Bernice Neugarten:
An Advocate for the Aging
Denise White
Oklahoma State University
 Entered
University of Chicago at age 14
 Earned her Master’s of Educational
Psychology at 21
 Became an assistant to a professor at
University of Chicago
 Earned a Ph.D in Human Development
 Took
eight years off to raise children
 1951 – joined University of Chicago
faculty
 Asked to teach Maturity and Old Age
 The rest is history
 Spent
her life researching the impact of
aging on human development
 Wrote many important books and articles
on aging including the landmark
Personality in Middle and Late Life
 Appointed Deputy Chairman of the 1981
Conference on Aging
 Shattered stereotypes of older people
 Died on July 22, 2001, at the age of 85
 She
addresses all four factors of adult
development:
•
•
•
•
Biological
Psychological
Sociocultural
Integrative
 Her work focuses on the sociocultural
• A study of “age-appropriate” behaviors
• Impact of changing social roles in adult
development
 Adulthood, middle
age, and old age have
their unique developmental tasks
 Chronological age in adulthood cannot
measure the capacity for economic
status, intellect, or physical function
 Stereotypes of the elderly should be
abolished
A
new generation of older people called
the young-old exists.
• Differ from middle-aged in retirement
• Differ from old-old in health and vitality
 All
people experience a series of life
events and all societies have a social
expectation of “age-appropriate”
behavior.
• On-time
• Off-time
 Do
you agree that there is a young-old
and an old-old?
 Have you ever been off-time? What were
the implications?
 Leave
a voice thread
Merriam, Sharan B., Caffarella, Rosemary S.,
Baumgartner, Lisa M. Learning in Adulthood. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
 Neugarten, Bernice. The Meaning of Age. Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
 Neugarten, Bernice. Middle Age and Aging. Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1968.
 O’Connor, Anahad. “Dr. Bernice L. Neugarten, 85,
Early Authority on the Elderly.” New York Times 30
July 2001. 10 April 2010
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/us/drbernice-l-neugarten-85-early-authority-on-theelderly.html?pagedwanted=1>.
