Dominant and emerging paradigms in the social psychology of aging / V.W. Marshall -- The subjective construction of self and society / C.D. Ryff -- Socialization in old age--a Meadian perspective / N. Chappell & H.L. Orbach -- Some contributions of symbolic interaction to the study of growing old / D. Spence -- A sociological perspective on aging and dying / V. Marshall -- the old person as stranger / J.J. Dowd -- Social networks and social support / B. Wellman & A. Hall -- Friendships in old age / S.H. Matthews -- The world we forgot / M. Kohli -- comparative perspectives on the microsociology of aging / V.L. Bengtson.