Adult Development and Aging

Instructor:

Deborah T. Gold

LS 780-30

Summer 2018

Mondays, 6:00 - 9:00 pm

Perkins LINK 070 (Seminar 4)

Begins *May 16 - Ends July 23 (*Monday classes start on Wed., May 15)

The purpose of this course is to describe and analyze the adult life course from the transition to adulthood and continuing through old age and death. The course is divided into three sections.

Section One includes an examination of the age structures of developed and developing nations, focusing on the meaning of an aging population for the future of the U.S. Section Two reviews social, psychological, and social psychological aspects of the human life course from the transition to adulthood through middle age. In particular, it identifies the developmental challenges of young adulthood (finding one’s identity, establishing an intimate relationship), and middle age (developing generativity) as well as the social adaptation of each (finding a job and getting married in young adulthood; caring for parents and reaching occupational summits in middle age). Section Three concentrates on late life, again viewing changes from social (retirement, widowhood) and psychological (ego integrity, wisdom, life review) perspectives.

About Deborah T. Gold

Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; Sociology, Psychology & Neuroscience

Deborah T. Gold is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, and Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center, where she is also a Senior Fellow of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Professor Gold received her B.A. in English and Latin from the University of Illinois, her M.Ed. in Reading from National Louis University, and her Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University. Her primary research interests are in the psychological and social consequences of chronic disease in the elderly. She has done seminal research on osteoporosis and its impact on quality of life. She has also studied the psychosocial impact of breast cancer, Parkinson’s disease, syncope, head and neck cancer, Paget’s disease of bone, and dementia in older adults. Her current research examines compliance and persistence with medications for older adults with chronic illnesses.

Full Profile for Deborah T. Gold