The plight of minority aged has been characterized by many as one of double jeopardy: in addition to the disadvantages imposed by their minority group status, the minority aged are said also to experience the devaluation in status associated with old age in our society. Other research has indicated, however, that the gaps between minority and majority individuals tend to decline with age, such that the status disparity between white and minority aged actually may have decreased from middle to old age. To test these competing hypotheses, a series of health, income, life satisfaction, and social participation variables (interaction with family, kin, neighbors, and friends) was examined with data from a large (N = 1269) sample of middle-aged and older blacks, Mexican Americans and whites in Los Angeles County. Differences among the three ethnic groups were found which, in some cases, constituted a case of "double jeopardy" for minority aged. On variables measuring life satisfaction or frequency of contact with relatives, however, the extent of ethnic variation declined across age strata, indicating some support for the "age as leveler" hypothesis.

After a brief review of the major concepts and propositions of the social-psychological theory of exchange, a view of aging as exchange is developed. Drawing upon the previous work of Blau and Emerson, problems of aging are seen as problems of decreasing power resources. Because power resources decline with increased age, older persons become increasingly unable to enter into balanced exchange relations with other groups with whom they are in interactions. From this view, the process of disengagement is the result of a series of exchange relations in which the relative power of the aged vis-a-vis their exchange partner increasingly deteriorates. An imbalanced exchange ratio consequently results in which the aged are forced to exchange compliance--the most costly of all generalized reinforcers--for their continued sustenance. The retirement phenomenon is specified as illustrative of the aging as exchange process.

This paper extends earlier work on aging as a process of exchange by focusing on the issue of exchange rates and how they are negotiated. Intergenerational social exchange is conceptualized as a "boundary crossing" in which the older partner must learn the decision rules appropriate to interaction within a younger stratum. Because of the power differential that, in many cases, favors the middle-aged partner, the "discourse" governing the exchange is typically that of the younger exchange partner. Age is an "exportable" status characteristic, one that is used to assess the legitimacy of a person's claim for a certain level of reward. Old age places the exchange partner in a double bind. Access to power resources declines with age, placing the person in the unenviable position of negotiating from weakness. In addition, those resources which he/she does possess are exchanged for less than they would be if held by a younger person.

Data from a comparative study of 5,450 young males in six developing nations were used to investigate the association between modernization or modernity and negative attitudes toward aging. The findings question the frequent assertion that "modernity" (the exposure of individuals in developing nations to industrial technology and urban social experience) results in negative perceptions of aging and diminished value attributed to the aged. The data do provide support for the hypothesis that "modernization" (societal development) is related to negative perceptions of aging. Results suggest the necessity of differentiating between "modernization" and "modernity" as levels of analysis and of avoiding value-laden assumptions concerning advantages of either traditional or industrial social settings with respect to the position of elders.

We focus on the changing understanding of romance in contemporary American society. Through an analysis of romantic comedies and dramas produced in Hollywood between 1930 and the present, we demonstrate how the decline of the romantic drama is due to significant social and cultural change, the most important of which is the weakening of norms governing the choice of romantic partners. The romantic comedy, however, has more than compensated for the decline in dramas, with the decade of the 1990s seeing more romantic films produced than in any previous time in the history of filmmaking. Although the contemporary romantic comedy almost invariably reinforces the most conservative tendencies in our culture, we argue that these films nonetheless work effectively to reinforce a usable cultural script governing romantic behavior. By depicting ideal culture as a real possibility, the romantic comedy nurtures the utopian wish of “slipping one over on modernity.”