Influences on the Life Course
Every theory of aging has its limits: None of them fully explains the variety of ways in which individuals experience old age, and many theories seem to reflect the social values during particular historical times in uncritical ways—for example, by holding up either activity or disengagement as the ideal goal or social norm for later life. The advantage of thinking in terms of age transitions throughout the life course is that we can see adult development as more open ended than people have tended to see it in the past. As a result, the meaning of old age is less fixed, and the choices are more varied. We can contrast this wider social freedom with stereotypes that still persist about human development in the second half of life.
The most widely pervasive view of adulthood is not based on positive development at all, but assumes continuous deterioration and decline. Consider the message on birthday cards: Aging is a disaster; after youth, it’s all downhill (Demos & Jache, 1981). This pessimistic, age-as-decline model gives priority to biological factors and is the basis for the widely shared prejudice called ageism (Applewhite, 2016; Nelson, 2004). We are better off appreciating how social class, life history, and social institutions and policies create variation in the experience of aging. Although aging is a negative experience for some people, for others, it opens the door to meaningful new roles and activities.
Social Class and Life History
Americans often don’t like to talk about social class, but it is impossible to understand the heterogeneity of later life experience without recognizing the importance of class and inequality. The 21st century so far has seen an extensive increase in inequality, as economists on all sides have recognized (Piketty, 2015; Stiglitz, 2015). The “end game” of our final years is shaped by the years that came before (Abramson, 2015). Increasing inequality among older people, especially those generations now approaching old age, suggests that we will see greater financial stress for poor older adults in years to come (Carr, 2019; Crystal, Shea, & Reyes, 2016).
We know that health challenges arise in later life. But the causes come much earlier. Social class has a lifelong influence on health status later in life, as demonstrated by the important Whitehall study in the United Kingdom (Hemingway et al., 1997). Early life events have long-lasting effects. The basic rule of accumulated advantage or disadvantage is that “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” For example, early completion of college and entry into a favorable occupation is converted during middle age into increased wealth in the form of home ownership and pension vesting (Henretta & Campbell, 1976). Women who enter the labor force at the beginning of childbearing usually have to accept career interruptions and tend to have diminished income later in life; thus, gender differences in old-age poverty are explainable partly as the result of life course choices made decades earlier.
History also plays a profound role in shaping lives. For example, a large historical event like the Great Depression can cause a dramatic and unexpected drop in income and status for many people (Elder, 1974). The cohort who were in their prime working years at the time were typically worse off financially in old age than their children, the current generation of retirees. This recognition of the influence of historical events has stimulated ongoing interest in using interviews and oral history to understand how social forces affect people’s lives (Cole & Knowles, 2001).
Unpredictable or non-normative life events, such as getting divorced or losing a job, also have a significant effect on the life course. Longitudinal studies show that a significant number of people will experience an unexpected but significant drop in income due to non-normative life events such as illness or a financial reversal (Duncan, 1988). Research has also shown that negative life events such as widowhood or job loss can cause a dramatic downturn in personal health and can profoundly affect an individual’s financial status during retirement. Such events induce a psychosomatic response to stress, and negative life events therefore become risk factors that predict the onset of illness (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). More recent work on how the immune system is impacted by negative social and psychological experiences further illustrates how personal resources for coping with stress can influence adaptation in later life (Friedman & Ryff, 2012). Yet the impact of life events is not a simple process. The same stressful life event—for example, becoming a widow—may have different effects on different people. The impact depends on whether the event was expected or anticipated and also on what kind of personal or family resources are available. Support from family and friends can help older people cope with stress and maintain self-esteem.
Social Institutions and Policies
The structure of the life course in modern times has been shaped by the power of the educational system and the workplace. In the 19th century, the rise of public schools began to lengthen the period of formal education and introduce credential requirements for most types of work. The United States, a self-consciously “modern” nation, took a lead in these progressive developments (Achenbaum, 1978; Fischer, 1977). Early in the 20th century, adolescence was recognized as a distinct phase of life and became more prolonged, as was middle age, which also became an important period of the life course (Neugarten, 1968).
The industrial revolution brought far-reaching demographic and economic changes, as well as new cultural ideas about age-appropriate behavior (Hareven & Adams, 1982). Bureaucratic institutions, from local school systems to the Social Security Administration, always favor rule-governed, predictable procedures, so it is not surprising that with the rise of bureaucracy came an emphasis on defining life stages by chronological age.
Today, social institutions and policies still define transitions throughout the life course. The educational system defines the transition from youth to adulthood, just as retirement defines the transition from middle age to old age, even though, as we discussed earlier, increasingly these transitions are no longer tied to specific ages.
Like progression through the school system, the movement into retirement seems more orderly than midlife transitions because employment policies and pension coverage closely regulate retirement. But the timing of retirement today is becoming less predictable than in the past because of turbulence in the U.S. labor market and because of the disappearance of mandatory retirement. Economic pressures force some to retire early, whereas others are encouraged to go back to school or take on part-time employment. The result is that previously clear boundaries—“student,” “retiree,” and so on—are becoming blurred.
If societal forces shape the life course, then it is reasonable to think that some of the negative features of old age may be due, at least in part, to institutional patterns that could be changed. A good example is the pattern known as learned helplessness, or dependency and depression reinforced by the external environment (Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1993). It has been suggested that some of the disengagement often seen in old age is not inevitable, but comes from social policies and from practices in institutions that care for dependent older adults (Baltes & Baltes, 1986). For instance, nursing home residents often suffer a diminished locus of control, in which they lose the ability to control such basic matters as bedtime and meal choices. When residents feel manipulated by forces beyond their personal control, they may become more withdrawn, fail to comply with medical treatment, and become fatalistic and depressed. They may also experience “excess disability,” or more disability than necessary because the environment in which they live is either too challenging or not challenging enough in response to their needs and abilities (Drossel & Fisher, 2006).
Without interventions to reduce dependency, older adults in ill health all too commonly lose hope and self-esteem as they experience declining control (Rodin, Timko, & Harris, 1985). But this downward spiral is not inevitable. The institutional structures responsible for such dependency can be changed. In a now-classic experiment with nursing home residents, psychologists offered small opportunities to increase locus of control—for example, allowing residents to