TÜRKİYE’DE YAŞLILIK ÇALIŞMALARI

Abstract

The concepts of old, old age and aging vary in meaning in terms of one person’s attributions like biological health, mental health and social function. The old, formed an important and functional part in the community throughout the history of humanity. Knowledge, experience, mental maturity, economic opportunities, tolerance capacity, customs and traditions has ensured the respectability and status of elderly. The modernization process of the industrial revolution has affected things that are traditional and social. Individualsinstead of being defined according to their descent, they started to gain social status with their skills, abilities, achievements. Innovation, associated with this condition, has reduced the dependency between the older and younger to the emotional-psychological dimension. One result of the development of societies, is that the fall in the birth rates have become inversely proportional with lifetime expectancies. This has brought out an increase in the elderly population according to the developments in health care facilities. The process of modernization has edited the roles and statue of social actors while emerging complex factors made the phenomenon of aging problematic. The problems which are related to the process of aging in today’s society must be the subject of conscious and scientific interest. The detection of problems related to the aging process, their solution and the reconstruction of the process are important in terms of social permanence. Therefore, this study was based on the determination that Turkish society entered the aging process with the purpose revealing the interest shown in the topic by the Turkish science community by taking into account scientific studies.