Ageism Reading Flashcards
What are primitive categories?
Incredibly automatic, well-learned, and fundamental to social perception (ex: age, race, gender)
How did the printing press change attitudes towards elders?
Culture and history is replicated in books so the elders wisdom is needed less
How did the industrial revolution change attitudes towards the elderly?
Demanded mobility in families-extended families with grandparents is less adaptive. Jobs are more suited to younger people
How did advances in medicine change attitudes towards the elderly?
Longer life expectancy means more old people-association of old age with burden
What is overraccomodation?
When younger individuals become overly polite, speak louder and slower ,exaggerate intonation, have a higher pitch and simpler sentences. Also may downplay concerns the elderly person has
What is baby-talk?
Simplified speech reegister with high pitch and exaggerated intonation-denotes a relationship of dependency
What can infantilizing the elderly do?
Create a self-fulfilling prophecy where older adults believe they are no longer independent
How to doctors view old people?
As depressing, senile, untreatable, or rigid. Medical community implicitly trains doctors on age bias-illnesses are seen as a natural part of aging and preventative measures are not taken into account
Which types of therapists hold more negative views towards older patients and why?
Females and those of the more psychoanalytical background. This is influenced by misconceptions about aging.
What is healthism?
Stereotypes about individuals who are in poor physical health.
What is the functional perspective on why we hold negative attitudes towards elders?
Serves an ego-protective function for the stereotyping individual and helps the younger person deny the self-threatening aspects of old age. Reduction in anxiety
How does terror management theory contribute to ageist attitudes?
When culture and religion impose order in the world, this buffers the frightening thoughts of ones own mortality. Ageist attitudes help distance us from ld people who are more associated with death
What is the stereotype content model?
People stereotype others along dimensions of warmth and competence
How are the elderly seen on the stereotype content model?
Warm but incopetent
What can the stereotype of the elderly being warm but incompetent do?
Results in random discrimination.
