Applied Gerontology and Minority Aging: A Millennial Goal

Abstract

stract reasoning of scientific research and the personal reasoning of gerontological practice (negotiation within life worlds). For ease of movement, neither the scientific nor the personal modality should be taken as foundational ; rather, modalities should be viewed as par and complementary to each other. Applied gerontology ideally is an interplay among multiple modalities. Capturing the essence, clients’ desires should be supplementary and not subservient to abstract reasoning models. In brief, the facile movement of applied gerontology between scientific research and practice depends on resolving certain philosophical issues that underlie choices in modalities. Lisa Groger, in this issue of the journal, focuses on minority aging and asserts that applied gerontology does not move easily between scientific research and practice due to certain problems: objectification of minorities in the research process, failure to share research funds with minority respondents, and a research focus on inappropriate factors-race instead of poverty and race differences instead of race similarities. Thus, the movement of applied gerontology between scientific research and practice is constrained under certain conditions during the research process. Although Groger takes issue with the Murphy-Longino model, the difference in the two conceptualizations seems more apparent than real. The Groger and Murphy-Longino arguments may be two sides of the same coin: MurphyLongino presenting philosophical conditions that help applied gerontology