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1. Respond to the statement that “You are only as old as you
feel.” Do you agree or disagree? What are some of the things that influence how
old we “feel”?
2. What are some of the causes, consequences, and solutions
to ageism? Do you speak up if you hear ageist remarks? Why or why not?

The literature on aging is growing by leaps and bounds. Look
at a research report (published or online) on a topic you find interesting, and
try to determine the role that age/aging plays. Is it an independent variable,
a dependent variable, or a control variable? Why did they include age as a
variable, and why did they expect age to matter to their topic?

Conducting research is always complicated. Take a question or topic that is of interest to you and consider two of the questions posed in Exhibit 2.7 to begin thinking through how you might begin to shape a research study to answer your question.

Think about the lives of yourself and one of your
grandparents. What are the commonalities that you expect to find in the
childhood and adolescence of these two lives? What differences do you expect in
later life stages? What causes these potential differences between you and your
grandparent?

1. Examining your own life, identify some events or
historical transitions (i.e., period effects) that you think might influence
your aging to make it different from that of your parents or grandparents
2. If your local senior center wanted to revamp their
services for the upcoming baby boom generations, what kind of demographic
information would you advise them to look at?

Find some examples in newspapers or magazines of the ways in
which demographic information about the older population is used to convey
messages of alarm or optimism. Is the information being presented in an
accurate and balanced way? How might the same information, presented
differently, be used to convey a different message?

1. If your local senior center wanted to revamp their
services for the upcoming baby boom generations, what kind of demographic
information would you advise them to look at?
2. How does the life expectancy in a country affect the way
life is organized—for example, number of years spent in school, age at
marriage, and age at retirement?

1. To what extent do you feel constrained by age norms and life
course expectations? How aware are you and your friends of these expectations?
2. Do you think that the stages of human development in
later life (such as gerotranscendence and elderhood) are possible to achieve
only when we are old? Why or why not?

Informally interview a handful of people and ask them some
specific age norm questions, such as the age at which a person should be
settled into a career, or the age at which they expect to marry (if at all).
What do these findings tell you about the power of age norms?

How do societies “use” age? Why does chronological age make
any difference whatsoever in our lives? Give some examples of the ways in which
social definitions of age, including ageism, have affected your life (or
someone you know well).