Transcript Age Stratification

Chapter 12
Sociology of the Body:
Disability, Aging and Death
Chapter Outline
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Bob Dole’s Body
Society and the Human Body
Disability
Aging
*Selected Social Causes and
Consequences of Height in Human
Populations
*Question
• Is it important that you choose a spouse who
is taller than you?
– How do you think your response is related
to your sex?
• Why do you think the majority of people
believe boyfriends should be taller than their
girlfriends and husbands should be taller than
their wives?
*Obesity Among children
and Adults
*Reasons to Enhance One’s
Body Image
• Socially, urbanized societies present people
with more opportunities to interact with
strangers.
• Economically, industrialized societies enable
people to afford body enhancement.
• Technologically, we have created new
techniques for transfiguring the body.
*Question
• Which of the following physical
attributes is influenced by social
conditions?
a. height
b. weight
c. perceived attractiveness
d. all of these choices
*Answer: d
• Height, weight and perceived
attractiveness are all influenced by
social conditions.
*Social Construction of
Disability
• Impaired people are considered
deficient in physical or mental capacity.
• Disabled people are incapable of
performing within the range of “normal”
human activity.
*Rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation involves curing
disabilities to the extent possible
through medical and technological
intervention; trying to improve the lives
of the disabled by means of care,
training, and education; and integrating
the disabled into “normal” society.
*Social Construction of
Disability
• 400 years ago - Catholic Church declared
left-handed people servants of the Devil and
burned them at the stake.
• 1933 - Nazis sterilized and killed the mentally
“deficient” and the physically “deviant,”
including the blind and deaf.
• 1920s to 1970s - In America, Native American
women were subjected to federally funded
forced sterilization.
*Ablism
• Prejudice and discrimination against disabled
people.
– Historical example: Belief among 19thcentury Western educators that blind
people were incapable of high-level or
abstract thought.
• Ablism involves the largely unintended
neglect of the conditions of disabled people.
*Aging and the Life Course
• Individuals pass through distinct stages
of life which sociologists call the life
course.
• These stages are often marked by rites
of passage, rituals signifying the
transition from one life stage to another.
*Age Cohorts
• Age Cohort - a category of people born
in the same range of years
• Age roles - patterns of behavior we
expect of people in different age cohorts
• Generation – sociologically is composed
of members of an age cohort who have
unique and formative experiences during
youth.
*Age Stratification
• Age stratification refers to social inequality
between age cohorts.
• The very young are often at the bottom of the
stratification system.
– Facing poverty and famine, parents
sometimes abandoned children.
– Many developing countries are overflowing
with orphans and street children.
*Age Stratification
• Even in rich countries, poverty is more
widespread among children than adults.
• According to the 2000 U.S. census, childhood
poverty exceeds poverty among adults by
71%.
• The United States is also distinguished by
having the highest child poverty rate among
the world’s two dozen richest countries.
*Question
• I don't value older people in our society
as much as younger people.
a. Strongly agree
b. Agree somewhat
c. Unsure
d. Disagree somewhat
e. Strongly disagree
*Child Poverty by Race and
Ethnicity
*Median Income and Percent
Poor
*Gerontocracy
• A gerontocracy is a society ruled by elderly
people.
– In South Korean corporations when a new
manager starts work, everyone in the
department who is older than the new
manager may resign or be reassigned.
– In the United States, median income
gradually rises with age, reaching its peak
in the 45–54 age cohort.
*Age Stratification:
Functionalist Theory
• Age stratification reflects the importance of
each age cohort’s contribution to society.
– In preindustrial societies, the elderly were
important for knowledge and wisdom.
– With industrialization, function of the
elderly became less important and their
status declined.
*Age Stratification:
Conflict Theory
• Age stratification stems from
competition and conflict.
• Young people may participate in a
revolutionary overthrow and seize
power.
• The elderly may organize politically to
decrease disadvantages and increase
advantages in life.
*Age Stratification:
Symbolic Interactionist
• Focus on the meanings people attach to agebased groups and age stratification.
• One study examined movies from 1940-1980.
– Young people were portrayed as leading
active, vital lives.
– Elderly women were portrayed as
unattractive, unfriendly, and unintelligent.
Question
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Which of the following theories explains age
stratification in terms of the distinct functions
that industrialization created for different age
cohorts?
a. functionalist theory
b. conflict theory
c. symbolic interactionism
d. essentialist theory
Answer: a
• Functionalist theory explains age
stratification in terms of the distinct
functions that industrialization created
for different age cohorts.
*Elderly as % of U.S.
Population, 1900–2050
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*Aging and Poverty
• The “old old” are most likely to suffer
physiological decline, life-threatening
diseases, social isolation, and poverty.
• Economic inequality between elderly women
and men is the result of women’s lower
wages when they are young.
• The elderly most likely to be poor include the
“old old” , women, African Americans and
people in rural areas.
*A Shortage of Caregivers
• In 2001, home-care agencies and
nursing homes employed 2.1 million
caregivers in the United States.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
expects a 58% rise in demand for such
workers between 1998 and 2008.
*Ageism
• Ageism is prejudice and discrimination
based on age.
• Examples:
– Elderly men are stereotyped as
“grumpy” and elderly women as
“haggard”.
*Death and Dying
• In traditional societies, such as Europe until
early modern times, most people accepted
death.
– Most people believed in life after death.
– The dying were not isolated.
– Because the dying had experience giving
emotional support to other dying people,
they accepted death as part of life.
*Euthanasia
• Involves a doctor prescribing or
administering medication or treatment
that intended to end a terminally ill
patient’s life.
• Public opinion polls show about 2/3 of
Americans favor physician-assisted
euthanasia.
*Euthanasia
• Between 33% and 60% of American doctors
say they would be willing to perform
euthanasia if it were legal.
• Nearly 30% of American doctors have
received a euthanasia request, but only 6%
say they complied.
*Question
• When a person has a disease that
cannot be cured, do you think doctors
should be allowed by law to end the
patient's life by some painless means if
the patient and his family request it?
*GSS National Data
Religion
Liberal
Conservative
Catholic
Protestant Protestant
Jewish
Yes
77.8%
55.8%
71.4%
90.1%
No
22.2%
44.2%
28.6%
9.9%
*People Who Died under Oregon’s
Death with Dignity Act
Physician-Assisted
Suicide
Other
Deaths
Average Age
67
76
Race
White
97
97
Asian
3
1
Other
0
2
Male
54
50
Female
47
50
Sex
*People Who Died under Oregon’s
Death with Dignity Act
Marital Status
Physician-Assisted
Suicide
Other
Deaths
Married
44
49
Widowed
24
33
Divorced
25
14
Never Married
8
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Quick Quiz
1. Ablism involves:
a. curing disabilities to the extent
possible through medical and
technological intervention
b. prejudice and discrimination against
disabled people
c. the largely unintended neglect of the
conditions of disabled people
d. b. and c. only
Answer: d
•
Ablism involves prejudice and
discrimination against disabled
people and the largely unintended
neglect of the conditions of
disabled people.
2. Disabled people are incapable of
performing within the range of
"normal" human activity.
a. True
b. False
Answer : a
• Disabled people are incapable of
performing within the range of
"normal" human activity.
3. Which of the following theories explains
age stratification in terms of
competition for power and wealth
between age cohorts?
a. functionalist theory
b. conflict theory
c. symbolic interactionism
d. essentialist theory
e. postmodern theory
Answer: b
• Conflict theory explains age
stratification in terms of competition for
power and wealth between age cohorts.
4. _________________ is prejudice and
discrimination against elderly people.
Answer: ageism
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Ageism is prejudice and
discrimination against elderly people.
5. _________________ involves a
doctor prescribing or administering
medication or treatment that is intended
to end a terminally ill patient's life.
Answer: euthanasia
• Euthanasia involves a doctor
prescribing or administering medication
or treatment that is intended to end a
terminally ill patient's life.
6. Economic inequality between elderly
women and men is largely the result
of:
a. women’s lower earning power
when they are young
b. social isolation
c. general physiological decline
d. all of these choices
Answer: a
•
Economic inequality between elderly
women and men is largely the result of
women’s lower earning power when
they are young.