapters focus on strategies for successfully incorporating a specific work into the classroom, descriptions of humanities and/or arts exercises with students or older adults, and other ways that explore how the humanities and arts can be applied successfully and meaningfully in educational settings. This book was originally published as a special issue of Geronotology & Geriatrics Education.

Traditionally, the most preferred social research methods in dementia studies have been interviews, focus groups and non-participant observations. Most of these methods have been used for a long time by researchers in other social research fields, but their application to the field of dementia studies is a relatively new phenomenon. A ground-breaking book, Social Research Methods in Dementia Studies shows researchers how to adapt their methods of data collection to address the individual needs of someone who is living with dementia. With an editorial team that includes Ann Johnson, a trained nurse and person living with dementia, this enlightening volume mainly draws its contents from two interdisciplinary social research teams in dementia, namely the Center for Dementia Research [CEDER] at Linkoeping University in Norrkoeping, Sweden and the Dementia and Ageing Research Team [DART] at The University of Manchester in Manchester, UK. Case examples are shared in each of the main chapters to help ground the social research method(s) in a real-life context and provide direction as to how learning can be applied to other settings. Chapters also contain key references and recommended reading. This volume will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers, interested in fields such as: Research Methods, Qualitative Methods and Dementia Studies.

First published in 1997. Considerable research has been done to identify neighbourhood influences on children's affective states, motivation, and behaviour. This population, along with the elderly, are the nation's largest dependent groups. In contrast, little research has been done to determine what impact living among poor neighbours has upon older Americans, specifically upon their psychological well-being and neighbourhood satisfaction. In this study the author has sought out to explore this deficit, using a sociological standpoint to examine quality-of-life issues relevant to elderly inner-city residents. This title will be of interest to students of sociology and urban studies.

There are more people over 50 than ever before, with numbers likely to continue to rise. They are wealthier, healthier and happier than our old stereotypical images lead us to believe, yet this segment of the market is under-researched. In Understanding the Older Consumer, Barrie Gunter provides a detailed examination of the demographic, behavioural and psychological profiles of this group. He shows that without the responsibilities of loans and child raising and with better financial provision than in previous years, the over-50s represent a powerful spending force. In order to reach this group, marketers need to know how best to target advertising and respond to the changes that have occurred. Understanding the Older Consumer provides a wealth of information on older people's lifestyles and leisure, their interest in the mass media, their perceptions of advertising and their shopping preferences that will be invaluable to students of marketing, media and social psychology.

Dementia: The Basics provides the reader with a clear and compassionate introduction to dementia and an accessible guide to dealing with different parts of the dementia journey, from pre-diagnosis and diagnosis to post-diagnostic support, increasing care needs and end of life care. Co-authored by an academic, a person living with dementia and a family carer, the book endeavours to raise awareness of dementia, challenge stereotypical and negative ideas about what it means to have dementia and champion a society where people living with dementia can be active as they wish for as long as possible. The authors present an overview of current research at each step of the dementia journey as well as including knowledge from lived experience, enhancing understanding and challenging thinking about what it might be like to live with a diagnosis or to care for a loved one. As a whole, the book emphasises the importance of prioritising the person living with dementia, as well as considering the impact of what any initiative or action might mean for them, their families and their care supporters. Offering both an accessible introduction to dementia and practical tools, this book will be ideal for health and social care professionals, students of social care, health care and nursing, people with dementia, carers and anyone wanting to understand more about the condition.

Originally published in 1995, within the previous decade there had been significant developments in our understanding of the learning and motivation, together with the conceptual and cognitive development, of older adults. This understanding had been enhanced by findings from longitudinal studies which were now becoming available. These findings demonstrated the gains that had been made in research. In the past, inappropriately conceived studies have led to the perpetuation of myths and stereotypes about the intellectual development of older people. Special attention is paid in this book to changing perceptions of ageing and intelligence, learning aptitude, memory and intelligence testing. The important topic of ageing and wisdom is also discussed.

Debates on policy concerning medical care and social welfare of the elderly become ever more pressing, and many of the assumptions on which they are based are now open to question. This study sets out to provide a historical perspective on the economic, medical, class and gender relations of the elderly, which until now have received relatively little attention. In particular, the position of the elderly is linked to the fundamental issues of health, disability and medical care. With attention currently focused on the setting of the retirement age, community and family care, and pensions, as well as wider debates on the rights of the elderly, this volume aims to supply a historical context for such issues.

What makes for a meaningful life? In the Japanese context, the concept of ikigai provides a clue. Translated as "that which makes one's life worth living," ikigai has also come to mean that which gives a person happiness. In Japan, where the demographic cohort of elderly citizens is growing, and new modes of living and relationships are revising traditional multigenerational family structures, the elderly experience of ikigai is considered a public health concern. Without a relevant model for meaningful and joyful older age, the increasing older population of Japan must create new cultural forms that center the ikigai that comes from old age. In Making Meaningful Lives, Iza Kavedzija provides a rich anthropological account of the lives and concerns of older Japanese women and men. Grounded in years of ethnographic fieldwork at two community centers in Osaka, Kavedzija offers an intimate narrative analysis of the existential concerns of her active, independent subjects. Alone and in groups, the elderly residents of these communities make sense of their lives and shifting ikigai with humor, conversation, and storytelling. They are as much providers as recipients of care, challenging common images of the elderly as frail and dependent, while illustrating a more complex argument: maintaining independence nevertheless requires cultivating multiple dependences on others. Making Meaningful Lives argues that an anthropology of the elderly is uniquely suited to examine the competing values of dependence and independence, sociality and isolation, intimacy and freedom, that people must balance throughout all of life's stages.

The complexity and diversity of families and aging has generated the necessity for research, policy, and program agendas that address emerging issues and needs for elderly Americans and their families. This volume is an effort towards that end - an effort towards fostering a different perspective at families and aging.

Grandparents in Cultural Context gives a long overdue global view of the changing roles of grandparents. The eleven main chapters are by experts in the Americas, Europe and Russia, Asia, and Africa and the Middle East, and the editors integrate their chapters with previous writings on grandparenthood. Rather than technical or statistical research reports, each chapter provides a thought-provoking and comprehensive review of research, real-life case stories, cultural influences, and applied implications for grandparenthood across and within societies. Calling special attention to the roles of grandfathers and grandparenthood in societies previously un-represented in the literature, it provides several hundred new citations of work previously unavailable in English-language publications. Accessible to both scholars and students, it has several pedagogical features (e.g. web links, discussion questions) that make it useful as a text for upper-division undergraduate or graduate level classes in behavioral, social, and family sciences. It is relevant to psychology, gerontology, family studies, anthropology, family/comparative sociology, education, social work, gender studies, ethnic studies, psychiatry, and diversity and international studies programs. Practitioners, service providers, policymakers, and internationally minded grandparents will also enjoy this book.

Almost all families will at some time have to make difficult decisions concerning aging family members, involving institutionalization, moving from medical interventions to palliative care, and even physician-assisted death. Yet, the historical transition from traditional to post-traditional society means that these decisions are no longer determined by strict rules and norms, and the growing role of the welfare state has been accompanied by changes in the nature of family and social solidarity. Advances in medical technology and greatly expanded life spans further complicate the decision-making process. Family, Intergenerational Solidarity, and Post-Traditional Society examines a range of difficult issues that families commonly face during the family life course within these contexts. The book explores both practical and ethical questions regarding filial responsibility and the roles of the state and adult children in providing financial and instrumental support to dependent parents. The book follows the experiences and deliberations of a fictional family through a series of vignettes in which its members must make difficult decisions about the treatment of a seriously ill parent. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students in family studies, gerontology/aging, sociology, social work, health and social care, and nursing will find this essential reading.

For the governments of many developing African nations, providing income security for the older population is difficult, particularly in Cameroon. This book uncovers the complex problem of pension deficits and difficulties providing welfare and other forms of social assistance. A vast majority of older people in Cameroon remain unassisted and battling to survive, with increasingly fragmented family and community oriented forms of support. As the older population increases, fundamental concerns remain: Is care provided only by family members sustainable? How does gender factor into this situation, and who bears the brunt of these problems? Borrowing from social capital theory, this book discusses how older people struggle to find new forms of social protection. This book articulates the view that older people display remarkable courage, resilience, and coping strategies which make them not a burden to society, but rather key players in the development process. It proposes achievable policy options that can make a difference in the lives of Cameroon's older citizens.

Although many aspects of fluid cognition decline with advancing age, simple observation in the wild suggests that older adults, generally speaking, do very well in their day-to-day life. The study of the orchestration of cognitive, social, and motivational compensatory mechanisms in the service of effective and healthy aging provides a meaningful challenge to traditional ways of examining developmental changes in cognitive performance. An additional impetus comes from recent discoveries in the neuroscience of aging, all demonstrating substantial amounts of functional modifiability, compensation, and plasticity of the human brain, even in very old age. Furthermore, the discovery of string relationships between engagement in mentally enriching and socially stimulating activities and cognitive health and longevity has sparked a new generation of training studies aimed at improving or sustaining cognitive fitness in old age. This book examines the role of compensatory mechanisms in such diverse facets of cognitive processing as perceptual processes, text comprehension, dual-task processing, and episodic and prospective memory. This ensemble of studies compellingly shows that older adults' everyday cognitive life is governed not by the decline in elementary cognitive processes as measured in the lab, but by a multitude of compensatory mechanisms, most of which are of the social/motivational variety. Much of this compensatory behavior can be elicited with no or only little experimental prodding, underscoring the self-organizing or self-initiated nature of this type of behavior, even in advanced old age. This book was originally published as a special issue of Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.

This special issue covers different aspects of life course development. The central argument of the first paper is that human development should be viewed as the product of the interpenetration of cultural and biological processes. The following article outlines how current sociology constructs life courses. The notion of developmental biocultural co-constructivism and specifically the zone within which human development can be expressed is the focus of the third paper. Next, a developmental account of civic engagement and political participation is provided. Finally, the special issue concludes with a paper marking individual differences in patterns of rhesus monkey biobehavioral development through the life span.

Containing ideas and perspectives, this monograph examines the evolutionary and future considerations for diversity in aging.

What 'kind' of community is demanded by a problem like dementia? As aspects of care continue to transition from institutional to community and home settings, this book considers the implications for people living with dementia and their carers. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and case studies from Canada, this book analyses the intersections of formal dementia strategies and the experiences of families and others on the frontlines of care. Considering the strains placed on care systems by the COVID-19 pandemic, this book looks afresh at what makes home-based care possible or impossible and how these considerations can help establish a deeper understanding necessary for good policy and practice.

This book is concerned with the fundamental issues of elder respect, how it is practiced and perceived in the broad context of human service settings, and with the resolution of those issues. The writings presented in this book describe the role of elder respect in health, social work, religious, and cultural and ethnic settings. The authors aim for elder respect to be better understood by professionals in human services as well as by those people who care for elderly relatives in the East and the West.

Growing Up: Pastoral Nurture for the Later Years is a sensitive volume devoted to helping older adults retain their status as meaningful members of their congregations and communities. In an honest approach, based on the foundations that old age is supposed to happen, the future belongs to the old, and vocation for people of faith is lifelong, Thomas Robb provides personal and Biblical perspectives, as well as research from over 20 years as a pastor, on the life process and the feelings, worries, and expectations accompanying growing up and growing old. He then molds these concerns into a challenge for congregations and their spiritual leaders to actively assist the aged in coping with and overcoming fears and barriers limiting the fullest expression of faith in God. This insightful book describes the tasks and suggests programs for pastors and congregations everywhere in meeting the challenge, making life for the aged more than shuffleboard and bingo, pot-luck dinners and day trips. Dimensions of pastoral ministries that nurture women and men who, at midlife and beyond, seek to find their way through the unexpected and unplanned, through the third of life following parenthood and careers, are described in detail. Pastors, church leaders, congregations, professors of courses in ministry and aging, aging church members, and seminary students will benefit immensely from the wealth of information presented in Growing Up: Pastoral Nurture for the Later Years.

The phenomenon of age-related cognitive decline has long been controversial, both in terms of mere existence, and with respect to how it is explained. Some researchers have dismissed it as an artifact of declining health or lower levels of education, and others have attributed it to general changes occurring in the external environment. Still other interpretations have been based on the "use it or lose it" principle -- known as the Disuse Hypothesis -- or on the idea that there are qualitative differences in either the structure or the process of cognition across the adult years. Perhaps the most popular approach at present relies on the information-processing perspective and attempts to identify the critical processing component most responsible for age-related differences in cognition. The primary purposes of this book are first to review the evidence of age-related differences in cognitive functioning and then to evaluate the major explanations proposed to account for the negative relations between age and cognition that have been established. Included is a discussion of theoretical dimensions and levels of scientific theorizing assumed to be helpful in understanding and evaluating alternative perspectives on cognitive aging. The various perspectives are then covered in detail and analyzed. The text concludes with observations about the progress that has been made in explaining cognitive aging phenomena, plus recommendations for research practices that might contribute to greater progress in the future.

At a time of extreme globalisation Ageing in the Mediterranean fills a key void in international literature on ageing societies. This important and timely volume brings together a distinguished set of international scholars who provide rich information about the social, economic, political, and historical factors responsible for shaping ageing policy in the Mediterranean region. It is a regional handbook that highlights the idiosyncrasies of overlapping ageing issues in one particular territory and presents a range of key issues and concerns including migration, care-giving, employment, and health care amongst others, whilst providing rich data from various countries such as Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey. Ageing in the Mediterranean will be warmly welcomed by researchers in social and public policy, gerontology and geriatrics, welfare economics, and health care. It will also be of interest to policy makers and NGOs involved in welfare and social care services.

Long life and the factors which promote it are of perennial interest to human beings. Although there is much discussion in our society about aging, there is less willingness to examine the assumptions which govern our attitudes towards old age. The very old represent the fastest growing segment of the population in most Western societies, yet attitudes toward them are mostly limited to negative stereotypes. In "Life After Ninety," Michael Bury and Anthea Holme have surveyed and interviewed 200 individuals living at home and in institutions to create a unique portrayal of the health, quality of life, and social circumstances of the very old. The authors examine the validity of old age stereotypes, and discuss longevity and the factors which promote it.
Throughout the book the concept of the "life course" is employed, as a process which weaves together the biographical experiences of individuals and the changing historical circumstances of the twentieth century through which they have lived. Although poor health and unhappiness are experienced by some individuals, this study shows that a good quality of life is possible in advanced age, and that life after ninety can involve both contentment and dignity.

For undergraduate courses in sociology and psychology which examine ageing adulthood. This book focuses on the dramatic changes to the nature of post-retirement life experienced by people at the end of the twentieth century. It examines age and ageing in terms of the key preoccupations of contemporary sociology - citizenship, the body and the self. The book provides a platform for a new social gerontology that sees ageing as central to our understanding of social change. It examines social, cultural and political changes in Europe and North America to address the need for a text that moves the study of ageing from social policy towards the mainstream of social science.

Research Design in Aging and Social Gerontology provides a review of methodological approaches and data-collection methods commonly used with older adults in real-life settings. It addresses the role of normative age-related sensory, cognitive, and functional changes, as well as the influence of generational cohort (age-period-cohort) upon each design. It discusses the role of older adults as true co-researchers; issues uniquely related to studies of persons residing in community-based, assisted, skilled, and memory-care settings; and ethical concerns related to cognitive status changes. The text concludes with detailed guidelines for improving existing data collection methods for older persons and selecting the best fitting methodologies for use in planning research on aging. Features of Research Design in Aging and Social Gerontology include: Descriptions and evaluations of a wide range of methodological approaches, and methods used to collect data about older persons (quantitative, qualitative, mixed, and emergent methods: photovoice, virtual environments, etc.) Ways to match research questions to selection of method without a preconceived methodological preference or dominance Real-world and applied examples along with cases from the gerontological literature "How to" sections about reading output/software reports and qualitative-analysis screenshots (from ATLAS.ti) and quantitative (SPSS) output and interpretation Pedagogical tools in every chapter such as text boxes, case studies, definitions of key terms, discussion questions, and references for further reading on chapter topics Glossary of key terms, complete sample research report, and an overview of past methodological research design work in gerontology Companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/Weil where instructors will find PowerPoint presentations, additional discussion questions, and a sample syllabus; and students will find flashcards based on glossary terms, a downloadable copy of the sample research report in the text, and links to data sets, related websites, further reading, and select gerontological journals This text is intended for upper-level undergraduates and masters students in aging and gerontology as well as students in human development, applied anthropology, psychology, public health, sociology, and social-work settings. Health care professionals, social workers, and care managers who work with older adults will also find this text a valuable resource.