The Lives of Older People and Changing Social Roles

This article addresses the central dilemma of the mismatch between the strengths and capacities of the increasing numbers of older people in the United States, on the one hand, and the inadequate social-role opportunities to utilize, reward, and sustain these strengths, on the other. In order to enhance the quality of aging, interventions are needed, both in the ways individuals grow older and in the environing matrix of families, work organizations, political institutions, health care systems, and all the other social structures in which people's lives are embedded. Examples of interventions in both lives and role structures demonstrate the potential for improvement. Looking toward the future, these interventions are seen to affect people of all ages and call for ultimate gradual redesign of the life course from birth to death. An analytical framework of the relationship between aging and broad changes in society is presented as a guide in designing small-scale interventions that can accumulate to benefit—rather than to impair—the well-being of older people now and in the future.