The emergence of sociological theorizing in the field of aging is described as a sequence of two transformations in gerontological thinking. Each transformation signals a principal change in the conception of the nature and practice of gerontological inquiry. The first transformation was marked by Cumming and Henry's book Growing Old: The Process of Disengagement (1961), in which a formal theory of aging is laid out for the first time by social scientists. This set the stage for the development of a range of alternative theoretical challenges. There is a second transformation that began in the late 1970s and early 80s which involved not so much the recognition of theory as a reflection of that recognition itself, being metatheoretical. The issues raised represented a fundamental concern with the so-called "facts" of aging themselves, focusing on the socially constructive and ideological features of age conceptualizations-social phenomenological and Marxist concerns, respectively. More recently (in the late 1980s and early 90s), social gerontologists have turned to critical theory and feminist perspectives to also examine these issues.
Taking the social order of family life to exist in its signs and rhetoric, we interpret field data gathered in human service settings to show how family order is sustained and transformed through representational practice. We address four aspects of family rhetoric: (1) scope of application, (2) rhetorical transformation, (3) signification and order, and (4) rhetorical predominance. The organization of native understandings and interpretations of enduring family conduct suggests that the social order of individual families is as manifold as its representations, and as stable as its confirmations.
The behavioral reality referenced in the life satisfaction measurement of old people is examined conceptually and empirically. Three questions are addressed: (1) What is the image of life and satisfaction presented to subjects in the items of the five most commonly used scales and indices? (2) How might the image enter into the process of measurement? and (3) How does the image compare with experiences of life and its satisfactions among elders revealed by studies of daily living? Concluding comments deal with issues of reconceptualization.
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