Abstract
A review essay on a book edited by Jon F. Nussbaum & Justine Coupland, Handbook of Communication and Aging Research (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1995). With an emphasis on the social gerontological perspective, this volume serves as a reference work for communication & aging studies, text for advanced undergraduate & graduate studies, & treatise on the centrality of communication to the successful aging process. Each of the 18 chapters is briefly reviewed with a focus on seven primary issues: the experience of aging, language & social aging, the communicative construction of relationships in later life, organizational communication, political & mass communication, health communication, & educational gerontology. Consistent themes emerging throughout these chapters include the depiction of aging as a social reality constructed through discourse, an optimistic view of the aging experience, & recognition of the heterogeneity of the elderly population. Limitations of the volume are attributed to its narrow & potentially limiting focus on social construction theory, privileging of cognitive over lived experience, lack of research on interpersonal communication, emphasis on aging over communication, & failure to look beyond US & GB cultures. 36 References. T. Sevier