KEY TERMS

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Gerontology Today
Chapter 2: Theories and Methods
Chapter 3: Aging Then and Now
Chapter 4: Aging in Canada
Chapter 5: Personal Health and Illness
Chapter 6: The Psychology of Aging
Chapter 7: The Social Psychology of Aging
Chapter 8: Health Care
Chapter 9: FInances and Economics
Chapter 10: Retirement and Work
Chapter 11: Housing and Transportation
Chapter 12: Leisure, Recreation, and Service
Chapter 13: Family Life and Social Relations
Chapter 14: Death and Dying
Chapter 15: Politics and Policies
Chapter 16: The Future of Aging in Canada

Chapter 1

ageism - prejudice against older people.

compassionate stereotype - a stereotype that attempts to create sympathy for older people, but doesn't give a true picture of later life.

new ageism - the belief that older people need special treatment due to their poor health, poverty, and lack of social support.

social structures - a relatively stable pattern of social interactions.

special-care homes - nursing homes, hospitals, or other long-term care settings.

stereotypes - an exaggerated and often prejudiced view of a type of person or group of people.

Chapter 2

age effects - an effect on a person's life due to physical decline. These changes appear with the passage of time.

age stratification theory - a theory that "focuses on the role of social structures in the process of individual aging and the stratification by age in the society" (Bengtson et al. 1997, S81). It also focuses on the movement of age cohorts over the life course.

cohort effects - an effect on a person's life related to the time of a person's birth.

conflict perspective - a perspective that holds that society consists of conflicts between dominant and subordinate social groups.

cross-sectional research design - a design that studies people from many age groups at one point in time.

dialectical theory-a type of interpretive theory. It says that aging has many dimensions (physical, psychological, social, and historical). Dialectical theory focuses on the asynchronies that exist between these dimensions.

feminist theories - beliefs that gender is a defining characteristic in social interaction and life experiences, as well as in the process and experience of aging. Gender is also socially constructed, with men and women experiencing aging differently (Arber and Ginn 1991).

functionalist perspective - the perspective that "social order is based on cooperation, inter-dependence, and shared values, adjustment by the individual to society, and societal equilibrium" (McDaniel 1989, 52).

interpretive perspective - focuses almost exclusively on the micro-level of social life. It looks at how people define situations, how they create social order, and how they relate to one another in daily life.

life course approach - a functionalist approach that bridges both the micro- and macro-levels of analysis by incorporating social interaction and social structure within its framework (Bengtson et al. 1997).

longitudinal research design - a design that looks at a single group of people at two or more points in time.

macro-level theories - theories that "examine social structures or structural elements as they influence experiences and behaviors" (Bengtson et al. 1997, S76).

micro-level theories - theories that focus on individuals and their interactions and are used to explain phenomena like the relationship between adult children and their parents, changes in memory with age, and the effect of negative attitudes on older people.

moral economy - a study of the shared values and social norms that shape popular beliefs in the legitimacy of certain practices and policies.

period effects - an effect on a person's life due to the time of measurement. This would include historical effects on measurement, like an ongoing war, or changes in health habits, like increased exercise. These effects have different influences on different age cohorts.

political economy theory - a theory that grew out of the work of Karl Marx. It focuses on conflict and change in social life. It traces this conflict to the struggle between social classes and to the resulting dominance of some groups and the subordination of others in society.

qualitative methods - research methods that include in-depth interviews, analysis of the content of documents or artifacts, and observation.

quantitative methods - research methods that include census data, national social surveys, and epidemiological studies. Quantitative research uses statistical methods and mathematical models to analyze data.

time-lag comparison - a research method that looks at different groups of people of the same age at different points in time (e.g., 70-year-olds in 1980, 1990, and 2000).

transitions - changes in social status or social roles (when they occur, how long they last, etc.). Transitions include marriage, divorce, widowhood, and parenthood.

trajectories - long-term patterns of stability and change that often include many transitions.

Chapter 3

post-industrial society - societies like Canada that have gone through the industrial revolution and have become service-based, complex societies.

modernization theory - this theory holds that a shift to urban life, with high technology and complex institutions, leads to a decrease in the status of older people.

Chapter 4

age-specific birth rate - the number of births in a given age group per 1000 women in that age group.

baby boom - the sharp rise in the fertility rate in Canada from about 1946 to the early 1960s.

baby bust - the sharp drop in the fertility rate from the mid-1960s on.

birth rates - the number of births in a population per 1000 women in the population.

crude dependency rates - rates based solely on the numbers of people in each age group.

death rates - the number of deaths in a population per 1000 people.

demographic determinism - the assumption that population dynamics determine the future of social relations and social institutions (e.g., the amount of dependency of the old on the young).

effective dependency rates - rates based on differences in the costs for older and younger age groups.

elderly dependency ratio - the number of people aged 65 and over divided by the population aged 20 to 64.

fertility rate - "the average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime if she were to pass through all her childbearing years conforming to the age-specific fertility rates of a given year" (Beaujot and McQuillan 1982, 220û 21).

Guaranteed Income Supplement - an income security program for the poorest older people.

infant mortality rate - the death rate of children less than a year old.

median age - half the population is older and half younger than the median age.
Old Age Security - Canada's basic retirement income program. Nearly all older people in the country get the OAS.

overall dependency ratio - a ratio arrived at by adding the number of people under age 18 to the number of people aged 65 and over. This figure is then compared with the population aged 18 to 64.

Spouse's Allowance - an income security program for spouses of pensioners who receive only OAS income.

youth dependency ratio - the number of people aged 0 to 19 divided by the population aged 20 to 64.

Chapter 5

activities of daily living (ADLs) - bathing, moving from a bed or chair, dressing, getting to and using the toilet, eating, and walking.

chronic health problems - long-term illnesses like arthritis, rheumatism, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.

compression of morbidity hypothesis - the idea that severe chronic illness would occur for a short time near the end of life.

health expectancy - the number of years a person can expect to live with some type of disability.

hypokinesia - physical problems due to lack of movement.

instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) - home management activities like using the phone, shopping, and doing light housework.

life expectancy - the number of years at birth an average member of a society can expect to live.

maximum life span - the maximum number of years a member of a species can live.

rectangularization or squaring to the survival curve - more recent survival curves make almost a right angle and take on a square shape.

successful aging - the study of "people who demonstrate little or no loss in a constellation of physiologic functions à [these people] would be regarded as more broadly successful in physiologic terms" (Rowe and Kahn 1991, 22).

Chapter 6

cognitive mechanics - type of cognitive process that is similar to fluid intelligence.

cognitive pragmatics - type of cognitive process that is similar to crystallized intelligence.

competency - the ability to understand information that applies to a decision, the ability to think about the pros and cons of the decision, and the ability to communicate a decision.

constant-probability-of-success model - a model that states that within a career, the larger the number of creative works a person produces in a given time period, the more great works they produce during this period (Simonton 1988b).

contextual view of memory - the idea that many conditions influence memory, including "the
physical, psychological, and social context in which the event was experienced, the knowledge, abilities, and characteristics the individual brings to the context, [and] the situation in which we ask for evidence of remembering" (Hultsch and Deutsch 1981, 153).

crystallized intelligence - depends on stored information, acculturation, and learning.

encoding - the process whereby a person takes new bits of information and puts them together with already stored information.

explicit memory - the case in which the person intends to remember something and does.

fluid intelligence - refers to reasoning, abstracting, concept formation, and problem solving. It makes little use of knowledge gained through reading, schooling, or work.

implicit memory - the case in which memory occurs without intention.

intellectual disability - a significant impairment in mental ability present at birth or acquired in childhood or adolescence.

intelligence - the "ability to negotiate environmental demands successfully" (Labouvie-Vief 1985, 506); "that which intelligence tests measure" (Labouvie-Vief 1985, 506); or "what the test-taker can do now" (Botwinick 1984, 250).

legal capacity - the right of all citizens to take part in the legal process and to have civil rights.

legal guardianship - process in which the court appoints someone to make decisions on the older person's behalf.

long-term memory - the storehouse of knowledge that also includes the rules for applying knowledge.

mediators - methods of picturing a word or finding a rhyme for a word, to help with remembering (Kausler 1982).

memory - the recall of information after learning has taken place.

neurofibrillary tangles - a sign of Alzheimer's disease in which neuronal fibres wrap around one another and fail to function properly.

plasticity - the idea that people vary greatly from one another in intelligence as they age. Also, each person has an untapped reserve of mental potential.

psychology of age - a perspective in the psychological study of aging that focuses on differences between age groups. It uses cross-sectional methods to study differences between age groups.

psychology of the aged - a perspective in the psychological study of aging that emphasizes the biomedical view of aging as decline or disease. It supports ageism and the view of older people as a social problem.

psychology of aging - a perspective in the psychological study of aging that looks at changes in individuals over time. It uses longitudinal methods to study both gains and losses through the life cycle.

sensory memory - process in which a person perceives information.

short-term memory - process in which a person transforms sensory information in some way.

wisdom - "expert knowledge about the important and fundamental matters of life, their interpretation and management" (Featherman, Smith, and Peterson 1990; see also Baltes et al. 1990).

working memory - stores recent information and also attends to, selects, and manipulates this information. In addition, it processes new information while temporarily storing other information.

Chapter 7

activity theory - a theory that people need to stay active to live a satisfying old age. They will need to replace old activities with new ones as they age.

age-status asynchronization - the discomfort a person can feel when on time with respect to certain life events and late or early in others.

buffer theory - a theory that membership in an ethnic group buffers the effects of aging.

continuity theory - a theory that people age best when they continue to do the things they have always done.

dialectical process - the individual changes in response to societal demands and society changes in response to individual action and adaptation.

disengagement theory - a theory that people naturally disengage from activity as they age.

generational event theory - a theory that attitudes form for a generation in their teens. People who grow up at the same time in the same society share the same attitudes. These attitudes stay fairly stable throughout life.

generativity - the task of the middle years according to Erikson.

integrity - the task of old age according to Erikson.

intimacy - the task of youth according to Erikson.

levelling theory - a theory that aging levels out differences between people in different ethnic groups.

life-span developmental perspective - sees the individual as continually changing from birth to death. It treats crisis and change as a constant part of life.

multiple jeopardy theory - a theory that membership in an ethnic group increases a person's troubles in later life.

non-normative events - unexpected events such as illnesses, layoffs, and accidents.
normative, age-graded events - socially sanctioned events that occur most often at a certain age like marriage or retirement.

normative, history-graded events - historical events that shape a person's life, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s or World War II.

self - Breytspraak (1995, 93) defines the self as "the ability to be aware of one's own boundaries and individuality and to reflect upon these." Ritzer (1992, 202) says the self has "the ability to take oneself as an object."

social breakdown syndrome - the idea that people often suffer from psychological breakdown due to inadequacies in the social environment.

social reconstruction syndrome - the idea that the reconstruction of a supportive social environment can restore psychological well-being.

Chapter 8

Centres locaux de services communautaires (CLSCs) - centres that combine the work of professionals and volunteers to deliver home care services. This method tries to direct health needs away from hospitals and toward community care.

continuum of care - the current array of services that range from institutional care to little or no institutional contact.

geriatric day hospital - a hospital program that offers a full range of hospital services to people who live in the community. A day hospital will assess an older person's needs and set up a health care plan.

health field - includes the usual health services, but within the health field the health care system is one way ù not the only way, or even the best way ù to improve health. In addition to traditional medical services, the health field also includes improvements in human biology (through basic research), improvements in lifestyle, and improvements in the environment as ways to better health.

health promotion model - focuses on prevention and self-care. It aims to prevent disease through lifestyle change, increased knowledge about healthy behaviour, and environmental improvement.

long-term care - "all the social and medical services dedicated to the aged who have functional limitations" (BTland and Shapiro 1994, 245). LTC combines formal services in the home or an institution with family care.

medical model - focuses on the treatment of diseases and injuries. Treatment most often takes place in the physician's office, in a hospital, or in other health care institutions. The medical model favours surgery, drug therapy, and rehabilitation through physical therapies.
normalization principle - the idea that institutions can and should make life in the institution as much like life outside as possible.

single-entry model - staff from a single agency assess clients' needs, coordinate service delivery, and monitor clients' progress.

social model - sees medical care as only one part of a complete health care system. This model sees personal and family counselling, home care, and adult day-care programs as part of the health care system. This model of health care tries to keep older people in their own homes.

Chapter 9

clawback - required repayment of OAS benefits from wealthier seniors to the government.

credit splitting - a plan by which each spouse gets an equal share of pension credits accumulated during their time together.

depth of poverty - the distance between a low-income senior's income and the poverty line.
great pension debate - the debate in the 1980s over how to fund public pensions for older Canadians in the future.

income maintenance programs - programs like the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans that help people maintain their pre-retirement income and lifestyle.

income security programs - programs like the Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement that help people meet their basic needs in retirement.

indexation - a method of increasing pensions that links them to increases in the cost of living.

portable - describes a pension that moves with workers when they change jobs.

registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) - a government plan that allows people to save money for their future pension without paying income tax on the money protected within the RRSP. RRSP members pay tax on the money and interest earned only when they withdraw it in retirement. Taxes are deferred to a time when the person has a lower income and is in a lower tax rate.

savings plan - a plan to which each worker pays a percentage of his or her salary each month. In the case of the CPP, the payments are credited to individual workers, and, when they retire, their pension will depend on how much they paid into the plan.

transfer plan - also called a pay-as-you-go plan û money paid into the plan goes to pay the pensions of retired plan members today. The CPP also works like a transfer plan.

universality - the idea that everyone in Canada has a right to a public pension regardless of his or her income.

vesting - workers with a fully vested pension have credit for their total pension contributions (their own and their employer's contributions) even if they move from one employer to another.

Chapter 10

citizen's wage - a government pension tied to age.

core sector - that sector of the economy that includes the most stable, high-paying jobs. Core sector workers often have pensions from their workplace.

flexible retirement - an option that allows workers to slowly cut back the number of hours they work each week.

free career - another term for a second career. Tournier (1972) says a free career grows out of interests that lay dormant or undeveloped in middle age.

periphery sector - less stable, low-paying jobs with few, if any, fringe benefits. Periphery sector workers rarely have workplace pensions.

retirement principle - the idea that at a fixed age, regardless of mental or physical ability, a person leaves work.

retirement wage - a pension paid by the state to support all older people.

second career - work that allows people to develop skills they could not use in their pre-retirement career.

Chapter 11

aging in place - the tendency for older people to live into late old age in the same place they lived in their middle years. Many older people want to stay in their homes.

convertible housing - single-family housing designed so an owner can convert the house to include an accessory apartment. An older person might move into this type of apartment to live close to family members.

ecological model - the Lawtonû Nahemow model of person and environment interaction. It says that a person's ability and the demands of the environment influence the person's life satisfaction and ability to function.

enriched housing - housing that provides services like meals and cleaning services to help people live on their own.

environmental press - the demands of the environment on a person.
55 Alive - a program that helps seniors improve their driving skills and teaches them how aging affects driving.

garden suite - Canadian term for granny flat.

granny flat - a small portable cottage for an older person placed in the yard of an adult child.
intimacy at a distance - the desire of many older people to live near, but not with, their children.

mobility club - a volunteer group of older people who provide rides to other seniors.
Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program (RRAP) - a program whereby the government offers loans of up to $10 000 for city dwellers and $25 000 for rural homeowners to help people improve run-down housing.

Reverse Annuity Mortgage (RAM) - a type of reverse mortgage whereby a person buys a life annuity and gets an income while he or she lives in his or her own home. The mortgage company takes over the house when the person dies.

shelter allowances - allowances that subsidize the person, not the housing project. They allow older people to choose their own apartment from those available in the marketplace.

transportation brokerage - a program that matches passengers with transportation services that meet their needs.

Chapter 12

active leisure lifestyle - a type of lifestyle that does at least two things: It directly benefits health and it helps to buffer the influence of life events and illness.

Canadian Executive Service Overseas (CESO) - a federal government program that recruits senior volunteers and assigns them to work in underdeveloped countries or with Aboriginal groups in Canada.

contractors - an activity pattern that fits the continuity theory of aging. People who fit this pattern had stopped at least one outdoor activity in the past year and had not learned any new activity since age 65.

Elderhostel - a program that combines university campus life with the European concept of hostelling (travelling from place to place and staying in inexpensive, safe lodgings). Elderhostel students live on a university campus while they take courses.

expanders - a pattern that fits the life-span developmental perspective. People who fit this pattern had not stopped any activities in the past year and had added at least one new outdoor activity since age 65.

hypokinetic disease - the idea that the lack of activity can lead to mental and physical problems, while increases in activity can prevent or reverse these problems.

Institutes for Learning in Retirement (ILRs) - programs that offer a variety of educational formats from lectures, to seminars, to travel courses. In most cases older people decide together on the topics they will study.

leisure competence - the ability to make use of leisure time for life satisfaction. Older people can improve this ability.

ParticipAction - a federal government program that promotes healthy living and outdoor activities for people of all ages.

UniversitT du TroisiFme Age (U3A) - a francophone education program that helps groups of older people set up their own programs with the help of a university. Programs often include access to normal university classes, study groups, study trips, and fitness programs.

Chapter 13

caregiver burden - refers to problems and stress due to caregiving.

confidant - someone in whom one confides.

developmental stake - the idea that, compared with their children, older people have a greater stake in the relationship with their children. This leads older people to emphasize the existence of family harmony and solidarity.

eldercare - programs at a workplace that can help family caregivers cope with care for an older family member.

fictive kin - refers to close relationships an older person develops with non-relatives such as neighbours, home care workers, and friends.

formal support - professional caregivers such as doctors, nurses, and social workers. People pay for formal supports either from their own resources or through their taxes.

functional specificity of relationships model - a family or friendship tie may provide one type of support or a broad range of support, dependent on how that particular relationship has been negotiated over the life course (Campbell et al. 1999, 118).

GRAND (Grandparents Requesting Access aNd Dignity) - a group that helps grandparents who cannot get access to their grandchildren.

hierarchical compensatory model - people choose their supports first from their inner family circle. They then move outward to get support from less intimate people as they need more help.

informal caregivers - caregivers with a kinship or other tie of affection and feeling toward the care receiver.

informal support - family and community supports.

primary potential support groups - family and close friends who give help to the older person and who can expect help from the older person.

quasi-widowhood - the idea that people feel grief and depression after placing a spouse in a nursing home.

respite services - range from friendly visitors, who stay with the care receiver for a few hours, to full-day adult day care, to longer institutional respite.

sandwich generation - people aged 35 to 64 with at least one child at home and at least one parent aged 65 or over.

second language of sex - focuses on responsiveness, caring, and affection.

semiformal structures - includes car pools, groups of people in the same building who shop together, friendly visitors, or "daily hello" phone callers.

support groups - groups that give caregivers information about how to cope with caregiving demands. They also give caregivers emotional support.

task specificity model - different groups (family, friends, neighbours) have different abilities and offer different types of support. Each group plays a specific role in supporting the older person.

Chapter 14

active euthanasia - intervening actively to end a person's life.

advance directive - states precisely the treatment and care desired (Saint-Arnaud 1993).
Directives state what medical actions a person wants under what conditions. They also state who has the right to make the decisions.

closed awareness context - everyone (including the patient) knows the patient is dying, but no one speaks about it.

durable power of attorney - gives an attorney (a lawyer, child, friend, or other family member) the right to make decisions on behalf of the ill person.

ego integrity - "It is the acceptance of one's one and only life cycle as something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitutions" (Erikson 1963, 268).

ego transcendence - a late stage of psychosocial development. People in this stage feel a deep concern for others and for the culture they will leave when they die.

euthanasia - helping someone achieve a painless death.

grief work - includes (1) breaking bonds to the deceased, (2) readjustment to the environment without the deceased, and (3) forming new relationships.

health care directive - gives specific information to family members and doctors about the amount of treatment the person prefers under different conditions.

hospice - hospices today meet the special needs of dying patients. Dame Cecily Saunders opened the first modern hospice, St. Christopher's, in London in 1967.

living will - specifies the limits of health care treatment desired in case of a terminal illness. None of Canada's provinces recognized the living will as of 1993. But, Saint-Arnaud (1993) says, courts will take the living will into account if a family member challenges a health professional.

open awareness context - everyone including the patient knows and acknowledges that the patient is dying.

palliative care - "a program of active compassionate care primarily directed towards improving the quality of life for the dying." A complete program of palliative care includes symptom control and spiritual support as well as bereavement support and education.

Chapter 15

advocacy groups - groups that lobby the government for policy change.

Americans for Generational Equity (AGE) - a group that believes that young and middle-aged people cannot pay the high costs for services to older and younger people. AGE proposes cuts to programs for older people to free up money for the young.

Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) - a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve the quality of life for all Canadians 50 or over.

Concord Coalition - a U.S. group that proposes a means test for Social Security and Medicare.

de-indexation protest - a national protest by older people against the federal government's attempt to de-index Old Age Security payments.

demographic determinism - the idea that population structure and change dictate what the government must do.

intergenerational equity - the call for a smaller proportion of public support for older people. Based on the belief that older people use a disproportionate share of public resources.

interest group - a group that seeks to influence political actors and political agendas.

One Voice :The Canadian Seniors Network - a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of older people. One Voice began in 1987.

protest groups - some groups (like provincial seniors' societies) that criticize government policies.

voting bloc - a group that votes as a unit based on an issue about which group members feel strongly.

Chapter 16

liberal approach - an approach to the study of aging that focuses on teaching everyone about the process of aging.

professional approach - an approach to the study of aging that focuses on improving services to older people and solving social problems.

scientific approach - an approach to the study of aging that focuses on research and data collection using the scientific method.