Lecture 7: Ageism and Age-related Stereotypes Flashcards
What is Ageism? What are some of the Dominant Aging stereotypes?
Ageism = stereotypes used to place prejudice against old people.
- A socially structured way of thinking based on attitudes, stereotypes, and tendency to make assumptions that everything is for the young.
Aging Stereotypes:
- Aging = time for less activity and more rest.
- Forfeit goals.
- Older people are weaker, more feeble, helpless, and unproductive.
What happens when ageist beliefs result in bias?
Resulting in Bias:
- Can affect how people make decisions and act.
- Practitioners and Policy Makers make ageist beliefs that affect opportunities.
- Ex. Woman under 80 are more likely to have next step invasive treatment based on AGE ALONE compared to woman over 80.
- The healthy lifestyle intervention for those over 80 is seen as “too late”, therefore less likely to be offered.
What happens when ageist beliefs become internalized?
When it’s Internalized:
- People derive personal aging expectations from social environments.
- If ageism is internalized, aging expectations = barriers to PA.
- “I’m too old for this, already get enough PA in my day, sport and PA is not for people my age”.
- People with internalized ageism risk poorer health by not participating in PA.
- Study shows that older people that look at a newspaper containing negative stereotypes on aging will have worst memory performance.
What are some of the Narratives around Aging?
INC age = INC narrative on aging. Shape our expectations on how we age.
Narratives shaped by:
- Culture
- Stories
- SO’s
- Lived Experiences
What is the difference between Participation discourse and Performance Discourse?
Participation Discourse = sport is meant to be fun, let’s people feel involved with others and keeps them healthy.
Performance Discourse = the body is a machine that must be worked on to avoid deterioration.
- Aging is considered a disease. Want to delay the effects of aging.
- The body as a machine is measured in competition based on wins, rankings, PB’s
What can be said about Performance Discourses in terms of what it challenges?
- They challenge the participation discourse and refuse them view of what aging people SHOULD be doing.
- They challenge constructions of aging and old age, and reinforce that aging is something that needs to be resisted.
Describe the study by Horton, Diogini, and Bellamy (2013) on the Value of MA’s. Who was apart of it, what was done, and what were the findings?
The study looked at 75-92 yr old females, and had them look at 2 pictures of exceptional athletes (73-87 yrs). Was looking to see if the participants saw the people in the photo as viable exercise role models.
- Responses depended on participants levels of PA.
- High PA saw photos as role models. Upward regulatory forces = looked up to them.
- Moderate/Inactive PA saw the photos as only slightly more active than themselves. Downward Regulatory Forces = looked down on the photos to make themselves feel better.
Describe the study by Young, Callary, and Rathwell. What were they looking to examine, and what did they find?
Wanted to see if their were rewards and risks associated with exploiting images of successful MA’s to promote adult sports.
To do so, need to understand:
- The similarity between observer and models.
- The nature of the observer’s image.
- If the observer has time to act towards the image.
Suggests that images of average older adults as opposed to spectacular MA’s is more effective for adults to return to sport because it’s more attainable.
