|
|
Perceptions of the elderly by society
ŠANDOVÁ, Libuše
I chose the topic of my thesis The perception of Elderly by the society because I believe that it belongs to major actual topics. The whole world faces the demographic issue of aging population and our country is not an exception. The aging of population is accompanied by a number of problems, which may induce negative perception of aging among inhabitants of the particular countries and tension among generations. However, everybody must realize that they are heading towards old age because the aging process relates to everyone since birth. Old age is only a result of the lifelong process of aging.The aim of my thesis is to map the differences in the opinions of people aged 18 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 65 regarding the age when a person is considered to have become a senior. I also wanted to find out how the respondents feel about the situation and status of seniors in the society and to discover whether the attitude of the respondents towards elderly people is positive or negative. How the subjective perception changes with the respondents´ increasing age? Are there any differences in the opinions of men and women? In which age categories can we already perceive some elements of aging? To meet the objective of my thesis I determined the following hypotheses. H1: Persons up to 30 years of age perceive seniors and old age as a negative issue and later their perception changes to tolerance. H2: There are differences between the perception of old age and seniors by women and men not only within the particular age categories but also in general. H3: The current society behaves adversely towards seniors. In the theoretic part I am firstly addressing the individual phases of a human life. I am also paying attention to the period of old age and to changes accompanying the final part of human life. Subsequently, I am clarifying the terms age, geriatrics, and gerontology, which are connected with the topic of my thesis. Following is a chapter called Old Age and Society where I am addressing the issue of perception of old age in the past and at present. Another topic is aging. I am dealing with the term´s definition and the causes of its origination. Then I am tackling the topic of population aging. In the final part of my thesis I am focusing on financial securing in old age, retirement pensions conditions of the claim and its individual types. For my survey I used an anonymus questionnaire. I asked respondents aged 18 to 65, which I divided in the aforementioned four age categories and compared the results. The thesis may be used by society organizations as a basis for education of young people and it can also be published in the journal Kontakt.
|
guest ::
RSS feed.