What is gerontology?

Gerontology is, paradoxically, a 'young' field. Its origins are Greek - a combination of geront meaning literally 'old man'; and logy meaning 'the study of'. The root ger also means to 'grow old' – so, very simply, it is ‘the scientific study of ageing’. 

In 1903, a Russian-born biologist named Elie Metchnikoff, first proposed and named this new field of study. However, gerontology did not really emerge formally until the 1940s. In 1945, the Gerontological Society of America (link?) was founded - bringing together researchers, teachers and practitioners - but social and behavioural gerontology did not really develop until the late 1950s/1960s.

In Britain, following the Second World War, a number of factors contributed to the development of gerontology:

• Demographic: A growing awareness that our populations (particularly in Europe and North America) were ageing faster than at any time in history.
• Institutional: The growth of various institutions addressing the needs and issues raised by demographic changes.
• Research: A growing volume of research about old age and old people.

Traditionally, three main approaches were considered to constitute gerontology: biological; psychological and sociological. However, there has always been a difficulty in getting any consensus on what may or may not come within the scope of gerontology and gerontologists. This is illustrated in Achenbaum and Levin’s well known (1989) paper: ‘What Does Gerontology Mean?’ (The Gerontologist, 29(3): 393-400) in which they list what they call 'gerontology's specialties' in order of their historical development:

1949                            gerontotherapy

1958                            social gerontology

1963                            applied gerontology

1963                            experimental gerontology

1967                            psychosocial gerontology

1970                            geropsychology or psychogerontology

1970                            bio(logical) gerontology

1974                            cytogerontology

1975                            sociogerontology or gero-sociology

1975                            dialectical gerontology

1976                            anthropological gerontology

1977                            political gerontology

1979                            gerontolinguistics

1983                            historical gerontology

1988                            critical gerontology

Today, gerontology has developed to encompass an even wider range of disciplines and approaches. Ageing now seems to be ‘everybody’s business’ and is one of the foremost social issues around the globe.