UCONJ 442

Social and Cultural Aspects of Aging

Course Introduction

Social and Cultural Aspects of Aging draws upon material from many of the social sciences to examine the range and variation in institutions, attitudes, and cultural values related to aging. The course emphasizes social and economic factors that influence elders in different cultures. You will learn about the effect of ethnic and sex differences on aging, and about cross-cultural variations in the perception and treatment of the aged. In this course, you will explore the universal quest for meaning and the need to make sense out of life and death.

As part of this course, you will interview an individual elder and analyze his or her story. This activity will make the general study of different cultures more real for you. You'll be able to apply the skills you will learn as you complete this assignment to your work with the aging and their families in a variety of situations.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to

• identify the social and cultural universals in human aging and the ecological influences on aging in human beings;
• describe social factors in the perception and treatment of the elderly in a variety of cultures;
• describe the strengths and the strains experienced by elders, stemming from how they are perceived and treated;
• describe the effects of culture, rapid social change, ethnicity, and gender on the aged;
• analyze cross-cultural, political, organizational, and economic factors that affect the aged; and
• demonstrate ways of interviewing and gathering information from older persons of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds by identifying cultural differences in values, belief systems, perceptions, and responses to death.

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course. You can access the Student Handbook from your course syllabus.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the discussion forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the discussion forum. I will reply to all discussion forum questions on the forum, and to e-mail questions via e-mail.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

About the Textbooks

Number Our Days, an account of the lives of older Jewish persons in Venice, California, is an anthropology classic. It describes how participants at the Aliyah Senior Citizens' Center thrive despite the harshness of the world around them. Their story, recorded as an ethnographic account by Barbara Myerhoff, demonstrates concepts of ethnographic interviewing which can be used in many situations. The strength and vitality of the Center participants shine through Myerhoff's account as she explores through the participants' words such topics as the role of older women, families, and spirituality. Number Our Days is a very moving, readable book, and it is well suited to a distance learning course.

The Cultural Context of Aging, a series of readings about elders in diverse cultures, offers a worldwide perspective. These readings have much to teach as they compare and contrast the experiences and ways of life of elders in many places. The book focuses on two broad themes: (1) how elders act upon and within the societies in which they live, and (2) how a person's cultural context influences the perception of what aging is. The book discusses intergenerational ties, health, the environment, and modernization. Many of the studies are from distant countries, but all reflect issues relevant to life in North America.

About the Videos

You will view two videos from the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting series Growing Old in a New Age: "Societal and Political Aspects of Aging" and "Dying, Death, and Bereavement."

You have two options for viewing these videos. The videos can be viewed online at the Annenberg/CPB Web site. You will be required to register at the site, but registration is free. Please visit the Annenberg/CPB Web site for more information on viewing the videos, including technical requirements. You can also rent the videos from UWEO.

The video questions in the lessons will guide you through each video and help you watch for and focus on major points of the video. Complete and send the Distance Learning Video Rental Agreement and the videos will be shipped to you. The videos will also be available for viewing without rental fees in Odegaard Undergraduate Library on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

About the Lessons

This course has eight lessons. Because they interconnect, and because I encourage comparison between the articles that are part of the assigned reading, it is important to do the lessons and the reading in the assigned sequence. Although we will explore various topics in this course, a common theme throughout the lessons will be the strengths of elders in dealing with challenges and adversities.

• Lesson One introduces you to the richly varied people in the course text Number Our Days. The first written assignment is a series of questions about your own cultural background that you will answer and send to your instructor.
• Lesson Two introduces you to a way of interviewing older adults that empowers them to share what they feel is relevant. You'll learn how to develop global questions for your cross-cultural interview of an elder. This is the focus of your second written assignment.
• Lesson Three focuses on the demographics of older adults in the United States and the world. For this lesson, you will also view the video "Societal and Political Aspects of Aging."
• Lesson Four examines family roles, family structures, and the stresses and strains of intergenerational relationships. The third written assignment is a one-page paper analyzing the roles and rules of your own family.
• Lesson Five looks at rapid social change, formal and informal support systems for elders, and the changing roles of men and women.
• For Lesson Six, you will take the skills that you learned in Lesson Two about ethnographic interviewing and conduct an interview with an elder. Your major course paper will evolve from this interview.
• Lesson Seven examines the importance of religion, spirituality, and ritual for people confronting aging and death. You'll view the video "Dying, Death, and Bereavement" for this lesson.
• Lesson Eight will help prepare you for the final examination. Included are study tips, a description of the exam, and a sample exam question with answers.

Key Backdrop Questions

In an earlier book, Jay Sokolovsky (1983) asks the following questions that will serve as a backdrop for this course as we take a cross-cultural look at elders:

• To what extent are aspects of aging, such as longevity or senility, reflections of cultural variations rather than mandated biological constraints?
• Do males and females take significantly different paths to old age?
• Are there specific aspects of sociocultural systems that are universally linked to beneficial treatment and status of the aged?
• Under what conditions does age serve as an important basis for social group information?
• How do value systems affect the type of support and roles aged family members can expect?
• Does modernization and industrialization of societies invariably lead to a decline in the social status of the aged?
• Is decline really not the case in pre-industrial or noncapitalistic industrial societies?
• Are there specific cultural solutions to the problems of aging that can be transferred from other cultures to our own?
• Are there elements of our own varied social structure and ethnic mix that can be harnessed to enrich the process of growing old and approaching death?
• How are social networks and community organization related to the well being of the aged?

We will ask these questions as we continue through the lessons. Various readings will illustrate facets of these questions as we move through the course.

Refer to these Key Questions as a way to frame your study. If you keep a notebook for this course, finish reading a section of the text before you take notes. If words or ideas are new to you, put these in your notes and define them in your own way. Refer back to the Key Terms in each lesson, which are italicized. Pay attention also to the words in italics in the text Number Our Days. These colorful expressions give a linguistic view into the world of the individual, and reflect blocks of meaning.

About the Study Questions

You will find study questions at the end of Lessons Three, Four, Five, and Seven. These are not to be turned in for grading. Use them to frame and integrate what you have been learning from the readings and my comments. It is especially helpful to write out a brief answer to each question and keep your answers in a notebook or journal; doing so will help you as you put together your interview analysis paper and prepare for the final examination.

About the Assignments

You will complete four written assignments that will help you and your instructor keep track of how well you are learning the material. You will submit the first three assignments as you complete Lessons One, Two, and Four. Each of these assignments counts as 10 percent of your grade. The final assignment will be a major course paper to be turned in at the end of Lesson Six. You should wait for the first assignments to be evaluated and receive your instructor's feedback before you turn in the interview analysis. Email is the preferred method of submission.

Please proofread your papers!

Use the planning calendar included on the course syllabus to help you schedule the submission of assignments.

About the Interview and Analysis Course Paper

The Lesson Six assignment is a major course paper worth 50 percent of your grade. You will conduct an interview with an elder based on the ethnographic interview style you have learned in previous lessons. The result of the interview will be an eight- to ten-page paper that should reflect two main areas:

1. a description and development of the emic perspective of the person interviewed, as delivered in her own words; and
2. an analysis of that data in terms of the topic you have chosen to pursue.

Final Examination and Course Grade

You will take a two-hour proctored essay exam. This will be an open book/open notes exam, so plan to bring your textbooks with you. The final will test how well you are able to integrate information from the entire course. It will cover material from the class readings and the interview. I will grade exams on clarity of writing and on reference to applicable parts of the course. I expect you to be able to use specific examples. (Lesson Eight includes a sample examination section.)

Your course grade will be based on the three shorter assignments and the major interview paper, as well as your final exam. The percentages are distributed as follows:

Assignment 1	10%
Assignment 2	10%
Assignment 3	10%
Interview/Analysis	30%
Final Exam	40%
Total	100%

About You

Now, it's your turn. Please tell me something about yourself, using the Student Information Survey on the course syllabus. Please submit this information before or with your first assignment.

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