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AGING AND THE LIFE COURSE READING LIST
The exam will consist of three sets of questions. Each set will contain at least two
questions and students must answer one question in each set. Your answers should show
that you have critically thought enough about a content area that you can identify, explain
and illustrate the key themes, plus be able to take positions and back up those positions
(or multiple positions pertinent to an issue). In order to do this, you need to be on top of
content, theoretical issues, and methods/research issues.
Aging
Angel, Ronald and Jacqueline Angel. (2005). Diversity and aging. Chapter 6 in in
Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (6th ed), edited by R. Binstock and L.
George. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Barrett, A.E. (2003). Socioeconomic status and age identity: The role of dimensions of
health in the subjective construction of age Journals of Gerontology 58B, S101-S109.
Bengtson, Vern. (1997). Theory, explanation, and a third generation of theoretical
developments in social gerontology. Journals of Gerontology 52B: S72-88.
Butler, Robert (1969). Ageism: Another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist 9: 2443-46.
Calasanti, Toni and Kathleen SLevin (2001) Gender, social inequalities and aging.
Walnut creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Cowgill, Donald O. and Lowell D. Holmes (1972). Aging and modernization. New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Cumming, Elaine and William Henry. (1961). Growing old: The process of
disengagement. NY: Basic Books.
Diamond, Timothy. (1995). Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Estes, Carroll. (1996). The Political economy of aging. Pp. 346-60 in Handbook of aging
and the social sciences (4th ed). Edited by Binstock and George. San Diego, CA:
Academic Press.
George, Linda K. (1999) Social perspectives on the self in later life. Pp. 42-66 in Ryff
and Marshall, The self and society in aging processes. Springer Publishing.
Hochschild, Arlie. (1978). The unexpected community. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
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Kohli, Martin. (1988). Aging as a challenge for sociological theory. Ageing and Society
8: 367-394.
Lopata, Helena. (1973). Widowhood in an American City. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.
Myles, John. (1984). Old age and the welfare state: The political economy of public
pensions. Brown, Little, and Co.
Neugarten, B.L., Joan W. Moore, and John C. Lowe. (1965). Age norms, age constraints,
and adult socialization. American Journal of Sociology 70: 710-17.
Quadagno, Jill and Joseph Quinn. (1996). "Does Social Security Discourage Work?" Pp.
127-146 in Social Security in the Twenty First Century, James Schulz and Eric Kingson,
Eds. Oxford University Press.
Riley, Matilda W. (1987) On the Significance of Age in Sociology. American
Sociological Review 52: 1-14.
Rosow, Irving. (1974). Socialization to old age. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Rowe, John W. and Robert L. Kahn (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist 37: 43340.
Williams, J. and C. Wilson (2001). Race, ethnicity and aging. In L.George, Binstock and
associates (eds.) Handbook of aging and the social sciences (5th ed). San Diego, CA:
Academic Press.
The Life Course Perspective
Dannefer, Dale (1987). Aging as Intracohort Differentiation: Accentuation, the Matthew
Effect, and the Life Course. Sociological Forum, 2, 211-235.
Elder, Glen. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Elder, Glen. (1995). The life course paradigm: Social change and individual
development. Pp. 101-140 in Examining Lives in Context: Perspectives on the Ecology of
Human Development. Edited by Moen, Elder and Luscher. American Psychological
Association.
Ferraro, Kenneth. (2001) Aging and role transitions. Pp. 313-330 in Binstock and George
(eds.) Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, 5th ed. San Diego, CA: Academic
Press.
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Fry, Christine L. (2002) The life course as a cultural construct. Pp. 269-294 in Invitation
to the life course: Toward new understandings of later life, edited by R. Settersten.
Baywood Publishing.
George, Linda. (1993). Sociological perspectives on life transitions. Annual Review of
Sociology 19: 553-73.
George, Linda K. (1996). Missing links: The case for a social psychology of the life
course. The Gerontologist 36, 248-255.
Glen, Norval D. (2003) Distinguishing Age, Period, and Cohort Effects, Pp. 465-476 in
Jeylan Mortimer and Michael Shanahan (eds.) Handbook of the Life Course. NY: Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Hagestad, Gunhild. (1990). Social perspectives on the life course. Pp. 151-68 in
Handbook of aging and the social sciences. Edited by Binstock and George. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Kertzer (1983) Generation as a Sociological Problem. Annual Review of Sociology 9:125149.
Kohli, Martin (1985). The world we forgot: A historical overview of the life course. Pp.
271-303 in Later Life: The Social Psychology of Aging, edited by V. Marshall. Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage.
Mayer, Karl Ulrich and Urs Schoepflin. (1989). The state and the life course. Annual
Review of Sociology 15: 187-209.
Moen, Phyllis. (2001). The gendered life course. Pp. 179-196 in Binstock, George and
associates (eds.) Handbook of aging and the social sciences (5th ed). San Diego, CA:
Academic Press.
O’Rand, Angela (1996). The Precious and Precocious: Understanding Cumulative
Disadvantage and Cumulative Advantage over the Life Course.” The Gerontologist
36:230-38.
O’Rand, Angela (2005) Stratification and the Life Course. Chapter 9 in in Handbook of
Aging and the Social Sciences (6th ed.), edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Riley, Matilda W. and John W. Riley. (1994). Structural lag: Past and future. Pp. 15-36 in
Age and structural lag: Society’s failure to provide meaningful opportunities in work,
family and leisure. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Settersten, Richard A. and Karl Ulrich Mayer. (1997). The measurement of age, age
structuring, and the life course. Annual Review of Sociology 23: 233-261.
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Methods
Campbell, Richard and Duane Alwin. (1996). Quantitative approaches: Toward and
integrated science of aging and human development. Pp. 31-51 in Handbook of aging and
the social sciences (4th ed). Edited by Binstock and George. San Diego, CA: Academic
Press.
Giele, Janet and Glen H. Elder, Jr. (eds). (1998). Methods of Life Course Research:
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Hendricks, Jon. (1996). Qualitative research: Contributions and advances. Pp. 52-72 in
Handbook of aging and the social sciences (4th ed). Edited by Binstock and George. San
Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Mayer, Karl U. and Nancy Tuma. (1990). Life course research and event history analysis:
An overview. Pp. 3-20 in Event History Analysis in Life Course Research, edited by K.U.
Mayer and N.B. Tuma. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Family
Bengtson, Vern. (1996). Paradoxes of families and aging. Pp. 253-82.in Handbook of
Aging and the Social Sciences (4th), edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Burton, L.M. (1996) Age Norms, the Timing of Family Role Transitions, and
Intergenerational Caregiving among Aging African American Women, The Gerontologist
2, 199-208
Carr, D. and Utz, R. (2002). Late-Life Widowhood in the United States: New Directions
in Research and Theory. Ageing International, 27, 65-88.
Hagestad, Gunhild (2002) Interdependent lives and relationships in changing times: A
life-course view of families and aging, Pp. 135-159 Invitation to the life course, edited by
R. Settersten. Baywood Publishing.
Hareven , Tamara K. (2001). Historical perspectives on aging and family relations.
Chapter 8, pp. 141-159 in Binstock, George and associates (eds.) Handbook of Aging and
the Social Sciences (5th ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Luescher and Pillemer (1988) Intergenerational ambivalence: A new approach to the
study of parent-child relations in later life, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 413425.
Rossi and Rossi (1990). Of Human Bonding: Parent-Child Relations across the Life
Course. NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
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Health and Caregiving
Aneshensel et al. (1993). Stress, role captivity, and the cessation of caregiving, Journal of
Health and Social Behavior, 34: 54-70.
George, Linda. (2001). The Social Psychology of Health. Pp. 217-35 in Handbook of
Aging and the Social Sciences, 5th ed., edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
House et al. (1994). The social stratification of aging and health. Journal of Health and
Social Behavior, 35, 231-234.
Mirowsky, J (1996). Age and the Gender Gap in Depression. Journal of Health and
Social Behavior 37 362-80.
Moen, P., D. Dempster-McClain, and R. Williams, Jr. (1992). Successful aging: A life
course perspective on women’s roles and health. American Journal of Sociology 97:
1612-38.
Moon, Marilyn (2005). The organization and financing of health care. Chapter 21 in
Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (6th ed.), edited by R. Binstock and L.
George. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Pearlin, L.I., Pioli, M and McLaughlin, A. (2001). Caregiving by Adult Children:
Involvement, Role Disruption and Health. Pp. 238-53 in Handbook of Aging and the
Social Sciences, 5th ed., edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego, CA: Academic
Press.
Stone, Robyn (2005). Emerging issues in long-term care. Chapter 22 in in Handbook of
Aging and the Social Sciences (6th), edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego,
CA: Academic Press.
Turner, R. J and Lloyd, D.A. (1995). Lifetime Traumas and Mental Health: The
Significance of Cumulative Adversity. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 36:36076.
Verbrugge, Lois and Alan M. Jette. (1994). The disablement process. Social Science and
Medicine 38: 1-14.
Wheaton, Blair. (1990). Life transitions, role histories, and mental health. American
Sociological Review 55: 209-223.
Work and Retirement
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Clark, Robert and Joseph Quinn. 2002. Patterns of work and retirement for a new
century. Generations, Summer: 17-30.
Hardy, Melissa (2005). Older workers. Chapter 12 in in Handbook of Aging and the
Social Sciences (6th ed.), edited by R. Binstock and L. George. San Diego, CA: Academic
Press.
Henretta, John (2001). Work and retirement. Chapter 14, pp. 255-271. in RH Binstock
and LK George, Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, 5th edition. San Diego:
Academic Press.
Heinz, W.R. (2003) From Work Trajectories to Negotiated Careers: The Contingent
Work Life Course, Pp. 185-204 in Jeylan Mortimer and Michael Shanahan (eds.)
Handbook of the Life Course. NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Kohli, Martin. (1994). Work and retirement: A comparative perspective. In Age and
Structural lag: The mismatch between people’s lives and opportunities in work, family
and leisure. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Kohn, Melvin L. and Carmi Schooler. (1993) Job conditions and personality: A
longitudinal assessment of their reciprocal effects. American Journal of Sociology 87:
1257-86.
Moen, P. (2003) Midcourse: Navigating Retirement and a New Life Stage, Pp. 269-291
in Jeylan Mortimer and Michael Shanahan (eds.) Handbook of the Life Course. NY:
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Mutchler, Jan, Jeffrey Burr, Michale Massagli, and Amy Pienta. 1999. Work transitions
and health in later life. Journals of Gerontology 54B: S252-61.
O’Rand, Angela, John Henretta, and Margaret Krecker. (1992). Family pathways to
retirement. Pp. 81-98 in Families an Retirement, edited by M. Szinovacz, D. Ekerdt, and
B. Vinick. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.