Middle Age and Aging

Bernice L. Neugarten

University of Chicago Press, Dec 15, 1968 - Family & Relationships - 596 pages

The process of aging is receiving an increasing amount of attention from behavioral scientists. Middle Age and Aging is an attempt to organize and select from the proliferation of material available in this field. The selections in this volume emphasize some of the major topics that lie closest to the problem of what social and psychological adaptations are required as individuals move through the second half of their lives. Major attention is paid to the importance of age-status and age-sex roles; psychological changes in the life-cycle; social-psychological theories of aging; attitudes toward health; changing family roles; work, retirement, and leisure; certain other dimensions of the immediate social environment such as friendships, neighboring patterns, and living arrangements; differences in cultural settings; and perspectives of time and death.

Contents

• PART I: 3
• THE CHANGING AGESTATUS SYSTEM: 5
• AGE NORMS AGE CONSTRAINTS AND ADULT SOCIALIZATION: 22
• THE SUBCULTURE OF THE AGING A TOPIC FOR SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: 29
• ARE THE AGED A MINORITY GROUP?: 35
• AGESEX ROLES IN AMERICAN MAGAZINE FICTION 18901955: 47
• AGESEX ROLES AND PERSONALITY IN MIDDLE AGE A THEMATIC APPERCEPTION STUDY: 58
• INTRODUCTION TO PART II: 75
• ADJUSTMENTS AND REOR1ENTATION IN THE COURSE OF THE LIFE SPAN: 77
• GENERATIVITY AND EGO INTEGRITY: 85
• PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE: 88
• THE AWARENESS OF MIDDLE AGE: 93
• THE CREATIVE PRODUCTION RATES OF PRESENT VERSUS PAST GENERATIONS OF SCIENTISTS: 99
• CREATIVE PRODUCTIVITY BETWEEN THE AGES OF 20 AND 80 YEARS: 106
• DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN MOTIVATION DURING THE ADULT YEARS: 115
• ADULT PERSONALITY TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LIFE CYCLE: 137
• PERSONAL CHANGE IN ADULT LIFE: 148
• INTRODUCTION TO PART III: 159
• DISENGAGEMENT AND PATTERNS OF AGING: 161
• PERSONALITY AND PATTERNS OF AGING: 173
• ADJUSTMENT TO RETIREMENT: 178
• PERSISTENCE OF LIFE STYLE AMONG THE ELDERLY A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF PATTERNS OF SOCIAL ACTIVITY IN RELATION ...: 181
• A CURRENT THEORETICAL ISSUE IN SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY: 184
• INTRODUCTION TO PART IV: 193
• WOMENS ATTITUDES TOWARD THE MENOPAUSE: 195
• PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS OF HOSPITALIZED MALE PATIENTS TO A HEART ATTACK AGE AND SOCIALCLASS DIFFERENCES: 201
• THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALTH: 212
• SOCIAL ISOLATION AND MENTAL ILLNESS IN OLD AGE: 220
• THE FAQADE OF CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AN INTERPRETATIVE SUMMARY: 235
• INTRODUCTION TO PART V: 245
• KIN FAMILY NETWORK UNHERALDED STRUCTURE IN CURRENT CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF FAMILY FUNCTIONING: 247
• THE EMERGENCE OF THE FOURGENERATION FAMILY IN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY: 255
• DISENCHANTMENT IN THE LATER YEARS OF MARRIAGE: 258
• THE QUALITY OF POSTPARENTAL LIFE: 263
• HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE THE AGING FEMALE AND THE AGING MALE: 269
• THE CHANGING AMERICAN GRANDPARENT: 280
• DECISION MAKING AND THE FAMILY LIFE CYCLE: 286
• FAMILY HELP PATTERNS AND SOCIAL CLASS IN THREE COUNTRIES: 296
• INTRODUCTION TO PART VI: 309
• CAREERS PERSONALITY AND ADULT SOCIALIZATION: 311
• ORDERLY CAREERS AND SOCIAL PARTICIPATION THE IMPACT OF WORK HISTORY ON SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN THE MIDDLE MASS: 321
• NEW CAREERS IN MIDDLE AGE: 341
• LEISURE AND LIFESTYLE: 347
• EMPLOYMENT AND RETIREMENT: 354
• RETIREMENT AS A SOCIAL EVENT IN THE UNITED STATES: 357
• THE SOCIAL DILEMMA OF THE AGING LEISURE PARTICIPANT: 366
• INTRODUCTION TO PART VII: 377
• THE ADULTS SOCIAL LIFE SPACE AND SUCCESSFUL AGING SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: 379
• HOUSING AND LOCAL TIES OF THE AGED: 382
• INTERACTION AND ADAPTATION INTIMACY AS A CRITICAL VARIABLE: 390
• RELOCATION OF THE AGED AND DISABLED A MORTALITY STUDY: 401
• EFFECTS OF IMPROVED HOUSING ON THE LIVES OF OLDER PEOPLE: 409
• EXAMPLES OF DIARIES KEPT BY OLDER PEOPLE: 417
• GAMES: 422
• INTRODUCTION TO PART VIII: 431
• THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF AGING A NEW AREA FOR STUDIES OF CULTURE AND PERSONALITY: 433
• AGING AMONG THE HIGHLAND MAY A A COMPARATIVE STUDY: 444
• THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ECOLOGY OF OLD PEOPLE IN MIDWEST KANSAS AND YOREDALE YORKSHIRE: 453
• AGING IN ISRAEL A PLANNED SOCIETY: 461
• SOCIAL STATUS OF THE AGED IN THREE INDIAN VILLAGES: 469
• INTRODUCTION TO PART IX: 479
• GREEN ON AGE AND THE SUBJECTIVE SPEED OF TIME: 481
• THE LIFE REVIEW AN INTERPRETATION OF REMINISCENCE IN THE AGED: 486
• RELIGIOSITY IN OLD AGE: 497
• PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF IMPENDING DEATH SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS: 509
• TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF DYING AS A NONSCHEDULED STATUS PASSAGE: 520
• DEATH AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE: 531
• INTRODUCTION TO APPENDIXES: 543
• PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH ON AGING: 545
• AGE AND INTELLIGENCE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CULTURAL CHANGE IN LONGITUDINAL VS CROSSSECTIONAL FINDINGS: 552
• AGE CHANGES AND AGE DIFFERENCES: 558
• A STUDY OF THE DROPOUT RATES IN LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH ON AGING AND THE PREDICTION OF DEATH: 563
• CONTRIBUTORS: 571
• REFERENCES: 573

About the author

Bernice L. Neugarten (1916-2001) was a professor of education and sociology at Northwestern University and professor emeritus of behavioral science at the University of Chicago. She served as president of the Gerontological Society. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980. She served on the United States Federal Council on Aging. Neugarten was a key contributor in the 1971 and 1982 White House Conferences on Aging. In 19965 Neugarten was honored with the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychology from the American Psychological Association.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Middle Age and Aging; Reader in Social Psychology
• Editor: Bernice L. Neugarten
• Compiled by: Bernice L. Neugarten
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1968
• ISBN: 0226573826, 9780226573823
• Length: 596 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / General; Family & Relationships / Life Stages / Mid-Life; Psychology / Social Psychology; Social Science / General; Social Science / Gerontology