Biological Theories
Through successive cell divisions (mitosis), this region found on chromosomes shortens over time leading to aging.
What are... telomeres.
This theory explains how older persons can manage gains and losses by selecting or restrict domains of functioning to those which they are able to optimize or do the best in.
What is... the "Selective Optimization with Compensation Theory."
As the name suggests, this theory states that individuals and social structures disengage from each other with age.
What is... the "Disengagement Theory."
This is the difference between "Usual Aging" and "Successful Aging."
What is...
Usual aging: tends to highlight average levels of aging health which can pick up on extrinsic factors like illness that is independent of aging.
Successful aging: Highlights high achieving or very healthy elders in top percentiles of their age group that shows how what is possible to achieve in later life.
Bats are exceptionally long lived considering this.
What is... their body size.
The "Rate of Living Theory" is related to this, stating that higher levels of rapid energy expenditure leads to rapid damage and aging.
What is... metabolic rate.
According to the "Gerotranscendence Theory," aging results in a shift from materialistic/rational metaphysical stance to this type of stance.
What is... a cosmic/transcendent stance.
This is the theory which is based on Marxist thinking and attempts to explain how aging is due to the interaction of economic and political forces that determine how social resources are allocated and older people are treated in society.
What is... "political economy of aging"
This phenomenon from Matilda Riley describes when there is a mismatch between aging cohorts and social structures or social structures fail to adapt to new aging cohorts that are different from previous cohorts.
What is... "Structural Lag."
This is one example of a barrier to creating a single, cohesive theory of aging.
What is... the cross-disciplinary nature of aging.
This is the theory that states that genes associated with aging are not susceptible to natural selection because they do not affect differential survival and reproduction.
What is... the "Evolutionary Senescence Theory."
This theory posits that people reduce interactions with some people as they age while increasing emotional closeness with significant others.
What is... the "Socioemotional Selectivity Theory"
This theory includes the following 3 components: 1) movement of age cohorts across time 2) asynchrony between structural and individual change over time 3) interdependence of age cohorts and social structures
What is... the "Age Stratification (Age and Society) Perspective."
This is the number of articles that have been written on concept of successful aging.
What are... "THOUSANDS of articles"
Rowe & Kahn lay out these 3 disease/condition relationships with aging and physiological mechanisms to show how the concept of successful aging can point out the heterogeneity and potential for healthy aging.
What are... aging and 1) carbohydrate metabolism, 2) osteoporosis, and 3) cognitive function.
This concept describes when a gene has a different phenotypic trait at different times in the lifespan so that a gene that has a protective trait in early development can have a harmful trait in later life
What is... "Antagonistic Pleiotropy."
These are the four main components of "Stereotype Embodiment."
What are... Stereotypes (a) become internalized across the life span, (b) can operate unconsciously, (c) gain salience from self-relevance, and (d) utilize multiple pathways.
This concept based on the notion that a relationship between two people is created through a process of cost-benefit analysis.
What is... "Social Exchange Theory"
This model of successful aging encompasses three principal components: low risk of disease and disease-related disability; maintenance of high mental and physical function; and continued engagement with life.
What is... the "MacArthur Model of Successful Aging."
According to Rowe & Kahn, these are a few examples of things that older people can offer to society?
What are... accrued knowledge, stability, their heightened capacity for synthetic problem solving, their increased ability to manage conflicts, and their ability to take the perspectives of other age groups into account.
The difference between the "Somatic Mutation Theory" and the "Error Catastrophe Theory" is this.
What is...
Somatic mutation theory: Genetic damage leads to functional failure and ultimately death
Error catastrophe theory: Defective protein synthesis leads to error-containing proteins and dysregulation of cellular processes
According to the "Cognition and Aging Theories," there are two types of cognitive abilities: fluid intelligence and crystallized abilities, where one of the types of abilities is supposed to decline and the other is supposed to be preserved and sometimes improve.
What are... cognitive and crystallized abilities, respectively.
These sociological theories focus on individual agency and social behavior within society and subjective meanings of age/aging.
What are... "Social Constructionist Perspectives."
The neglect of heterogeneity among older people in the non-diseased group with respect to many physiologic and cognitive characteristics is a limitation of dividing research into "disease-related" and this.
What is... age-determined.
Newborn babies have telomeres that are 10,000 base pairs long. This is the typical number of telomeres in 65-year-old individuals.
What are... ~4,800 base pairs.