Essay
UNIT 4 - P4
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health and social care COMPLETE ESSAY
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Shona ThomasP4 – explain two theories of aging
Disengagement theory
The first theory of aging is the disengagement theory, this was” created by two social
scientists Elaine Cumming and William Earle Henry. It was presented in the
book Growing Old which was published in 1961.” 1This theory was inspired by the
functionalist theory and it presents a social organised discussion of the aging process
and the evolution of the social lives of elderly people.
Cummings and Henry created the factors that comprise the theory of
disengagement. They believed that people lose social ties to those around them
because they expect death, and their abilities to engage with others deteriorate over
time. As well as a person begins to disengage, they are increasingly freed from social
norms which guide interaction. Losing touch with norms reinforces and fuels the
process of disengagement. And that the disengagement process for men and women
differs due to their different social roles. The process of disengaging is spurred by an
individual's desire to not have their reputation damaged by losing skills and abilities
while they are still fully engaged in their social roles. Simultaneously younger adults
are trained to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to take over the roles
played by those who disengage. They also said that the complete disengagement
happens when both the individual and society are ready for this to occur. A
disjunction between the two will occur when one is ready but not the other. After
People have disengaged from society they adopt new social roles so as not to suffer a
crisis of identity or become demoralized. The data also showed that a person is ready
to disengage when they are aware of the short time remaining in their life and they
no longer wish to fulfil their current social roles; and society allows for
disengagement in order to provide jobs for those coming of age, to satisfy the social
needs of a nuclear family, and because people die. Once they have already
disengaged, remaining relationships shift, rewards of them may change, and
hierarchies may also shift. And disengagement occurs across all cultures, but is
1 http://sociology.about.com/od/D_Index/g/Disengagement-Theory.htm
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