Karen L. Fingerman

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Karen L. Fingerman is the Wilson Regents Professor in Human Ecology and professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. [1] She has published nearly 200 works on intergenerational and social ties. [1] Fingerman is well known for her work on older adult socio-emotional processes, health, and well-being. [1] Most notably, Fingerman generated the Social Input Model and coined the term “consequential strangers”. [2] [3] [4] In 2018, Fingerman founded the Texas Aging & Longevity Consortium and serves as the current Director in tandem with her position as Director of Research at the Texas Center on Aging and Population Sciences. [5] [6]

Contents

Education

Fingerman received her BA from Harvard/Radcliffe University and a Master’s Degree and PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. [1]

Selected awards and honors

Research contributions

Dr. Fingerman has made important contributions to understanding social and emotional processes across adulthood, and the impact of these processes on health and well-being. As principal investigator of the Daily Experiences and Well-being study, she has examined how older adults' social engagement, is associated with daily emotional, cognitive, and physical activity. [12] She uses ecologically valid methodologies as older adults go about their days including ecological momentary assessments (EMAs), actical measurements of physical activity, and Electronically Activated Recorders (EAR) to capture conversations and sound throughout the day. [12] The Family Exchanges Study, a longitudinal study involving middle-aged adults, their romantic partners, grown children and aging parents has generated over 50 publications. [13] She is currently developing studies of caregivers for older adults with different forms of dementia. [1]

Consequential strangers

Fingerman coined the term consequential strangers and published a book on the idea with Melinda Blau. [4] Consequential strangers are the sum of the personal relationships outside of a person’s close ties. These relationships exist on a spectrum of connections ranging from total strangers to close ties but are unique in their characteristics of repeated and personal interactions. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerontology</span> Study of the social, psychological and biological aspects of aging

Gerontology is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek γέρων (gérōn), meaning "old man", and -λογία (-logía), meaning "study of". The field is distinguished from geriatrics, which is the branch of medicine that specializes in the treatment of existing disease in older adults. Gerontologists include researchers and practitioners in the fields of biology, nursing, medicine, criminology, dentistry, social work, physical and occupational therapy, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, economics, political science, architecture, geography, pharmacy, public health, housing, and anthropology.

Elder abuse is a single or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person. This definition has been adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) from a definition put forward by Hourglass in the UK. Laws protecting the elderly from abuse are similar to and related to laws protecting dependent adults from abuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interpersonal ties</span>

In social network analysis and mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: strong, weak or absent. Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of information through these networks. Specifically, more novel information flows to individuals through weak rather than strong ties. Because our close friends tend to move in the same circles that we do, the information they receive overlaps considerably with what we already know. Acquaintances, by contrast, know people that we do not, and thus receive more novel information.

Paul B. Baltes was a German psychologist whose broad scientific agenda was devoted to establishing and promoting the life-span orientation of human development. He was also a theorist in the field of the psychology of aging. He has been described by American Psychologist as one of the most influential developmental psychologists.

Klaus Warner Schaie was an American social gerontologist and psychologist best known for founding the Seattle Longitudinal Study in 1956.

Mara Mather is a professor of gerontology and psychology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Her research deals with aging and affective neuroscience, focusing on how emotion and stress affect memory and decisions. She is the daughter of mathematician John N. Mather.

Consequential strangers are personal connections other than family and close friends. Also known as "peripheral" or "weak" ties, they lie in the broad social territory between strangers and intimates. The term was coined by Karen L. Fingerman and further developed by Melinda Blau, who collaborated with the psychologist to explore and popularize the concept.

Becca R. Levy is a professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of social gerontology and psychology of aging. She is credited with creating the field of how age stereotypes, which are assimilated from the culture, impact the health of older individuals. The Dean of Columbia School of Public Health describes Levy as "a pioneer" in the "growing body of impressive research showing that our attitudes toward aging affect our health, our resilience in the face of adversity, and our very survival."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Michigan Institute for Social Research</span>

The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is the largest academic social research and survey organization in the world, established in 1949. ISR includes more than 300 scientists from a variety of academic disciplines – including political science, psychology, sociology, economics, demography, history, anthropology, and statistics. The institute is a unit that houses five separate but interdependent centers which conduct research and maintain data archives. In 2021, Kathleen Cagney became the first woman in its history to be named Director of the institute.

Klaus F. Riegel was professor of psychology at the University of Michigan from 1959 to 1977. His research and theory contributions encompassed psycholinguistics, gerontology, developmental psychology, and dialectical psychology. Riegel edited the international journal Human Development from 1970 to 1977. In 1975, the Gerontological Society of America presented Riegel with the Robert W. Kleemeier Award for outstanding research in the field of gerontology.

Fredda Blanchard-Fields was a professor of psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Psychology. As director of the "School of Psychology’s Adult Development Laboratory", Blanchard-Fields led research efforts that address social-cognitive processes in everyday life, from adolescence to older adulthood. Recognizing that a great deal of psychological research has focused on ways in which cognitive abilities in adulthood decline with older age, Blanchard-Fields, as a gerontologist, and her colleagues focused on investigating domains in which adults continue to grow and develop throughout the lifespan and contribute to their competence in the social realm.

Bob G. Knight, is the former associate dean of the USC Davis School of Gerontology, the Merle H. Bensinger Professor of Gerontology and Psychology and the director of the Tingstad Older Adult Counseling Center. He is best known for research and theory development on cross-cultural issues in stress and coping during family caregiving for dementia and also for theory and scholarship on adapting psychotherapy for work with older adults.

Laura L. Carstensen is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy and professor of psychology at Stanford University, where she is founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and the principal investigator for the Stanford Life-span Development Laboratory. Carstensen is best known in academia for socioemotional selectivity theory, which has illuminated developmental changes in social preferences, emotional experience and cognitive processing from early adulthood to advanced old age. By examining postulates of socioemotional selectivity theory, Carstensen and her colleagues identified and developed the conceptual basis of the positivity effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research</span> Organization of research institutions

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is an American political science and social science research consortium, based at the University of Michigan. It was founded in 1962. An integral part of the infrastructure of social science research, ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stranger</span> Person who is unknown to other persons

A stranger is a person who is unknown to another person or group. Because of this unknown status, a stranger may be perceived as a threat until their identity and character can be ascertained. Different classes of strangers have been identified for social science purposes, and the tendency for strangers and foreigners to overlap has been examined.

Toni Claudette Antonucci is an American psychologist, currently the Elizabeth R. Douvan Collegiate Professor at University of Michigan and formerly President of Gerontological Society of America Her husband was James S. Jackson.

Kaarin Anstey is an Australian Laureate Fellow and one of Australia's top dementia scientists. She is Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where she is Scientia Professor of Psychology. Kaarin Anstey is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She is a Director of the NHMRC Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration, Senior Principal Research Scientist at NeuRA and leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Cognitive Health and the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute.

Corinna Elisabeth Löckenhoff is a gerontologist. She is a professor of Human Development at Cornell University and of Gerontology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Margie E. Lachman is an American psychologist. She is the Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab and the director of the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions. She was editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2000-2003), and has edited two volumes on midlife development. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 20 and the Gerontological Society of America. Lachman's research is in the area of lifespan development with a focus on midlife and later life. Her current work is aimed at identifying psychosocial and behavioral factors that can protect against, minimize, or compensate for declines in cognition and health. She is conducting studies to examine long-term predictors of psychological and physical health, laboratory-based experiments to identify psychological and physiological processes involved in aging-related changes, especially in memory, and intervention studies to enhance performance and promote adaptive functioning through active engagement and physical activity.

Loneliness in old age is the subjective feeling of being isolated or disconnected at an old age. It may be caused due to various social, physical, and psychological factors. While loneliness can affect all human beings, older people are also prone to it especially during life change times such as retirement, widowhood, and health declines.

References

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Karen Fingerman". Human Ecology Directory. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 Fingerman, Karen L.; Charles, Susan T. (2010). "It Takes Two to Tango: Why Older People Have the Best Relationships". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 19 (3): 172–176. doi:10.1177/0963721410370297. ISSN   0963-7214. S2CID   55000677.
  3. 1 2 3 Fingerman, Karen L. (2009). "Consequential Strangers and Peripheral Ties: The Importance of Unimportant Relationships". Journal of Family Theory & Review. 1 (2): 69–86. doi:10.1111/j.1756-2589.2009.00010.x. ISSN   1756-2570.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Blau, M., & Fingerman, K. L. (2009). Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don’t Seem to Matter But Really Do. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
  5. 1 2 "Staff". Texas Aging and Longevity Consortium. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  6. 1 2 "People". Center on Aging and Population Sciences. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  7. 1 2 "News" . Texas Aging and Longevity Consortium. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  8. 1 2 "Honor/Award" . Centers on the Demography & Economics of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Related Dementias. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  9. 1 2 "Press Releases". Gerontological Society of America. Retrieved 12 January 2024
  10. 1 2 "Margaret M. and Paul B. Baltes Award". Gerontological Society of America. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
  11. 1 2 "Karen Fingerman". Population Research Center. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
  12. 1 2 3 "Daily Experiences and Well-being in Late Life, Austin, Texas, 2016-2017". www.icpsr.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  13. 1 2 "Family Exchanges Study Series". www.icpsr.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
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