P. G. Department of Sociology, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, India.
Ageing is a universal phenomenon, it is not a uniform experience among ageing adults. Some persons achieve a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in their old age, while others turn bitter and lament the decline of their physical abilities and social significance. Senior citizens, with their loads of silver-lined experience, and often camouflaged by their disabilities, pose as big ‘threats’ to younger generations. A probe into their affective, cognitive and conative domains in terms of life satisfaction and alienation provides light to their personality profiles and copying styles. Life-satisfaction and alienation among the aged are important concepts, as these have far reaching implications and can give us an overall view of the larger populations ageing successfully or not in our society. The present study was intended to compare the alienation and life-satisfaction of elderly men and women. For this a sample of 74 men and 66 women belonging to twin-city of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar of Odisha were selected. Life satisfaction and alienation were measured using appropriate standardized tests. The results showed that elderly women feel more alienated than the elderly men; the elderly men experience more life-satisfaction than the elderly women.
