Key Themes in Ageing Research - Week 7, Lecture 1

Principles of Ageing

continuity → early experiences influence later life

survivor → self-selection through healthy behaviour

individuality → variation intra/inter age groups

health/pathology → ‘normal’ vs pathological ageing fundamentally different

Primary Ageing (Busse, 1969)

• gradual; inevitable

• biological

• begins early adulthood

• genetically coded

• progressive deterioration → physical structure; function

• independent of disease/environment

Secondary Ageing (Busse, 1969)

• not inevitable/experienced by everyone

• environmental; disease-related

• impacted by lifestyle

• alters life expectancy

• neurodegenerative diseases

Social Factors of Ageing

• sex/gender

• SES

• race/ethnicity

• relationships

Social Model - Ecological Systems Perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1989)

individual development from interconnected systems:

1. micro → immediate environment (family, school, peers)

2. meso → connections between micro e.g. parent-teacher communication

3. exo → indirect influences (parental stress, governments, extended family)

4. macro → broader cultural context e.g. societal values, laws, SES

5. chrono → life transitions, historical events, societal changes

Ecological Systems - Evaluation

Lippard et al. (2017) → teacher-child relationships sig. related to academic achievement and classroom behaviour

Paat (2013) → aid understanding of immigrant child development

• limited research on mesosystems

• difficult to test empirically

Social Model - Life Course Perspective (Bengston & Allen, 1993)

• importance of temporal contexts (generational, historical time)

• social-structural context (location, meanings, culture)

• diachronic process and change

• heterogeneity → increasing diversity over time

reflects society giving meanings (social; personal) to passage of bio. time (Hafestad, 1990).

Psychological Factors

• identity/self-esteem

• mental health

• cognition

  • memory

  • attention

  • reaction time

Psychological Model - Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory (1963)

basic conflicts experienced at various ages impact development e.g.:

infancy → trust vs. mistrust → basic needs met = trust

school age → industry vs. inferiority → self-confident when competent

early adulthood → intimacy vs. isolation

Psychosocial Theory - Evaluation

strengths → extends development scope beyond childhood

limitations:

• vague on resolving psychosocial crisis

• sequence/age ranges may not be universal

• lack of cultural context (Western bias)

• crises can appear later in life e.g. self-definition in retirement (Osborne, 2009)

Psychological Model - Continuity Theory (Atchley, 1989)

ageing → makie adaptive choices to maintain continuity:

• internally → link new experiences/memories with old

• externally → interact with familiar people, live in familiar environment

Continuity Theory - Criticism

• definition of normal ageing inaccurate + based on males

• distinguishes pathological ageing → elderly/disabled neglected

• does not consider impact of social institutions

Biological Factors

• appearance

• skeletal system

• endocrine system (metabolism, sleep)

• cardiovascular + respiratory systems

• immune system (resilience)

• sensory systems (loss of receptors)

• CNS → info. processing + repsonses to stimuli (frontal lobe deterioration)

Biological Models - Programmed Ageing Theories

terminal drop (Kleemeier, 1962) → decline in mental fucntion of elderly 1-5 years before death.

autoimmune theory (Walford, 1969) → normal ageing related to faulty immune processes.

Hayflick limit (Hayflick, 1987) → no. of divisions before cell divison stops. cell ageing correlates with physical ageing.

Biological Models - Random Error Theories

cross-linking theory (Tice & Setlow, 1985) → accumulation of cross-linked proteins damages cells; slows down bodily processes = ageing.