chapter 8

Question 1

Stereotypes
Young and older adults hold similar stereotypes about
Older adults in general have a

Answer 1

A special kind of social knowledge structure or social belief that represents organized prior knowledge about a group of people that affects how we interpret new information.
– Young and older adults hold similar stereotypes about aging.
– Older adults in general have a more positive view of aging in comparison to younger adults.

Question 2

An age-based double standard operates when
In this case, younger adults judge older adults who are forgetful more
However, younger adults also make positive judgments about

Answer 2

An age-based double standard operates when people judge older adults’ failures in memory.
▪ In this case, younger adults judge older adults who are forgetful more harshly than older adults do.
▪ However, younger adults also make positive judgments about older adults being more responsible despite such memory failures.

Question 3

– Implicit stereotypes
Implicit negative stereotypes can
▪ Research using the Implicit Association Test found support found that all individuals had
▪ Imagined intergroup contact strategy showed significantly reduced

Answer 3

– Implicit stereotypes
▪ Automatically activated negative stereotypes about aging guide behavior beyond our awareness.
o Implicit negative stereotypes can negatively influence performance.
▪ Research using the Implicit Association Test found support found that all individuals had implicit age attitudes that strongly favored the young over the old.
▪ Imagined intergroup contact strategy showed significantly reduced bias and that stereotypes can be changed.

Question 4

• Stereotype Threat

– Negative stereotype in older adults can
▪ Could partially account for why older adults perform _____ than younger adults on cognitive tasks
▪ Research indicates that what you believe is true about aging has very important

Answer 4

• An evoked fear of being judged in accordance with a negative stereotype about a group to which you belong.
– Negative stereotype in older adults can negatively influence performance.
▪ Could partially account for why older adults perform more poorly than younger adults on cognitive tasks.
▪ Research indicates that what you believe is true about aging has very important positive or negative consequences.

Question 5

Understanding age differences in social belief systems has three important aspects:

Answer 5

▪ We must examine the specific content of social beliefs.
▪ We must consider the strength of these beliefs to know
under what conditions they may influence behavior.
▪ We need to know the likelihood that these beliefs are being violated or questioned.

Question 6

– Age differences were found in the types of social rules evoked in different types of situations.

▪ The belief “Marriage is more important that a career” _____ with age
▪ Compare with “The marriage was already in trouble” which has an ________ relationship

Answer 6

▪ The belief “Marriage is more important that a career” increases with age.
▪ Compare with “The marriage was already in trouble” which has an inverted U-shaped relationship.
– Research findings indicate the influence of cohort effects on how different generations were socialized with respect to important social rules.

Question 7

– Self-perception of aging:
▪ The social stereotypes we hold about aging influence
– Two frameworks for this influence:

Answer 7

individuals’ perceptions of their own age and aging
▪ The social stereotypes we hold about aging influence what we believe about ourselves.

▪Labeling theory: When confronting an age-related stereotype, older adults are more likely to integrate into their self-perception.
▪ Resilience theory: Confronting a negative stereotype results in a rejection of that view.

Question 8

• Emotional Intelligence
– Two aspects of emotional intelligence:
Research indicates that EI increases with _______ and may contribute to higher subjective

Answer 8

– Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to people’s ability to recognize their own and others’ emotions.
– Two aspects of emotional intelligence:
▪ EI can be viewed as a trait that reflects a person’s self- perceived dispostions and abilities.
▪ EI can be viewed as an ability that reflects the person’s success a t processing emotional information and using it appropriately in social contexts.
– Research indicates that EI increases with age and may contribute to higher subjective well-being.

Question 9

– Research indicates that EI _____ with age and may contribute to

Answer 9

– Research indicates that EI increases with age and may contribute to higher subjective well-being.

Question 10

• Impression Formation
– Hess and colleagues found that older adults are ______ willing to change their first impressions from positive to negative and are _____ willing to change a negative initial impression to a more positive view.
▪ Older adults rely on
o Negativity bias:

Answer 10

– The way we form and revise first impressions about others.
– Hess and colleagues found that older adults are more willing to change their first impressions from positive to negative and are less willing to change a negative initial impression to a more positive view.
▪ Older adults rely on life experiences and social rules.
o Negativity bias: older adults let their initial impressions stand because negative information was more striking to them and thus affected them more strongly.

Question 11

• Impression Formation
-Older adults weigh emotional information __________ and are ______likely to use detailed, specific information when forming impressions than younger adults.
– Older adults are more sensitive to the _________of the available information.
–Older adults are at a disadvantage when the

Answer 11

– Older adults weigh emotional information more heavily and are less likely to use detailed, specific information when forming impressions than younger adults.
– Older adults are more sensitive to the diagnosticity of the available information.
– Older adults are at a disadvantage when the social context is demanding.

Question 12

– Social knowledge:

▪ Social knowledge structures must be

Answer 12

when we are faced with new situations, we draw on our previous experiences stored in memory.
▪ Social knowledge structures must be available and accessible to guide behavior.

Question 13

– Source Judgments:

▪ Age differences in knowledge accessibility depend on the

Answer 13

trying to determine the source of a particular piece of information.
▪ Age differences in knowledge accessibility depend on the extent to which people rely on these judgments.

Question 14

• Determining If Information Is True or False
-Older adults have more difficulty
– Neuroimaging research indicates damage to or age- related changes in certain parts of the ______ may be responsible for increased susceptibility to false information.

Answer 14

– Older adults have more difficulty ignoring false information.
– Neuroimaging research indicates damage to or age- related changes in certain parts of the prefrontal cortex may be responsible for increased susceptibility to false information.

Question 15

• A Processing Capacity Explanation for Age Differences in Social Judgments
– Gilbert and Malone established the ability to make unbiased social judgments depends on the
– Because older adults typically display_______ levels of cognitive processing resources, it is possible that this might impact the

Answer 15

– Gilbert and Malone established the ability to make unbiased social judgments depends on the cognitive demand accompanying those judgments.
– Because older adults typically display lower levels of cognitive processing resources, it is possible that this decline might impact the social judgment process.

Question 16

– Causal attributions

Answer 16

– Explanations people construct to explain their behavior

Question 17

▪ Dispositional attributions

Answer 17

o Behavioral explanations that reside within the person

Question 18

▪ Situational attributions

Answer 18

o Behavioral explanations that reside outside the person

Question 19

– Correspondence bias

Answer 19

▪ Relying on dispositional information and ignoring situational information

Question 20

• Correspondence Bias: tendency of young adults to

Answer 20

draw inferences about older people’s dispositions from behavior that can be fully explained through situational factors
– Older adults with accumulated life experience reach different conclusions because they have learned to consider dispositional and situational information

Question 21

• Blanchard-Fields Investigated Causal Attributions Across the Adult Life Span
When confronted with ambiguous situations, older and younger adults make
– When confronted with negative relationship situations, older adults tend to display a

Answer 21

– When confronted with ambiguous situations, older and younger adults make interactive attributions.
– When confronted with negative relationship situations, older adults tend to display a dispositional bias blaming the primary character more for causing the negative outcome.

Question 22

• Everyday reasoning biases in older adults occur not because of
• Older adults are more likely than younger adults to base their judgments on
• Cross-cultural research found that younger and older Chinese adults showed

Answer 22

• Everyday reasoning biases in older adults occur not because of declining cognitive ability.
• Older adults are more likely than younger adults to base their judgments on their own beliefs.
• Cross-cultural research found that younger and older Chinese adults showed less correspondence bias than American adults (individualistic versus collectivistic cultural influences).

Question 23

• Persona lGoals

Answer 23

– Personal goals play a major role in creating direction in our lives.
– Selective optimization with compensation (SOC)
▪ Growing older causes shift in priorities.
o Re-evaluating interests, strengths, and limitations.
▪ Older adults are more interested in retaining their autonomy by maintaining abilities at their current level in domains they prioritize.

Question 24

-positivity effect

Answer 24

– Positivity effect: older adults avoid negative information and focus more on positive information when making decisions and judgments, and when remembering events.
▪ Emotions may impede information processing.
– Strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) model
▪ Increasing age makes regulating high levels of emotional arousal harder.

Question 25

cognitive style
-Older adults’ social judgment biases are predicted by the degree to which
Age-related changes in personal resources of older adults prompts coming to

Answer 25

– Cognitive Style: How we approach solving problems.
– Older adults’ social judgment biases are predicted by the degree to which they need closure
– Age-related changes in personal resources of older adults prompts coming to quick and decisive answers to conserve resources

Question 26

• Personal Control:

Answer 26

The degree to which one believes that one’s performance in a situation depends on something that one personally does.
– Personal plays a role in physical health, memory, intelligence, mental health, and adjustment to and survival in different care settings.
• Multidimensionality of Personal Control
– One’s sense of control depends on which domain, such as intelligence or health, is being assessed.

Question 27

• Control Strategies

– Brandtstädter’s (1999) three interdependent processes:

Answer 27

▪ Assimilative activities
o Used when one must prevent losses important to self-
esteem
▪ Accommodations
o Involve readjusting one’s goals and aspirations
▪ Immunizing mechanisms
o Alter the effects of self-discrepant information

Question 28

– Heckhausen, Wrosch, and Schulz’s view:

Answer 28

▪ Primary control helps change the environment to match one’s goals.
o It involves bringing the environment into line with one’s desires and goals.
▪ Secondary control reappraises the environment in light of one’s decline in functioning.
o The individual turns inward toward the self and assesses the situation.
o Increases with age.

Question 29

• Some Criticisms Regarding Primary Control

Answer 29

– Cross-cultural perspectives challenge the notion of primacy and primary control.
– In collectivist societies, the emphasis is not on individualistic strategies such as those found in primary control, but to establish interdependence with others, to be connected to them, and bound to a large social institution.

Question 30

• Collaborative Cognition

-Collaborating with others in recollection helps facilitate memory in

Answer 30

– Occurs when two or more people work together to solve a cognitive task.
– Collaborating with others in recollection helps facilitate memory in older adults.
– Findings indicate that well-acquainted older couples demonstrate an expertise to develop an adaptive pattern of recalling information.
– Older adults prefer to collaborate in their problem-solving when they perceive deficiencies in their own functioning.

Question 31

• Social Context of Memory

Answer 31

– Importantly, the social context can serve a facilitative
function in older adults’ memory performance.
– Thus, it is important not to limit our explanations of social cognitive change simply to cognitive processing variables, but also include social context.