Psy 375 Paper

0. Read Issue 17: Are Professional Women “Opting Out” of Work by Choice? This reading is located in the Taking Sides text.

Ageism is any attitudes, actions, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of their age or any assignment of roles in society purely on the basis of age. It typically reflects a prejudice in society against older adults. The concept of aging varies across different cultures as different countries have varying demographic statistics such as Japan and Italy having significant part of their population above the age of 60 versus most countries in Africa who have significant parts of their population below the age of 30. Most research on ageism is done on children, adolescents, or young adults with few studies on actual older adults. Age is increasingly becoming a more positive concept, yet older people are still stereotyped. The three theories in sociology about aging are disengagement, activity, and continuity.

This week, the lecture and additional articles were about the growing number of people reaching late adulthood and the problems that will be created for society. Society is not ready for the influx of elderly individuals needing assistance. In addition to discussing the amount of people reaching late adulthood, this week also touched on several models and theories in regards to aging. This week provided sufficient background information and vital knowledge for the introduction

Merriam-Webster (1980) defines Ageism: any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of age or any assignment of roles in society purely based on age; ageism reflects a prejudice in society against older adults. Discrimination towards the elderly is apparent throughout society. Society has a negative stereotype related to perceptions on aging. We live in a youth-oriented society that does not view the elderly with respect and dignity due to today’s culture and media. The emphasis that are put on ‘staying young’ are enforced on every level. From plastic surgery to every way you could think of to stay ‘young and healthy’ is everywhere you look. The outlook on growing old is a stigma. The stereotypes that are put on older people can be done subconsciously a variety of ways in our everyday life. A few of these stereotypes are: older people are lousy drivers, they are grouchy, weak and incapable. How many times have you been driving behind an elderly person and became aggravated. Or standing behind an older person checking out at a store, they are older, it takes them a little longer to do things. Or even in the ways people speak about the elderly and the negative energy that goes along with it. If you start to pay attention to it, you will start to realize how common it actually is. These characterizations allow our society to disregard the geriatric population and who they really are. There are numerous quality-of-life issues

17). The generation of baby boomers is named so due to an extremely high birth rate following the return of WWII soldiers. These people, born from the mid-1940s to about 1964, are now either a part of the older generation, or only a few years from it. People tend to believe that the historical cohort’s large population is the only reason for an increased amount of older people in society. In reality, as the article points out, increases in longevity can also be attributed to advancements in medicine, along with knowledge about the spread of disease and general health (MacArthur Foundation, 2009). This myth contributes to the negative stereotyping of aging because those who believe this myth do not see the importance of an aged population. What some individuals do not realize is that generations living longer can provide endless wisdom, experience, and advice to the younger population. Instead of utilizing the increasing life expectancy, people tend to judge older individuals as having physical and mental decline, when in actuality, this is entirely untrue. This false belief is the second myth discussed in the

The aging of society has not significantly changed our perceptions of the elderly. Ageism is widespread in Western societies (Dionigi, et al, 2011). Older adults are seen as boring, grumpy irritable, weak, debilitated, mournful, and most significantly cognitively. These stereotypes which are negative can be allowed by the aged themselves negative self-stereotyping (Dionigi, et al, 2011) and are as well found among specialized caregivers (e.g., Cowan, Fitzpatrick, Roberts, & While,2004). The image in relation to which older adults are more ineffectual than younger adults is predominantly dominant. Nevertheless, in a variety of domains, older adults are inclined to have analogous performances and at times even do better than younger

When I was reading the article Myths of Aging, I found it very interesting. Almost all of the stereotypes that our society has on elderly is basically covered in this article. The first myth that was covered is my favorite, and this myth states, “All old people are the same.” Reality is there is more variety among older people than among any other age group. I think that this makes a great statement for the elderly because it shows that they are not afraid to be themselves, and that they probably don’t worry about what other people think of them. Also, this article goes on to talk about the myth of the elderly being incompetent, but the reality is that many elderly people, even in the early stages of dementia,

“Older people are likely to be seen as a burden and a drain on resources, rather than as a resource themselves”, this being a common interpretation many have on elderly because of Ageism (Irving, 2015, p. 72). The term “Ageism” was developed in 1969 by Robert M. Butler, the director of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee on Aging (SOURCE). Ageism, meaning, the prejudice and discrimination against older people (Macionis, 2014, pg.104), has been an un-noticed growing stereotype. When many think of becoming an elderly they mostly think of the things you can’t do any more. This point exactly has been the driving force of Ageism’s growth. Originally the term was introduced by Butler because of his partnership with the NCHA (housing) and

In the case of older adults, common ageist stereotypes might suggest that any individual older than age 65 is mentally and physically incapacitated, even though the overwhelming of the older adults are not (Plassman etal.,2007). Stereotypes are defined as oversimplified, exaggerated beliefs about a group or category of people. Stereotypes may be positive or negative, usually negative, which often distort facts. For instance, overgeneralizations surrounding older people and the aging process is old age begins at 60, old people are unproductive , and old women are a burden to everyone are amongst a couple stereotypes older people face. Members of society have been socialize to belief that age can be mark or measure. The dilemma with attempting to measure age is it is subjective to each society. In attempts to categorize members of society by age people often use chorological age, functional status, or life stage. Chronological age is used in our society as the basis for determining many social roles (voting, driving, marrying, holding public office, for eligibility in social programs (such as social security, AARP membership, or Older American Act), and for inclusion in research about aging (Morgan, Kunkel, 2011:7). Chronological age measures age by major life transitions in society. Thus, categorizing people as

An experiment performed on young and old people showed that when the participants were told negative stereotypes about their intellect they performed worse on memory tests than those who were not told a stereotype. This research concludes that negative stereotypes have a negative effect on a person’s mental capacity and increases their mental aging. The finding that negative thoughts about elders magnifies their mental decline is seen in another experiment performed on older American and Chinese people to test the mental aging across cultures. The Chinese elders, who are generally optimistic about their age, performed higher on different skill tests than the American elders, who are generally unhappy with aging, did. This shows that aging may be due to social reasons as well as natural aging. Ageism occurs almost everywhere, including hospitals and doctor’s offices. Many health professionals do not want to work with older patients because of the general stereotypes for old people and they sometimes do not receive the proper care and treatment that they need. This discrimination in the health care system adds to the decline of physical and mental health in older people. People who believe the age stereotypes are more prone to becoming those stereotypes. Getting rid of these negative stereotypes and not viewing aging as bad can improve a person’s mental and physical health as they age and help them live longer. Elders who tend to fall into the negative stereotypes tend to have a higher mortality rate than those who do not. Pushing positive views of aging and older people can greatly increase their overall quality of life. There are many different ways to eliminate negative views of aging. Being more open to the idea of growing old and retiring, shining light on the benefits of a great life after retirement, having strong social bonds, educating people of all ages

The elderly experience ageism on a daily basis. Whether it is in the workplace, in the media, by family and personal relationships. Workers report that age discrimination has become common in their work place. Society trains us early on to “act our age,” and it carries into adulthood. Many believe that the elderly should retire and let younger workers have their jobs. Women report that this bias appears for them at a younger age than for men who are their contemporaries. This is especially true in the media, we tend to judge older women harder than we do older men.

There is a very prevalent negative correlation associated with the quality of life and the age of an American. In the article Challenging Aging Stereotypes Strategies for Creating a More Active Society, the authors tackle common misconceptions and stereotypes associated with aging. As our world of medicine continues to change and we experience advances in medical technology and treatments it is hard not to take notice of the fact that the older population is often overlooked for different treatments and preventative measures. The very reason for this is due to the stereotypes associated with an aging population and these stereotypes prove to be harmful to health across the entire life span. Addressing this issue is so important because health promotion and the quality of life must improve for our aging population (Martin, 1991). If we continue to overlook this issue we will see tremendous set backs in not only the overall well-being of the elderly, but also a deterioration of cognitive skills as well as physical skills (Hawkins, Hoffman, Mockenhaupt, Ory & Sanner, 2003).

According to the article negative stereotypes geared towards older people can actually cut the lifespan of adults in late adulthood. In the article, the author references a study of 660 people ages 50 years of age and older, and found that those with negative perceptions of their own aging lived 7.5 years less than their counterparts

The second study examined whether self-perceptions of aging influence survival and Levy found that older individuals with more positive self- perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions of aging. Throughout his studies he also found aging self-stereotypes can operate without being aware of it. Lastly, the participants varied in the degree to which they had internalized positive or negative stereotypes, rather they did one or the

In conjunction with other obstacles, the elderly are especially prone to experiencing negative stereotypes on the basis of age alone: Ageism (Odoms, 1992). This type of discrimination has serious implications such as obstructing opportunities, increasing susceptibility to abuse, imposing stress, and damaging self worth (Angus, 2006). Unfortunately, as Angus (2006) points out, ageism is “widespread, generally accepted, and largely ignored”.