ABSTRACT
Biological and demographic approaches to the study of ageing have different orientations with respect to the social nature of individuals. The human biology approach to ageing takes an individual perspective, in that the ageing individual is the subject of study, and there is an ideal typical model of an ageing body, pathologies being identified by deviation from the model. Demography, despite being based on certain individualistic assumptions, is about populations and looks at ageing from a societal perspective-the ageing process in this case is that of an ageing society. The sociological perspective tries to contain both individual and societal perspectives. It does this both by the study of meanings, individuals making sense of the world around them by using socially available meaning systems, and also by the study of institutions, individuals responding to the social roles available to them.
