소개글
The Aging Society - From social institutions고령화 사회로 가는 우리나라의 실태와 대책방안
영문 자료로 A4 1페이지
목차
없음본문내용
The United States is an aging society, and this fact has a major impact on social institutions as well as on the lives of individuals. The social problems of the aged are aggravated by three factors: labeling, the concept of work as the basis of personal value, and economic deprivation.From the functionalist perspective, aging is a social problem because the institutions of modern society are not meeting the needs of the dependent elderly. Interactionist believe that the elderly are stigmatized because they do not conform to the norms of a youth-oriented culture. Conflict theorists view the problems of the elderly as stemming from lack of power to shape social institutions to meet their needs.
Many of the problems faced by the aged in America today arise from the nature of modern Western society, in which their productive and cultural functions have been disrupted by modernization. Age stratification is the segregation of people into different groups or strata on the basis of their age. It limits the kinds of roles that the members of each group can hold, and it can lead to conflict.
The number of aged people in the United States is increasing, and so is the proportion of the population that is over the age of 65. Two-thirds of the elderly live in urban areas.
Ageism is bias against the aged. It arises largely from the belief that the old are useless because they do not work and cannot reproduce, and it is common in government, business and industry, the medical profession, and the media. The aging process can be divided into primary aging and secondary aging. Primary aging is a result of molecular and cellular changes. Secondary aging is an accelerated version of normal aging caused by environmental factors like stress or poor diet.
The psychological difficulties of the aged stem largely from the fact that their new status is poorly defined, and they therefore tend to accept the negative labels that are applied to them. For example, it is widely believed that intellectual ability declines with age, but this belief is incorrect. Intellectual capacity remains unchanged until very late in life, and senility affects only 1 percent of elderly people.