Introduction to Sociology

TRY IT

8. 
   According to Erik Erikson’s theory of lifespan development, what is the challenge of old age?
   
   1. 
      To embrace creativity over regret
      
   2. 
      To embrace intellect over depression
      
   3. 
      To embrace integrity over despair
      
   4. 
      To embrace caring over responsibility
      

Check your answers at the end of this document

THINK IT OVER

• 
  What is your relationship to aging and to time? Look back on your own life. How much and in what ways did you change in ten years and in twenty years? Does a decade seem like a long time or a short time in a life span? Now apply some of your ideas to the idea of aging. Do you think older people share similar experiences as they age?
  
• 
  What do you think it will be like to be ten, twenty, and fifty years older than you are now? What facts are your assumptions based on? Are any of your assumptions about getting older false? What kind of sociological study could you establish to test your assumptions?
  

GLOSSARY

geriatrics: a medical specialty focusing on the elderly
life course: the period from birth to death, including a sequence of predictable life events
primary aging: biological factors such as molecular and cellular changes
secondary aging: aging that occurs due to controllable factors like exercise and diet

1. 
   Seeing Our Way to Financial Security in the Age of Increased Longevity, (2017). http://longevity.stanford.edu/sightlines-financial-security-special-report-mobile/ ↵
   

LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
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• 
  The Process of Aging. Authored by: OpenStax CNX. Located at: https://cnx.org/contents/AgQDEnLI@10.1:2d9eSEty@4/The-Process-of-Aging. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/02040312-72c8-441e-a685-20e9333f3e1d@3.49