Themes and Issues in Sociological Theories of Human Aging

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Abstract
A review of the current status of sociological theory in regard to human aging indicates some important and promising developments. The confirmation status of theory in social gerontology is improving; the logical structure of its propositions and arguments is being elaborated in a cumulative fashion; the determinancy of predictions based on theory is better; and social gerontological theory is increasingly articulated with general sociological theories of socialization, social competence, and societal change. The possibility and probability of the social integration of the old in modern industrial societies has been demonstrated. The search for a single successful mode of adaptation to aging, such as disengagement, is now empirically and theoretically unjustified. Attention is now being directed to important methodological issues in the study of social processes, particularly to various models of longitudinal research; to the specification and elaboration of hypotheses; and to comparative studies of aging in different societies.

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