Negative Stereotypes Of Aging Essay

In addition, the article cites Rebecca Levy with being the one researcher who has devoted more time to the aging. An experiment she did in the 1990’s showed through a series of subliminal

Successful aging is a complicated and multifaceted concept that varies contextually among individuals, disciplines, and even time. Gerontologists have traditionally considered a person to have aged successfully upon having reached old age with their physical health, mental well-being and spirit still intact. Ultimately, successful aging is a matter of personal perspective, largely influenced by an individual 's values and experiences. Even those within America 's elderly population hold conflicting perspectives on what it means to have aged successfully. A qualitative study published by Reichstadt and Sengupta titled Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging, concluded that “older adults viewed successful aging as a balance between self-acceptance and self-contentedness on one hand and engagement with life and self-growth in later life on the other” (Reichstadt, "Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging: Qualitative Interviews", pp. 567-575.)

Modern society view’s aging as a form of sickness and the elderly as persons who are closer to dying and death. This is what is often portrayed in our mass and social media. When considering issues of aging sociologists have found that more positive characteristics are often said for persons under sixty five years than for over sixty five years.

Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.

The humanity of aging is a concept sometimes hard to grasp. Understanding why we are

There are several negative stereotypes surrounding older people and the aging process. Stereotypes of aging include assumptions and generalizations about how people at or over a certain age should behave, and what they are likely to experience, without regard for individual differences or unique circumstances (Rylee, 2015). When topics about the elderly come up most people begin to think of stereotypes like the majority of elderly people live institution like nursing homes. Other stereotypes consist of older people cannot learn, elderly people are set in their ways and unable to change, sickness and disability come with old age. When I think about all of the negative stereotype surrounding the elderly population. I can't help but wonder how these individuals handle depression during the aging process.

The aging population is the fastest growing population in our nation. By the year 2030, it is estimated that approximately 61 million people will be between the ages 65 -85 and 9 million individuals will be ages 85 and older (Ouchida &Lachs, 2015). Perceptions of the elderly have slightly changed for the better in recent years, but biases and discrimination are still very widespread in our society today. “Ageism” is a phrase coined by Robert Butler in 1969 and implies a preconception, prejudice, and discrimination against older adults and can come in many forms.

1. In her speech, Jane Fonda spoke about aging and the effect that it can have on a person. Fonda talked about “Life’s Third act” or the last three decades of a person’s life. Fonda explained that the advances in medicine and technology enabled the human race to live longer than before (Fonda, 2012). According to Fonda, humans are living on average, thirty years longer than past generations. The human life span has been extended and humans are spending a great deal of their lives in older age (Fonda, 2012). Fonda explains that we should not accept aging as a decline to our mental and physical capacity. According to her, our spirits do not age but mature over time which explains why people over the age of fifty are generally happier, less

The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. People are living longer which means that the population of older adults, those sixty years and over, is growing. It is projected that by the year 2040, older adults will far outnumber school age children. Older adults are currently healthier and lead more productive lives than ever before, due in part to modern medicine and the new idea of seeing older people for their potential rather than their problems. This has prompted the concept of “creative aging” or “successful aging.” This positive view of aging is not new, only the terminology. Cicero, the Roman philosopher, is perhaps the first to introduce the idea of “good aging” in his essay, “On Old Age” which was penned in the year 44 BC. He wrote this essay in his early 60’s to show that old age is not a phase of decline and loss, and if approached properly becomes a time for positive change and productive functioning (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). Over the last few decades the subject of

Ageism simply means and is presumed that older adults are frail, weak, and disabled permeates society. This label cares negative stereotypes, such as discrimination and prejudices. Ageism exists in the workplace, certain cultures, and social classes and within health care.

There are fears that the recent generation and their children’s generation will age less successfully than the current older one – no surprise given that, although rates of cigarette smoking are falling, more people are drinking heavily, only a minority of adults exercise often enough to maintain good health and obesity rates have greatly increased over the last 20 years.

Another supporter of changing the way aging is conveyed is author, Margaret Cruiksbank, of the book, Learning to be Old. In her book she is a proponent of changing the way the aging process is described. Her position is that the underlying meaning of popular terms to describe aging weakens its value. She denotes that the term “successful aging” is a false phrase for the elderly as it “masks both the wish to continue mid-life indefinitely and the white, Middle-class, Western values of researchers, causing them to emphasize productivity, effectiveness and independence” (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 2). She also concludes that the term “productive” aging symbolizes “economic usefulness and social conformity” (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 2), especially for the female gender. More importantly, these terms can be used to measure. This ability to measure is subjective to the questioner and an individual’s self-worth. She suggests the term “aging comfortably” as it signifies easiness, and a “faint hint” of pleasurable self-indulgence which may not have been possible in younger years (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 3).

According to Levy (2003), “The length of time needed to add participation in the reference group to participation in the membership group is likely to vary according to the negativity of an individual’s aging stereotypes. That is, the more negative the aging stereotypes, the more resistance there would be to identifying with the old.”Aging stereotypes may prevent individuals from identifying as “old” because they do not want to conform to the negative stereotypes such as becoming senile. It is almost a form of denial. This resistance from negative aging stereotypes may influence one’s subjective age identity as well. For instance, if one strongly does not feel that they are weak as a stereotype would describe them, then they would feel younger than their chronological age. If the storetype is congruent with the individual’s own self-concept then they would be more likely to adapt the stereotype as their own.

As can be seen on the image above, a collection of the different ways in which the media portrays the aging and the old age, the media’s impact on attitudes and behaviors towards older age adults is negative. However, the strength of the media in influencing views depend on the degree to which someone has contact with an older person (Kwan, 2013). Other factors influencing the society’s views of older adults are; personal experience, cultural background, educational attainment, work colleagues, and Australia’s youth culture. Listed are some commonly perceived stereotypes about older adults also on the image: victims, lonely and isolated, sick, and a significant cost to the health system (Kwan, 2013).

Knowing and having an understanding of what ageing stands for, remains an important step, growing-up or growing older and ageism are theories about older individuals. Ageism includes preconceptions that elderly are categorized for their age and perceived as weak, and incapable of performing tasks and needy of others (Quadagno, 2014). Another view about elderly individuals is the way they are looked down on by the younger society, i.e. elderly are not as intelligent as their younger competitive working force. People fear what they do not know and do not understand. Age transpires as something that must be lived through in order to understand what ageing means; looking back on one’s life and seeing accomplishments made,