Bernice Neugarten
Historical Antecedents
& Influences
Historical Antecedents &
Influences
• Increase in life expectancy resulting in a growing interest in
the elderly and the process of aging. (Kinsella, 1992).
Historical Antecedents &
Influences
• Granvill Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
• Senescence, the Last Half of Life (Hall, 1922).
• Ernest Burgess (1886-1966)
• Elderly & the effects of retirement (Achenbaum & Albert, 1995).
Historical Antecedents &
Influences
• Robert Havighurst (1900-1991)
• Six stages of human life
•
•
•
•
•
•
Infancy & Early Childhood (0-6 yrs)
Middle Childhood (6-13 yrs)
Adolescence (13-18 yrs)
Early Adulthood (19-30 yrs)
Middle Age (31-60 yrs)
Later Maturity (60+ yrs)
• Developmental tasks (Achenbaum & Albert, 1995).
Experiments/Resear
ch/ Clinical Data
• Bernice Levin
• 1916-2001 (85 years
old)
• American
Psychologist
• Specialized in adult
development and
psychology of aging
(Weiland, 2005)
Research
• The measurement of Life satisfaction (Neugarten , Havighurst &
Tobin, 1996)
• Life Satisfaction Ratings – Kansas City Study of Adult Life
• Clinical Psychologist - 4 Lengthy Interviews – 2.5 years
• Participants over 65
• Based on 5 criteria - rated each on a 5 pt. scale
• Zest vs. Apathy - Pleasure in everyday activities
• Resolution and Fortitude- Regards life as meaningful, accepts
responsibility for what life has been
• Congruence between desired and achieved goals - Feels has
succeeded in achieving goals
• Self-Concept - Positive image of self (physical, psychological, social)
• Mood Tone - Maintains happy and optimistic
Research
• All cases -Scored by two judges. Members of a Student faculty
Research Seminar
• A follow up system used where cases and judges varied
• In total, 14 judges rated 177 cases
• Correlation between was .64 (moderately successful)
(Neugarten , Havighurst & Tobin, 1996)
Research
• Age Groups in American Society and The Rise of the Young-Old.
(1974)
• Growing population – traditional relationships between age
groups are changing
• Economic hazards
• Young- unemployment
• Old- social security
• In history, equilibrium has existed
• All age groups receive an appropriate share of goods and services
Research
• Ageism – new antagonisms, conflicts between age groups
• Increasing – nursing homes, “left behind”
• Decreasing – lowering voting age
• (Neugarten, 1974)
• Young-Old
• 55-75
• Healthy
• Affluent
• Educated & Politically Active
• Retirement
(Neugarten, 1974)
• Old-Old
• 75 & over (Neugarten, 1974)
• Need supportive social services to function as fully as possible
Research
• Age is less of a defining characteristic in distinguishing between
middle-age and older people. (Weiland, 2005)
• Aging is a complex process, many ways to age “sucessfully”
• Age-Irrelevant Society – improves relationships between age
groups
(Neugarten, 1974)
• Future Implications
• Social Contributors
• “Truly Human Condition”
• Freedom from work and freedom from want
• Create attractive image of aging
Challenges/Obstacles &
Influences
Zeitgeist
• Separate spheres
• Expectations for marriage, family
• Few women in professorial positions
• Fewer women than men earning PhDs
• Achievements unrecognized
• Schultz, D.P., & Schultz, S.E. (2012). A History
of Modern Psychology (10th ed.). Belmont:Wadsworth.
• Minton, H.L. (2000). Psychology and gender at the turn of the
century. American Psychologist, 55(6), 613=615.
Professional Obstacles
• Many “firsts”
• PhD in Human Development
• Classes on aging
• Tenure in Human Development
• Time off
• Family
• Late professional achievements
• Rodkey, E. (2010). Bernice Neugarten. Psychology’s Feminist
Voices. Retrieved from www.feministvoices.com/bernice-neugarten/
Strengths and
Weaknesses
• Social opportunities
• “access to social opportunities and activity are not equally available to
all” (Theoretical).
• Fulfillment
• “not everyone finds fulfillment in the presence of others or participation
in activities” (Theoretical).
• Better suggestions:
• "Reformulations of this theory suggest that participation in informal
activities, such as hobbies, are what most effect later life satisfaction”
(Theoretical)."
• Correlation
• Too simple
• “activity theory [is criticized] as a [too] simple, linear model for
predicting life satisfaction,” and is found to be “too insufficient to
capture the complexity of the interplay between people and their
social situations” (Howe).
• “Activity theory alone was found to lack the substance to explain
the richness and complexities of involvement in activities as well
as the positive sense of well-being found as some people grow
older” (Howe).
• “there is no single direction or pattern of social-psychological
aging, but no single pattern of optimal aging” (Weiland)
• Distinguished between young-old and old-old
• “the ‘young-old’… identify those in their late years still able to
function well, and the ‘old-old’ those who are frail and need
support” (Weiland)
• Significance of Age
• “Perhaps her most important contribution… was to demonstrate…
[chronological] age has declined in significance in distinguishing
between middle-aged and older people” (Weiland)
• “Perhaps the most constructive ways of adapting to an aging
society will emerge by focusing not on age at all but on the more
relevant dimensions of human needs, human capacities, and
human diversity.” –Bernice Neugarten
Influences
• Very influential in dispelling myths regarding the
elderly
• Not just bored, unfulfilled, inactive in old age
• Policies on elderly
• Agenda for 1981 White House Conference on Aging
• 1983 Social Security Reform Act
• Trained 150 PhD students…half were women
• Rodkey, E. (2010). Bernice Neugarten. Psychology’s Feminist
Voices. Retrieved from www.feministvoices.com/bernice-neugarten/
• Weiland, S. (2005). Bernice L. Neugarten: 1916-2001.
In Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/neugarten-bernice-l
References
Achenbaum, A. W., & Albert, D. M., (1995). Profiles in Gerontology: A
bibliographical dictionary. Westport: Greenwood Publishing
Company.
Hall, G. Stanley, (1922). Senescence: The last half of life. New York: D. Appleton
& Company.
Howe, C. Z. (1987). Selected Social Gerontology Theories and Older Adult
Leisure Involvement: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Applied
Gerontology, 6(4), 448-463. doi: 10.1177/073346488700600407
Kinsella, K. G., (1992). Changes in life expectancy 1900-1990. American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, 55, 1196-1202.
Minton, H.L. (2000). Psychology and gender at the turn of the century.
Psychologist, 55 (6), 613=615.
American
Neugarten, B. L. (1974). Age Groups in American Society and the Rise of the
Young-Old. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, 415(1), 187-198.
References continued
Neugarten , B. L. (n.d.). (1972). 209-216. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/
1084395 .
Neugarten , B., Havighurst, R., & Tobin, S. (n.d.). The measurement of life satisfaction. (
1996). The Meanings of Age: Selected Papers, 296-313. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ArLGCg64nMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA296&dq=bernice
neugarten&ots=4t9YR69h0C&sig=tnIrIpiDaSAd96iZVffAqjQ4iYM
Parry, M. (2006). G. Stanley Hall: psychologist and early gerontologist. American
Journal of Public Health, 96(7), 1160-1162.
Rodkey, E. (2010). Bernice Neugarten. Psychology’s Feminist Voices. Retrieved from
www.feministvoices.com/bernice-neugarten
Schultz, D.P., & Schultz, S.E. (2012). A History of Modern Psychology (10th ed.).
Belmont:Wadsworth.
Theoretical Perspectives on Aging. (2012, May 18). Http://cnx.org/content/m42973/
latest/. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
Weiland, S. (2005). Bernice L. Neugarten: 1916-2001. In Jewish Women: A
Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Retrieved from jwa.org/
encyclopedia/article/neugarten-bernice-l.