The Aging Consumer: Perspectives from Psychology and Marketing, 2nd edition takes stock of what is known around age and consumer behavior, identifies gaps and open questions within the research, and outlines an agenda for future research. There has been little systematic research done with respect to the most basic questions related to age and consumer behavior, such as whether older adults versus young and middle-age adults respond to marketing activities including pricing, promotions, product design, and distribution. Written by experts, The Aging Consumer compiles research on a broad range of topics on consumer marketing, from an individual to a societal level of analysis. This second edition provides new versions of chapters contained in the 2010 volume that have been updated to reflect the latest psychological and marketing research and thinking. Included also are ten new chapters which cover exciting new ground, such as changes in metacognition in older adults, motivated cognition of the aging consumer, and a global perspective on aging and the economy across cultures. This updated volume is beneficial for researchers and practitioners in marketing, consumer behavior, and advertising. Additionally, The Aging Consumer, 2nd edition will appeal to professionals in other fields such as psychology, decision sciences, gerontology and gerontological social work, and those who are concerned with normal human aging and its implications for the everyday behavior of older individuals. It will also be of interest to those in fields concerned with the societal implications of an aging population, such as economics, policy, and law.

At present, about 45 million Americans are over the age of 65, and by 2020, one out of every six Americans will be 65 or older. These statistics are reflective of a worldwide phenomenon in developing and developed countries alike unrivalled since the Industrial Revolution. This edited volume, written by experts in many fields, examines the economic and psychological research on how aging consumers behave, make decisions, and choose in the marketplace. The book takes stock of what is known, identifies gaps and open questions, and outlines an agenda for future research. It covers topics from the individual to the societal level of analysis.

Oldness: a social construct at odds with reality that constrains how we live after middle age and stifles business thinking on how to best serve a group of consumers, workers, and innovators that is growing larger and wealthier with every passing day. Over the past two decades, Joseph F. Coughlin has been busting myths about aging with groundbreaking multidisciplinary research into what older people actually want -- not what conventional wisdom suggests they need. In The Longevity Economy, Coughlin provides the framing and insight business leaders need to serve the growing older market: a vast, diverse group of consumers representing every possible level of health and wealth, worth about $8 trillion in the United States alone and climbing. Coughlin provides deep insight into a population that consistently defies expectations: people who, through their continued personal and professional ambition, desire for experience, and quest for self-actualization, are building a striking, unheralded vision of longer life that very few in business fully understand. His focus on women -- they outnumber men, control household spending and finances, and are leading the charge toward tomorrow's creative new narrative of later life -- is especially illuminating. Coughlin pinpoints the gap between myth and reality and then shows businesses how to bridge it. As the demographics of global aging transform and accelerate, it is now critical to build a new understanding of the shifting physiological, cognitive, social, family, and psychological realities of the longevity economy.

The current shift in demographics - aging and shrinking populations - in many countries around the world presents a major challenge to companies and societies alike. One particularly essential implication is the emergence and constant growth of the so-called "silver market," the market segment more or less broadly defined as those people aged 55 and older. Increasing in number and share of the total population while at the same time being relatively well-off, this market segment can be seen as very attractive and promising, although still very underdeveloped in terms of product and service offerings. This book offers a thorough and up-to-date analysis of the challenges and opportunities in leveraging innovation, technology, product development and marketing for elder consumers and employees. Key lessons are drawn from the Japanese lead market as well as other select countries.

Does a longer life mean a healthier life? The number of adults over 65 in the United States is growing, but many may not be aware that they are at greater risk from foodborne diseases and their nutritional needs change as they age. The IOM's Food Forum held a workshop October 29-30, 2009, to discuss food safety and nutrition concerns for older adults.

Filled with practical and effective strategies, skill-building techniques, and advice based on the most recent research on the psychology of aging, Dr. Hill demonstrates how people can help themselves age productively and positively. A practical companion to Robert Hill’s Positive Aging: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Seven Strategies for Positive Aging presents essential tactics that encourage the development of positive aging skills. In Positive Aging, Dr. Hill challenged traditional conceptions about aging and offered a new theoretical framework for understanding the nature of aging. He argued that “Positive Agers” can be found everywhere, and come from all walks of life. They find satisfaction in life regardless of their personal circumstances. By adopting affirmative lifestyle choices and positive spirituality, they are able to age well. In his new book, Robert Hill explains how anyone can adopt and develop positive aging skills. Dr. Hill has drawn upon the theoretical perspective first presented in Positive Aging to develop practical exercises and techniques that are easily accessible to the reader interested in discovering how best to adapt to the aging process. The reader will discover meaning through lifespan learning, learn how to transform age-related decline, and find out how to employ the principles of continuity in order to feel good about oneself, even during challenging times. The reader will also learn how to apply “meaning-centered” techniques of belonging, altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness in his or her own life, in order to enhance emotional health. These techniques are organized into seven distinct chapters: Learning, Meaning, Wisdom, Belonging, Helping, Gratitude, and Forgiveness.

Decisions large and small play a fundamental role in shaping life course trajectories of health and well-being: decisions draw upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation and self-control, their ability to keep long-term goals in mind, and their willingness to place appropriate value on their future well-being. Aging and Decision Making addresses the specific cognitive and affective processes that account for age-related changes in decision making, targeting interventions to compensate for vulnerabilities and leverage strengths in the aging individual. This book focuses on four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging - neuroscience, behavioral mechanisms, competence models, and applied perspectives. Underscoring that choice is a ubiquitous component of everyday functioning, Aging and Decision Making examines the implications of how we invest our limited social, temporal, psychological, financial, and physical resources, and lays essential groundwork for the design of decision supportive interventions for adaptive aging that take into account individual capacities and context variables. - Divided into four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging neuroscience - Explores the impact of aging on the linkages between cortical structures/functions and the behavioral indices of decision-making - Examines the themes associated with behavioral approaches that attempt integrations of methods, models, and theories of general decision-making with those derived from the study of aging - Details the changes in underlying competencies in later life and the two prevailing themes that have emerged—one, the general individual differences perspective, and two, a more clinical focus

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides. Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.

THE OXFORD BOOK OF AGIN offers some two hundred and fifty pieces that illuminate the pleasures, pains, dreams, and triumphs of people as they strive to live out their days in a meaningful way.

Presenting current research in an innovative text-reader format, Aging: Concepts and Controversies, Ninth Edition encourages students to become involved and take an informed stand on the major aging issues we face as a society. Not simply a summary of research literature, Harry R. Moody and Jennifer R. Sasser’s text focuses on controversies and questions, rather than on assimilating facts or arriving at a single "correct" view about aging and older people. Drawing on their extensive expertise, the authors first provide an overview of aging in three domains: aging over the life course, health care, and the socioeconomic aspects of aging. Each section is followed by a series of edited readings, offering different perspectives from experts and specialists on that subject. New readings focus on whether current federal spending on the elderly is sustainable and fair to other groups, how older consumers are reshaping the business landscape, and the challenges of marketing and selling to customers 60 and over. More emphasis is placed on how social class and inequality earlier in life can shape our final years and the number of older Americans living in poverty. The section on Aging and Health Care has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest data about chronic diseases that affect the elderly, government spending on health care, and policy changes to programs like Medicaid and Medicare. The section on the Social and Economic Outlook for an Aging Society gives the most current picture of the racial and ethnic diversity of older Americans, their participation in the labor force, and their income and wealth.