What Does a Gerontologist Do?

Gerontology is a discipline that studies the laws of human aging. Based on the scientific theories and methods that intersect with the natural sciences, social sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences, they study the individual aging of individuals and the aging of groups, the social economic and natural problems caused by it, and the aging phenomenon itself. A comprehensive discipline of regularity. Gerontology initially focused on the biological and medical aspects of human aging. With the development of society, it has gradually expanded from the research of biology and medicine to the research of sociology, psychology and pedagogy. Together with biology and medicine, it has formed a comprehensive research on the elderly, the process of aging and the problem of aging. Modern Gerontology. ^[1]

Gerontology

Gerontology is an independent comprehensive social science discipline. According to the division of disciplines of the Ministry of Education, gerontology belongs to the first-level discipline of sociology, and is placed in the category of law. Gerontology is a comprehensive discipline formed on the basis of the emergence and development of marginal disciplines such as geriatric medicine, geriatric biology, geriatric psychology, and geriatric sociology. In theory, gerontology is the study of people's aging, which includes the study of the aging process from the discipline and the actual field of work from the physical, psychological and social aspects. Gerontologists include researchers, scholars, and practitioners in many fields, including biology, medicine, nursing, dental medicine, rehabilitation,

Gerontology is different

Gerontology has a long history, which can be traced back to ancient Chinese and Western alchemy and the study of human longevity, but the formation of a comprehensive discipline of gerontology is in modern times. In the 1940s, biologists coined a new vocabulary called "gerontology" based on the Latin geron and the logos. Since then, gerontology has included the study of human aging and the elderly, and has become a comprehensive subject term.

In 1938, a group of scientists in the United Kingdom organized an international association called the "Geriatrics Research Association", and held several meetings between 1939 and 1945, which had an important impact on promoting the study of gerontology in various countries. At the same time, many countries around the world have successively established geriatric societies. For example, the American Geriatric Society was founded in 1945, the Dutch Geriatric Society was founded in 1947, the Soviet Geriatric Society was founded in 1957, and the Canadian Geriatric Society was founded in 1971. Chinese gerontology research started in the 1960s. In 1964, China held the first academic conference on gerontology and geriatrics. In 1982, the Chinese Society of Social Sciences set up a research group on ageing. In 1985, the National Chinese Geriatrics Association was formally established.

The main scopes of gerontology research are: prevention and treatment of geriatric diseases, elderly health care, geriatric medicine, clinical research on anti-aging and anti-aging, longevity investigation and research, etc .; human aging mechanism, investigation of aging causes, anatomy of signs of aging of human organs Research, human cell aging research, aging immune changes, etc .; elderly feelings and perceptions, elderly memory, elderly intelligence, elderly speech disorders, elderly mental illness, elderly personality and psychological adjustment, etc .; development and trends of population aging Social and economic impacts and consequences of population aging, social characteristics of aging, economic welfare of the elderly, social welfare of the elderly, education for the elderly, employment and work for the elderly, family and marriage in the elderly, transgression of the elderly, crime and crime victimization, elderly People and religion, lifestyle of the elderly, social survey of the elderly. With the development of gerontology research, there has been a tendency to penetrate into multiple disciplines, and new branches and research fields have emerged such as gerontology, aging economics, aging politics, and aging sports.

The main research directions of gerontology include: social gerontology, gerontology, gerontology economics, and gerontology. Graduate students in the direction of social gerontology mainly study the relationship, characteristics, laws, and countermeasures of aging population and social development. It also includes gerontology theory, research methods, and aging policies. The postgraduates in the field of elderly population study the demographic characteristics of population aging and the problem of the elderly, and a comparative analysis of the elderly population at home and abroad. Graduate students in the field of gerontological economics mainly study the impact of population aging on economic development. Graduate students in the field of geriatric psychology mainly study the psychological changes and psychological adjustment of the elderly and the elderly. Gerontology aims to train senior professionals who are engaged in teaching, research and practical management of gerontology and related disciplines. Students are required to develop in all aspects of moral, intellectual, and physical development, have a solid professional knowledge base, extensive humanities and social science knowledge, and necessary natural science knowledge, be proficient in using at least one foreign language, and have strong expression skills (oral, Written) and independent scientific research ability, love gerontology career, have innovation ability, organization ability, dedication and strong team spirit.