This unit looks at two topics that are of immense worldwide social, economic, ethical, and political importance – ‘addiction’ and ‘neural ageing’. You will develop a Master's level approach to the study of specific issues within these two important subject areas.

Aging involves an intrinsic and progressive decline in function that eventually will affect us all. While everyone is familiar with aging, many basic questions about aging are mysterious. Why are older people more likely to experience diseases like cancer, stroke, and neurodegenerative disorders? What changes happen at the molecular and cellular levels to cause the changes that we associate with old age? Is aging itself a disease, and can we successfully intervene in the aging process?This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching.

..[In] this short film...members of a family drive an elderly woman to a nursing home. Through both realistic and dreamlike sequences, the film translates, without the use of words, the character's inner experience into memorable and haunting images.

Introduces the study of aging, its implications for individuals, families, and society, and the background for health policy related to older persons. Presents an overview on aging from different perspectives: demography, biology, epidemiology of diseases, physical and mental disorders, functional capacity and disability, health services, federal and state health policies, social aspects of aging, and ethical issues in the care of older individuals.

This online article is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Scenario: Immortality, part of the Genetics, Genomics, Genethics seminar, briefly covers: the age-old quest for eternal life and youth; the recent discovery of telomeres and telomerase; how this discovery could revolutionize the way we treat disease and aging; the ethical and ecological issues that could arise.

Growth and development through the life span including physical, social, cognitive and neurological development. Topics covered included daycare, education, disabilities, parenting, types of families, gender identity and roles, career decisions, illnesses and treatments, aging, retirement, generativity, and dying.

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This course will consider long-term service delivery programs designed to meet the special needs of seniors. It will review care and service systems from the unique perspective of an aging population, including the physiological and psychological changes common among seniors.

Lectures and discussions explore the clinical, behavioral, and molecular aspects of brain aging processes in humans. Topics include: loss of memory and other cognitive abilitites in normal aging; neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Based on lectures, readings taken from the primary literature, and discussions. Students are expected to present topics based on their readings. One written mid-term test and one final examination.

Lectures and discussions explore the clinical, behavioral, and molecular aspects of brain aging processes in humans. Topics include: loss of memory and other cognitive abilitites in normal aging; neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Based on lectures, readings taken from the primary literature, and discussions. Students are expected to present topics based on their readings. One written mid-term test and one final examination. Alternate years.

Examines alternative conceptions and theoretical underpinnings of the notion of "sustainable development." Focuses on the sustainability problems of industrial countries (i.e., aging of populations, sustainable consumption, institutional adjustments, etc.); and of developing states and economies in transition (i.e., managing growth, sustainability of production patterns, pressures of population change, etc.). Explores the sociology of knowledge around sustainability, the economic and technological dimensions and institutional imperatives. Implications for political constitution of economic performance.

Personality psychology is the study of the development of personality, the effects of personality on important outcomes, and maladaptive personality characteristics. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Identify research methodologies involved in the science of personality psychology; Describe the purpose of comprehensive clinical theories in the field of personality psychology; Compare and contrast major classical theories of personality (i.e., humanism, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, behaviorism, cognitive, and social-cognitive theories of personality); Describe the main concerns of trait theorists, the influential figures who helped develop this perspective, and the sequential development leading up to the current understanding of traits; Define the main components of the five-factor model of personality; Identify the theory, methodology, and main findings of the empirical journal articles assigned; Describe the important contributions of the biological/evolutionary perspective made to personality psychology; Describe the intrapersonal and interpersonal function of emotion as an expression of personality. (Psychology 405)