Socialization to Old Age

The prevailing wisdom in gerontology is that people routinely adjust to old age just as they adjust to earlier life stages. But aging presents unusual circumstances, and the transition processes that typify earlier passages fail to operate in the customary way. The reasons for this are the subject of this book. Its basic thesis is clear: unlike other status changes in American life, people are not effectively socialized to old age.

Irving Rosow shows that there is virtually no role for the...