This review aims to understand everyday learning of older adults using mobile devices. Specifically, for both academic and practical implications, we wanted to know what theoretical perspectives researchers adopted and how mobile devices play a role in older adults' informal learning. We analyzed 28 empirical studies (15 qualitative, 10…

Discusses counseling implications and applications of several social theories of aging. Explores effects of some rather distinct perspectives on aging, beginning with conceptualizations, research studies, and criticisms of disengagement theory, activity theory, and role theory, leading up to continuity theory and liberation perspective. Focuses on…

Analyzes the development of thinking in the field of aging as a sequence of two transformations in social gerontological theorizing: (1) when social scientists laid out a formal theory of aging for the first time; and (2) a recognition of theory as a reflection of the recognition itself. Examines specific theoretical approaches. (RJM)

Reviews theories providing the rationale for intergenerational programs and upon which intergenerational research concepts are based. The importance of applying these theories to the establishment of a program research framework is discussed. Recent studies are reviewed, and implications for future research and practice in intergenerational…

Describes disengagement, activity, lifespan, subcultural, and continuity theories of social gerontology in light of participation in higher education by older students. Argues that continuity theory holds the most promise in accounting for older students. Emphasizes the need to stress the positive roles of old age. (JAC)

In this volume, the Rural Sociological Society Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty analyzes the leading explanations of persistent rural poverty and points out new directions in theory that should provide a firmer foundation for antipoverty policies and programs. Written by over 50 leading social scientists, the Task Force report explains that…

Theories of social interaction and lifelong learning have been advanced by K. Lewin, J. Moreno, T. Sarbin, J. W. Thibaut and H. H. Kelley, R. S. Perinbanayagam, and B. Dervin. From this research lifelong learning can be seen as an affective and cognitive activity that occurs in the life-space of the actor in response to positive or negative field…

This review of the literature on prosocial behavior in the elderly provides empirical data on the prevalence of helping behaviors among the elderly and the range of motives underlying their helping. Implications of these data for theories of social behavior in later life are considered, and questions are raised about the validity of the models…

With more rigorous and systematic integration of gerontological data with social and social psychological theory, more comprehensive explanations of life course phenomena would result. Moreover, the age variable would be considered by other sociologists as less of a control and more of a relevant variable in its own right. (Author)

Examines social factors that lead to the development of learned helplessness in elderly persons in the health care setting, including stereotyping elderly by health care professionals, effects of unequal interpersonal exchange, and behaviors associated with sick and healer roles. Discusses programatic and educational prophylaxis and solutions to…

Extends earlier work on aging as a process of exchange by focusing on the issue of exchange rates and how they are negotiated. Access to power resources declines with age, placing the old person in the position of negotiating from weakness. (Author)