SYP4730: SOCIOLOGY OF AGING AND THE LIFE COURSE

Fall 2005

Class: Tuesdays 11:45 a.m-1:40 p.m. and Thursdays 12:50-1:40 p.m. in 112 Newins-Ziegler Hall

Instructor: Monika Ardelt, Ph.D.

Office: 3350 or 3361B Turlington

Phone: 392-0251 ext. 247 or 246

E-mail: Ardelt@soc.ufl.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:45-2:45 p.m. and by appointment

WWW: http://web.soc.ufl.edu/faculty/ardelt.htm

Info about the undergraduate sociology program on the Internet: http://www.soc.ufl.edu/new/undergraduate.html

How and why do we age? Is old age necessarily a period of decline? What are the benefits of old age? Why is it important to study aging? How is individual aging related to the structure of society? What are the problems of an aging society? These and other questions are the topic of this course. We will examine aging from the perspectives of sociology, psychology, social demography, history, biology, the medical sciences, and economics. In particular, we will start by studying aging from a developmental or life course perspective. Then we will discuss health care for the elderly and issues of death and dying. We will end the course with a social and economic outlook for an aging society.

Required Reading

Recommended Reading

Readings and Class Participation: An interaction between students and instructor will be the basis of most classes. Hence, it is absolutely essential that you read the assigned material in advance so that you are able to participate in class discussions.

For each of the ten controversies that we will discuss in class, you will prepare one or more questions on the issue at hand and write down possible answers to those questions or issues that should be considered when attempting to debate the controversy. Questions and answers should be typed and double-spaced and should contain a heading that identifies the student and the controversy for which the questions were written (a minimum of 12 lines of questions and answers is required for full credit). On the day when the particular controversy is discussed in class, you are encouraged to ask your question(s) to stimulate class discussions, and you will submit one copy of your question(s) to the instructor after class for credit. To receive credit (0.5 points per Q & A), you have to be in class for the whole class period. Q & A for credit are only accepted at the end of the class for which they were written.

Attendance: Attendance of class is required because non-attendance by several students at a time will destroy the dynamic of the class. If you attend class regularly (i.e., no more than 3 absences – for all or part of a class), you will be rewarded with 1 extra credit point that will be added to your grade at the end of the term!

Debate Teams: At the beginning of the semester, I will divide the class into debate teams. Each debate team will be responsible for presenting relevant material and leading the class discussion on one of the controversies introduced in the Moody book. The debate team will conduct one class session (50 minutes) on the controversy. The team will research the issue at hand further by including material into the debate that is not already published in the Moody book. Each member of the team will contribute at least one additional empirical or theoretical aspect to the debate. The particular format of the class session is open but it is required that all members of the debate team actively participate, that they introduce several aspects of the controversy, and that they involve the rest of the class in the discussion. Grading will be based on the quality of the actual class session and the quality of the material used to prepare for the debate, including the bibliography.

Interview Project: As a class project, you will conduct and analyze 30-minute qualitative interviews with one nursing home or assisted living facility resident and one of your older relatives every week for a total of 8 weeks over the course of the semester. Those interviews and analyses can be used as the basis of an optional individual or group term paper for extra credit that is due on November 29 after class. The term paper will be 8-10 pages long for an individual paper and 15-25 pages long for a group term paper (double spaced) plus an appendix of all interview and analysis notes (one appendix per group member). Detailed instructions for the interview project and the term paper can be found in the course packet. We will talk about the interview project during the section on "Volunteer orientation and techniques for qualitative interviewing" and about the term paper during the week after the 2^nd exam.

Cheating: I define copying parts or all of an author’s or another student’s work, allowing another student to copy parts or all of your work, or simply duplicating parts or all of your interview or analysis notes as cheating.

Exams: There will be 3 exams. The first two exams will be on September 29 and October 27. The third exam will be during Final Exam Week on December 15 between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. All exams will consist of multiple choice questions. The exams will be based on the readings and material from class, including class discussions. The exams will not be comprehensive, i.e., they will cover only material presented in class or in the readings that were not covered by the previous exam(s).

I do not plan to give any make-up exams. If you should encounter or anticipate any difficulties, please come and see me early!

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.

Note: This section is NOT a Writing Requirement section for the 24,000 word writing requirement.

Three Tips for Staying Awake in Class (and make class more interesting to you):

1. Ask questions.
2. If you feel yourself falling asleep, ask provocative questions. Challenge your professor.
3. Read the assigned material before class to do #1 and #2.

Note: All page numbers refer to Moody, Harry R. 2002. Aging. Concepts and Controversies. 4th Edition.