Gerontology Exam 1 Study Guide
•Gerontology: the multidisciplinary study of biological
psychological, and social aspects of aging
•Aging: the process that occurs from maturity to death, maturity
happens somewhere around the age of 35, when our personality
becomes relatively stable and when our bones stop taking up
calcium
•Gerontophobia: the fear of growing old or the fear of the elderly
•Gerontophilia: reverence or veneration for aging
•Compression of morbidity: premature death is minimized because
disease and functional decline are compressed into a brief period of
2- 5 years before death
•Ageism: discrimination against someone on the basis of age or any
attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person
or group because of age or any assignment of roles in society purely
on the basis of age
•Cohort: groups of people who were born at approximately the same
time and therefore share many common life and historical
experiences (also known as birth cohort)
•Age Norm: open up or close off the roles that people of a
given chronological age can play
•Role:
•Generation Gap: differences in outlook from people from
different generations
•Dependency Ratio: the number of people age 65 and older to
every 100 people of traditional working ages (defined as 18-64)
•Support Ratio: fewer workers supporting a larger number of
retirees and disabled workers
•Biomedicalization: belief that problems of aging are medical and
can be fixed by technology
