The Self and Society in Aging Processes

by Carol D. Ryff PhD (Editor), Victor W. Marshall PhD (Editor)

Overview

This volume focuses on the experience of growing old as it is linked to societal factors. Ryff and Marshall construct this "macro" view of aging in society by bridging disciplines and brining together contributors from all the social sciences.

The book is organized into three sections: theoretical perspectives, socioeconomic structures, and contexts of self and society. Leading psychologists, anthropologists, gerontologists, and sociologists present theoretical and empirical advances that forge links between the individual and the social aspects of aging. It is must reading for researchers in all gerontologic specialties, and a valuable text for graduate courses in human development, psychology of aging, and other social aspects of aging.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826112675
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/23/1999
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Carol D. Ryff, PhD, is Director of the Institute on Aging and Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Victor Marshall is Director of the UNC Institute on Aging, Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also directs the Institute's NIH-funded doctoral and post-doctoral training program.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Part 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Self and Society Linkages


1. Linking the Self and Society in Social Gerontology: Crossing New Territory via Old Questions, Carol D. Ryff, Victor W. Marshall, and Philippa J. Clarke


2. Social Perspectives on the Self in Later Life, Linda K. George


3. Neoteny, Naturalization, and Other Constituents of Human Development, Dale Dannefer


4. Continuity, Theory, Self, and Social Structure, Robert C. Atchley


5. Identity and Adaptation to the Aging Process, Susan Krauss Whitbourne


6. Self-Development in Adulthood and Aging: The Role of Critical Life Events, Manfred Diehl


Part 2: Socioeconomic Structures and the Self


7. Practical Consciousness, Social Class, and Self-Concept: A View from Sociology, Jon Hendricks


8. Educational Attainment and Self-Making in Later Life, Melissa M. Franks, A. Regula Herzog, Diane Holmberg, and Hazel R. Markus


9. Forging Macro-Micro Linkages in the Study of Psychological Well-Being, Carol D. Ryff, William J. Magee, Kristen C. Kling, and Edgar H. Wing


10. Income and Subjective Well-Being Over the Life Cycle, Richard A. Easterlin and Christine M. Schaeffer


Part 3: Contexts of Self and Society: Work and Family


11. Structure and Agency in the Retirement Process: A Case Study of Montreal Garment Workers, Julia A. McMullin and Victor W. Marshall


12. Gender and Distress in Later Life: The Importance of Lifelong Employment and Familial Experiences, LorraineDavies


13. The Caregiving Context: The Intersection of Social and Individual Influences in the Experience of Family Caregiving, Marsha Mailick Seltzer and Jan S. Greenberg


14. Linking Social Structure and Self-Concept: Variations in Sense of Mastery, Marilyn McKean Skaff


15. Intersections of Society, Family, and Self Among Hispanics in Middle and Later Life, Sonia Miner and Julian Montoro-Rodriguez


16. The Social Psychology of Values: Effects of Individual Development, Social Change, and Family Transmission Over the Life Span, Robert E.L. Roberts and Vern L. Bengtson


Index

What People are Saying About This

Glen H. Elder

Essential reading for all who wonder about how society influences the way we age. (Glen H. Elder, Jr., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Matilda White Riley

The text deserves several rounds of applause from both teachers and students; and I am delighted to join them. (Matilda White Riley, DSC, National Institute on Aging)