Gerontology as a discipline

Abstract

THE SUDDEN growth of the number and proportion of aged persons in our society during the course of this century has been pointed to by many as the force behind the belated attention now being given to the problems of aging and the aged. Yet this assessment, taken in its entirety, is to a considerable extent an oversimplification. Modern society's interest in aging is less a product of numbers than it is a way of looking at the aged and at its own responsibilities and capabilities toward them. It is of interest that by 1985 there will be 25 million persons aged 65 and over in the United States, but this fact by itself does not create a problem of aging or the aged (DHEW: Older Americans Act, 1965b). It is also interesting, even alarming, to find that annual incomes of the aged average substantially less than that of people under age 65, but this does not necessarily create an aging problem (Epstein, 1963). Similarly in the area of health, it is impressive to learn that 55% of those aged 75 years and above suffer some degree of long-term limitation of activities due to chronic illness, but again this need not indicate an aging problem (DHEW, 1959). In and of themselves, such facts do not create an aging problem nor the need for a field of gerontology. They indicate only the presence of economic problems, health problems, psychological and social problems which can be viewed as part and parcel of the general economic, health, and social milieu. © 1965, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.