PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING - INTRODUCTION

Demographic changes:

"#1 trend of the 20th century has been the dramatic increase in the proportion of people 65 and older"

• in 1900: 4% of the population was over 65 (comparable to many developing countries today)

• today: 13% (1 in 8)

• 2030: 20% (1 in 5)

 although there were "old" people before the 20th century, it has been in the last half of the century that there have been dramatic shifts in the number and proportion of elderly

Some comparisons:

• In ancient Rome, only 1/5 made it to middle age

• In the "well-off" American colonies, average life expectancy was age 30; in Maryland by comparison it was age 20 for both masters and slaves

• By 1900, life expectancy was 47.3 years

• Now, a baby born today can expect to live about 76 years; an increase of 30 in just one century

part of this change is from the Baby Boom cohort, people born after World War II (1945 - 1964)

cohort - a term used to describe a group of people who are approximately the same age and who go through similar experiences - somewhat like a "generation" - in the psychology of aging, we’ll see that we want to be careful to describe age differences rather than cohort differences

 But it's more than just the Baby Boom: a) Early in the century, advances in medicine affected one’s ability to make it through the difficult childhood years - we could actually cure these diseases

b) the lifestyle movement of the 60’s and 70’s and some of the same kinds of medical advances have further allowed older people to delay the onset or reduce the effects of (but not cure) the chronic diseases of aging

 Other relevant trends in the demographics of aging:

1) there are more older women than older men

white males: 72.3 years average lifespan in 1992 vs. 80 years for women

Black males: 65 years average lifespan vs. 74 years for women

? environmental effects — some (e.g., jobs, wars)
? biological effects - more
gender difference is greatest at oldest ages:

in 1996 from 65-69 years -> 100 males:120 females;

over 85 - > 100 males:257 females!

special concerns of older women: being alone, disabled or cognitively impaired, in a nursing home, poor

but they are more social and more willing to visit doctors

2) more elderly white than elderly minority

lower life expectancy for African-Americans (see above)

greater poverty for African-Americans & Latino-Americans: 3X as likely to be living in poverty than their white counterparts

But, close familial and community ties may mitigate some of these negatives; African-Americans are often especially active in the church

A brief history of the psychology of aging:

• We use 1879 as the birthdate of psychology , so realize that we’re talking about a fairly young science to begin with -

• developmental psychology was mainly interested in children (influence of Freud and Darwin)

• In the 1940’s after WWII, an interest in the aging population began to arise - the Gerontological Society of America and Division 20 of the APA - Division of Maturity and Aging - now called Division of Adult Development and Aging were started

• currently the field takes a multidisciplinary approach