Gerontology
- GERON 2170Aging In AmericaSame as SOC 2170. This course examines the major theoretical and service issues connected to the study of older adults and their families, using multidisciplinary perspectives. Students are provided with an introduction to the field of aging through an examination of current social issues and controversies. This course emphasizes student involvement through class discussion and applied activities, and is appropriate for students in the arts and sciences, business, communication, education, and nursing.
- GERON 2256BioethicsSame as PHIL 2256. An examination of ethical issues in health care practice and clinical research and in public policies affecting health care. Topics include: abortion, euthanasia, health care, experimentation, informed consent and the right to health care.
- GERON 3280Psychology of Death and DyingSame as PSYCH 3280. Prerequisite: PSYCH 1003 or consent of the instructor. An exploration of end-of-life issues integrating the scholarly, social, and individual dimensions of death and dying. This course provides a solid grounding in theory and research, as well as practical application to students' lives.
- GERON 3300Social Construction of AgingSame as SOC 3300 and GS 3300. This course examines perspectives of age, aging, and ageism using several perspectives: the theory of social construction and the frameworks of essentialism and intersectionality. The materials, discussions, and assignments in this course will familiarize and provide students with tools to investigate age and ageism in a complex, multidimensional manner. The overarching focus of this course is located in the tension with the “nature versus nurture” debate, paralleling nature with essentialist ideas and nurture with social constructionism. Ideas, conceptions, attitudes, and understandings of age within the media, family, medical community, and other institutions will be investigated as biological and/or a development of society in effort to perpetuate social control, organization, and power dynamics. Through research, fiction and non-fiction work, creative assignments, and theoretical texts, students will approach the following questions: How do we value lived-experiences? How might situated knowledge affect social constructions of aging and ageism? What evidence is provided toward age and/or ageism as an essential or socially constructed outline within society? How are socially constructed ideas developed and perpetuated? How might one affect change in an essentialist and/or socially constructed society?
- GERON 4376Mental Health and AgingSame as PSYCH 4376. Prerequisites: PSYCH 2245 and ENGL 3100, or consent of instructor. This writing intensive course provides a survey of theory and research on mental health issues for older populations, focusing on psychological and social aspects of mental health and functioning. The course details approaches to understanding healthy aging, along with the prevalence, etiology, assessment and treatment of psychological disorders in older adults. The course also provides an overview of health care and community-based delivery systems for behavioral health and allows students to explore information about careers in aging.
- GERON 4490Directed ReadingsPrerequisites: Consent of instructor. Directed reading and research or field work. May be repeated for a maximum of three hours.
- GERON 6490Directed StudyPrerequisite: Consent of instructor. Designed to give the student an opportunity to pursue a more in-depth study of a problem area in gerontology than is normally covered in more formal courses. May be repeated for a total of six credit hours.