Age discrimination + Reduction Flashcards
By 2030, the current number of people over 65 will increase by what?
Double! This means that race discrimination is an important topic; there will be more and more people in the ageing population.
What is the mixed elderly stereotype? (WARM and INCOMPETENT)
Cuddy, Norton and Finske’s (2005):
Rate elderly against 24 other social groups;
> Above 96% of other groups on ‘perceived warmth’
> Below 78% of other groups on ‘incomptence’
Erber and Prager (1999):
> People more likely to attribute memory failures of older adults to intellectual incompetence
> Memory failures in younger adults to lack of attention or effort
What are some of the negative elderly sterotypes? (note: pity labeling)
Employees:
> Outdated
> Harder to train - more money
> Unable or unwilling to adapt to new technology
General:
> Poor hearing
> Decreased intellect
> Slower cognitive functions
NOTE: Elderly come to believe, act accordingly, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - supported by Cohen (1990) and Nussbaum et al. (2005) with their research into labels of pity, which leads to helplessness and self-induced dependence.
What is Banscombe et al’s (1999) Rejection-Identification Model?
Proposes that:
> if you are a target of any type of discrimination, you begin to really associate yourself with your in-group>
In case of age discrimination:
> The gap between the in group (elderly) and out group (youth) is IMPERMEABLE
> The in group association provides better resistance/buffer to discrimination - it gives you a sense of identification
What is age discrimination?
When a person is treated unfairly, or denied an opportunity because of their age, when age is irrelevant to the person’s ability.
Note: not just restricted to being too OLD, but harder to break once you join the OLD/AGEING stereotype.
Examples Old:
> rejection of a job due to technological skills
Examples Young:
> rejection of housing application as believe they don’t have enough money etc.
What are the two forms that age discrimination takes?
Direct:
> Older person is not employed as it is assumed that they do not have the ability to learn new computer programs.
> Younger person not accepted for housing application as assumed they can’t meet the rent
Indirect:
> Employer requires older applicant to meet a physical fitness assessment
> younger people can easily meet the fitness standard
> the fitness standard is not required for the job
> At least 10/20 years experience needed
What is the government’s aging discrimination prevention act?
Age Discrimination Act (2004) - address the needs of the AGEING population
What is evidence against the ageing stereotype?
Research shows that older workers when compared to younger workers:
> are often more productive
> have lower abscenteeism
> have lower turnover rates
> in general, don’t suffer from poorer health, declining mental ability etc.
Maybe employing older results in more consistence and lower costs - LOYALTY FACTOR
What are some steps to help?
> The implementation of psychological health steps for elders between being close to retirement and settling down
The loss of career identity can lead to depression, anxiety, isolation and social exclusion etc
What did the research into the Rejection-Identification Model find? (Very Important!!!)
Garstka et al. (2004):
What?
> Study of 59 young adults/uni student AND 60 older adults from the community.
How? > Completed: - Age Discrimination - Age Group Identification - Personal Self-Esteem - Life Satisfaction - Age Group Status (young, middle-aged, or old adults)
Results:
Older group:
> Perceived Age Discrimination high neg correlation (-.54) to Psychological Well-being
> Perceived Age Discrimination medium correlation (.31) to Age Group Identification
> Age Group Identification high correlation (.61) to Psychological Well-being
Therefore, AGE GROUP IDENTIFICATION was a MEDIATOR for PERCEIVED AGE DISCRIMINATION and PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING.
(When we are rejected from the out group, it pushes us in towards the in group as it buffers us against negative effects of discrimination and gives us high psychological well-being)
Other groups:
> Mediator of Age Group Identification wasn’t present. It only works for low status groups.
What are some public campaigns?
Homeshare:
> OLDER homeowners with YOUNGER peoples looking for rent-free accommodation - provides in group- out group contact!
Education Programs:
> Increasing peoples’ awareness of the stereotypes
> Meisner (2012) showed that need to both
- i) counter the negative stereotypes (incompetent) AND
- ii) promote the positive age stereotypes (warmth, wisdom etc)
Contact:
> Need high QUALITY rather than quantity
> Incorporate Allport’s theoretical conditions into that contact
Inter-generational contact in the workplace (Iweins et al, 2013)
Found that a high level of Dual Identity (identifying with both age [in group] and organisational [common] groups) was said to mediate the relationship between the quality of contact with older worker and the out group (elderly) stereotypes.
Conclusion:
> Dual identity and contact need to be in place to reduce age discrimination in the workplace.
Implications: > Only self report > Not operational, not actually putting it into practice with manipulations > Can't talk about causation > Only know that it's correlated
