The Meanings of Age [antikvár]

FOREWORDBernice L. Neugarten and the Meanings of Age DailA. NeugartenWe (Bernice, Dail, and Jerrold Neugarten) began this book some time ago. It grew from a conviction that academics, students, and practitioners in disciplines as diverse as psychology, sociology, education, law, medicine, and social policyto say nothing of the discipline of gerontology^would welcome a compilation of Bernice L. Neugartens most significant works.Choosing 34 from over 160 journal articles, book chapters, research reports, speeches, and testimonies in the field of adult development and aging was not an easy task. For Neugartens productivity and the breadth of her interests and ideas have been extensive.The first of these papers was written in 1958 and the last in 1994a period of over thirty-five years. In truth, Neugartens professional career spanned some fifty years; her first manuscript was written in 1946 and her most recent in 1995. Whata long time to raise important questions about the nature and patterns of lives and about the social as well as personal consequences of increased longevity. What a long time to pioneer new lines of inquiry that helped frame and clarify concerns of persons as they age and of policy makers and practitioners as they allocated resources and served those in need.What a long time to conduct research that drew attention to previously unrecognized topicstopics such as menopause, grandparenthood, and parentcaringand that relied upon quantitative as well as qualitative methods of data analysis. What a long time to coin terms that have become everyday parlanceterms such as "on-time and ofF-time," "the social clock," "the fluid life cycle," "the young-old and the old-old," "the age-integrated society," and "age-irrelevance." And what a long time to refine her thinkingthinking which began by suggesting that the field of gerontology should grow and develop and ended by raising the question of whether there should be a field named gerontology at all. Given her innate curiosity Neugarten constandy reinvented the field of adult development and aging and, in so doing, consistendy revitalized her students, her colleagues, and herself.Neugarten began her career with research that focused on aging personson changes in personality over the adult life span, changes in age-sex roles as individuals