When I'm 64 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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6 Opportunities Lost: The Impact of Stereotypes on Self and Others
6 Opportunities Lost: The Impact of Stereotypes on Self and Others
Pages 80-91
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From page 80... ...
. In addition, young and old people alike believe that there is general memory decline across the latter half of the life span (Lineweaver and Hertzog, 1998; Ryan, 1992; Ryan and Kwong See, 1993)
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From page 81... ...
OPPORTUNITIES LOST: THE IMPACT OF STEREOTYPES 81 Most of the work on stereotyping and aging documents this phenomenon. Far less examines the degree to which negative and positive stereotypes have an effect on the quality of life for older adults.
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From page 82... ...
82 WHEN I'M 64 workers on the job and its harmful effects on employee satisfaction (Gordon et al., 2000; McMullin and Marshall, 2001) and ageist views of patients in a medical setting, who receive less aggressive medical treatment because their physical complaints are dismissed simply as signs of aging.
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From page 83... ...
By examining the cognitive representation of stereotypes important questions can be addressed: Under what conditions are stereotypes activated? Under what conditions do stereotypes guide social judgments and behavior?
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From page 84... ...
. The second measure is the implicit association test (Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz, 1998)
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From page 85... ...
from any physical context may exaggerate the importance of global stereotypes and attitudes and obscure the importance of contextual variation. Social judgments typically result from multiple categorizations of the same individual, such as age and role, age and race, or age and gender.
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From page 86... ...
. What accounts for individual differences in age identity and what are the effects of those differences on the quality of life for older adults?
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Some research suggests that older adults may disidentify with their age group in the face of age discrimination (Zebrowitz and Montepare, 2000) to avoid a stigmatized identity and its harmful effects on well-being.
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From page 88... ...
In the other condition, the experimental instructions were identical except that emphasis was placed instead on learning, that is, participants were instructed to "learn" as many statements as they could. This study showed rather dramatic effects: there were age differences when memory was emphasized, but there were no age differences when learning was emphasized.
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From page 89... ...
. Research can also investigate ways to eliminate stereotype threat, such as exploring socially based remediation strategies for aging-related reductions in basic skills in contrast to more traditional cognitive interventions, such as strategy training or providing a more supportive cognitive environment.
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From page 90... ...
Yet, since negative stereotypes can undermine optimal performance, it is particularly important to consider the social context that moderates agerelated differences in cognitive functioning and others' perception of the elderly. It is important to determine the extent to which the observed declines in older adults' cognitive functioning reflects a cognitive deficiency and the extent to which cognitive impairment is influenced by mechanisms associated with a negative social context.
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From page 91... ...
OPPORTUNITIES LOST: THE IMPACT OF STEREOTYPES 91 From a practical perspective, research on stereotypes also suggests that healthy older adults are capable of more effective cognitive functioning when operating within a facilitative social context. Thus, another important topic is identifying those conditions in which positive stereotypes serve a beneficial and protective function that may enhance both the performance of older adults and others' perceptions of the elderly.
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