Age And The Sociological Age

Age can be defined in a number of ways. Before defining this process, it is important to consider that there four approaches to this culturally significant phenomenon. The most straightforward of these is chronological age, which is the number of years old a person is. Your biological age is measured against the change your body experiences physically, and the deteriorating functionality of it. The third way to define age is psychologically. This can be anything from a change in the processes of perception and senses, to how effectively your brain can absorb and comprehend information. Furthermore, your ability to adapt to different circumstances and your personality itself can reflect your physiological age. Finally, the approach that aids the study of the sociology of ageing the most, is approaching the definition of age from a sociological approach. An individual’s sociological age is defined by the social expectations of the elderly. (Openstax College 2012)
There is a growing interest in Ageing for both Sociologists and Social policy researchers, which has been notably stimulated by a new found awareness of the rising age dependency ratio (namely the predicted costs associated with this through pensions and healthcare), changing patterns of consumption and the ‘vertical’ growth of families. Across a large number of societies, there have been many differing responses to the population ageing. These will be discussed later, but it is of note to highlight the importance of these ideas on intergenerational relations being shared across nations.
Whilst ageing itself is considered a biological process, a definition or ‘old’ or ‘young’ and how to segment people by age varies by culture. In Western societies, youth is valued greatly...

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...es, where the lived experience ageing has been discussed from a mainly discriminatory point of view, must be and is considered very useful in modern society. It is also important however, to consider not only the hostile approach to ageing, but also the cases when prejudice can be more benevolent. Examples in the case of the elderly include those that may offer them preferential treatment, including cheaper visits to the cinema or bus passes (these sort of discounts can also be applied to the young of course). Conversely, the perception of incompetence can lead to conclusion about people either side of adult to be unfairly dismissed when considering a task to complete. In some cases there is little or exaggerated evidence to support these claims. This can lead to concerns from any individual that when they do reach the later years of their life, will they be needed?