ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the social sciences and the social psychology area. He argues that readers might benefit from an effort to develop explicit theory in the area of aging and dying and first note the conditions which a theory of aging and dying should meet. A theory of aging and dying should deal with the lived experience of aging and dying. Robert Blauner explicitly links his analysis of death and social structure to aging issues. He suggests that: The disengagement of the aged in modern societies enhances the continuous functioning of social institutions and is a corollary of social structure and mortality patterns. The age at which death typically occurs in a society is an important feature of the social context in which people do their aging and dying. Talcott Parsons and Lidz see death as always having been a matter of consequence within the sphere of the family.
