Question

In your own words, but supported by facts and examples, explain how the theories in Group 1 differ from those in Group 2.

GROUP 1

social exchange

age stratification

political economy

social construction

social phenomenology

feminist gerontology

life course perspective

GROUP 2

Activity

Disengagement

Continuity

(Minimum 2 paragraphs) ASAP.

Answer 1

Group-1

• Social exchange theory is a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchangesbetween parties. The theory has roots in economics, psychology and sociology.
• In critical sociology, age stratification refers to the hierarchical ranking of people into age groups within a society. Age stratification which is based on an ascribed status is a major source inequality, and thus may lead to ageism.
• Political economy theory is the study and use of how economic theory and methods influence and develop different social and economic systems, such as capitalism, socialism and communism, and it analyzes how public policy is created and implemented.
• Social constructionism or the social constructionof reality (also social concept) is a theory of knowledge in sociology and communication theory that examines the development of jointly constructedunderstandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality, also known as tulpa.
• Phenomenological sociology is the study of the formal structures of concrete socialexistence as made available in and through the analytical description of acts of intentional consciousness. The object of such an analysis is the meaningful lived world of everyday life: the Lebenswelt, or "Life-world".
• Feminist gerontology is grounded in feminist theory and critical gerontology and focuses on power relations and intersecting oppressions across the life course. Analyses that incorporate a feminist perspective broaden our understanding of aging, moving beyond a singular focus on gender to a broader focus on multiple aspects of diversity, including privilege, inequality, and interdependence. In this article, we identify and discuss the central tenets of a feminist gerontological perspective, focusing on the lives of aging women in terms of research and policy issues regarding caregiving, work, and retirement. We suggest alternative and expanded research and teaching methods that counter feminist blind spots on age, as well as gerontology's blind spots where older women are concerned.

Group-2

• Activity theory or AT is an umbrella term for a line of eclectic social sciences theories and research with its roots in the Soviet psychological activity theory pioneered by Lev Vygotsky, Alexei Leont'ev and Sergei Rubinstein. These scholars sought to understand human activities as systemic and socially situated phenomena and to go beyond paradigms of reflexology (the teaching of Vladimir Bekhterev and his followers) and physiology of higher nervous activity (the teaching of Ivan Pavlov and his school), psychoanalysis and behaviorism. It became one of the major psychological approaches in the former USSR, being widely used in both theoretical and applied psychology, and in education, professional training, ergonomics, social psychology and work psychology.

  Activity theory is more of a descriptive meta-theory or framework than a predictive theory. It considers an entire work/activity system (including teams, organizations, etc.) beyond just one actor or user. It accounts for environment, history of the person, culture, role of the artifact, motivations, and complexity of real life activity. One of the strengths of AT is that it bridges the gap between the individual subject and the social reality—it studies both through the mediating activity. The unit of analysis in AT is the concept of object-oriented, collective and culturally mediated human activity, or activity system. This system includes the object (or objective), subject, mediating artifacts (signs and tools), rules, community and division of labor. The motive for the activity in AT is created through the tensions and contradictions within the elements of the system. According to ethnographer Bonnie Nardi, a leading theorist in AT, activity theory "focuses on practice, which obviates the need to distinguish 'applied' from 'pure' science—understanding everyday practice in the real world is the very objective of scientific practice. ... The object of activity theory is to understand the unity of consciousness and activity."Sometimes called "Cultural-Historical Activity Theory", this approach is particularly useful for studying a group that exists "largely in virtual form, its communications mediated largely through electronic and printed texts."

  AT is particularly useful as a lens in qualitative research methodologies (e.g., ethnography, case study). AT provides a method of understanding and analyzing a phenomenon, finding patterns and making inferences across interactions, describing phenomena and presenting phenomena through a built-in language and rhetoric. A particular activity is a goal-directed or purposeful interaction of a subject with an object through the use of tools. These tools are exteriorized forms of mental processes manifested in constructs, whether physical or psychological. AT recognizes the internalization and externalization of cognitive processes involved in the use of tools, as well as the transformation or development that results from the interaction.

• The disengagement theory of aging states that "aging is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement, resulting in decreased interaction between the aging person and others in the social system he belongs to". The theory claims that it is natural and acceptable for older adults to withdraw from society.
• The continuity theory of normal aging states that older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors, relationships as they did in their earlier years of life.

Conclusion:

The theories given in Group-1 are based on socialogical perspectives whereas the the theories given in Group-2 are based on psychological perspectives. Group-1 theories are talking about external activities of the society, whereas the Group-2 activities are talking about a person's psychological perspectives or internal perspectives.