Aging and Disability Beyond Stereotypes to Inclusion: Proceedings of a Workshop (2018) / Chapter Skim
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4 Disrupting Stereotypes in Practice
4 Disrupting Stereotypes in Practice
Pages 31-46
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From page 31... ...
Julie Sweetland, a sociolinguist and vice president for strategy and innovation at the FrameWorks Institute, spoke about her organization's strategic approach to disrupting stereotypes. After the presentations, Rebecca Stoeckle, a vice president in the Health and Human Division of the Education Development Center, moderated an open discussion among the speakers and the workshop participants.
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From page 32... ...
As an example, Devine cited the experience of social psychologist Tom Pettigrew who talked to American southerners about race issues. Pettigrew said that many white southerners confessed that although they no longer feel prejudice toward black people in their minds, they still feel "squeamish" when asked to shake hands with a black person (Goleman, 1987)
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From page 33... ...
Devine said that this can be done by using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) ,1 which reveals people's tendency to express automatic associations and unconscious stereotypes such as linking black people with negative information, linking white people with positive information, linking men with ideas of science or career, or linking women with ideas of the humanities or family life.
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From page 34... ...
Fortunately, she added, none of these tools are particularly difficult to implement, and, in fact, they make up a toolkit with synergistic effects. Devine described her habit-breaking intervention aimed at disrupting stereotypes.2 She has found that people in the habit-breaking intervention group increase their concern about discrimination as soon as 2 weeks and for as long as 2 years after her intervention training, as compared to a control group that does not undergo the intervention.
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From page 35... ...
Half of the departments received training on the habit-breaking model of disrupting stereotypes, while half did not receive training. The departments that received training, she said, increased their efficacy in addressing gender bias, in both the commitment to addressing bias and the selfreported actions taken to reduce bias.
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From page 36... ...
.3 Respondents were interviewed in 2001 and re-interviewed in 2005, enabling researchers to examine changes in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among LGB individuals before and after the bans. Hatzenbuehler and colleagues found that before same-sex marriage bans were instated in 2001, the prevalence rates of mood disorders were nearly identical between LGB individuals living in states that later passed a ban and LGB individuals living in states that did not (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2010)
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From page 37... ...
. 35 30 25 Mood Disorder 20 2001 15 2005 10 5 0 LGB Heterosexual FIGURE 4-2 Comparison of mood disorders between LGB adults and heteroFIGUREadults living in states that banned same-sex marriage.
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From page 38... ...
. In contrast, LGB adults living in states with protective policies were no more likely to meet the criteria for dysthymia than were heterosexual individuals living in the same state.
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From page 39... ...
First, structural stigma appears to increase various risk factors of poor psychological health. To illustrate this, he described a study in which he and colleagues rated European countries, in part, on the number of policies that conferred protections based on a minority sexual orientation (e.g., relationship protection, hate crime laws protections, and employment nondiscrimination protections)
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From page 40... ...
These data provide some empirical evidence for why some health interventions might flourish in some communities and languish in others, Hatzenbuehler said, and they suggest that structural stigma is one mechanism underlying that difference. Closing Remarks While the research that Hatzenbuehler presented focused on stigma surrounding sexual orientation, he said he believes that his findings can be used to disrupt other kinds of stereotypes as long as interventions are appropriately adapted to different stigmatized conditions or characteristics, including mental illness and disability.
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From page 41... ...
Reference Terms for Older Adults The FrameWorks Institute ran an experiment to explore the public's associations of common reference terms for older adults with assessed level of competence. Respondents consistently ranked words like "senior," "elder," and "senior citizen" as being the least competent (see Figure 4-4)
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From page 42... ...
In order to successfully characterize people in later life, the FrameWorks Institute recommends using the terms "older person" or "older people" because these terms cue that an individual is over the age of 60 while also prompting associations of competence. Sweetland cautioned against using the term "older adult" when talking about individuals who are 65 years or older because the public pictures a much younger person.
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From page 43... ...
Finally, Sweetland said that it was important for communicators to help the public understand how age discrimination comes about, and that raising awareness of implicit bias can be an effective strategy. The explanation of implicit bias that FrameWorks recommends says that "Because we are all exposed to negative messages about older people, our brains automatically form judgments about people based on their age." For example, she pointed out that older characters in movies are often portrayed as forgetful, grouchy, or frail.
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From page 44... ...
Hatzenbuehler gave this example: "If you are African American and identify as gay, you might draw upon your experience growing up in a family that inculcated a positive sense of identity, and thus you can buffer the negative experiences or risk factors of discrimination based on sexual orientation." The ways in which intersectionality play out are complicated, and while intersectionality does not always predict negative outcomes, the complexity makes it difficult to tailor interventions across different groups, he said. Sweetland added that keeping intersectionality in mind might offer the fields of aging and disability different ways to think about possible coalitions that could be very powerful.
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From page 45... ...
Julie Bynum of Dartmouth University asked how stereotypes and bias around aging and disability might affect physicians' heuristics and decision-making processes and inquired about interventions to address implicit bias in decision making. Devine answered that the key issue is to recognize when heuristics would lead a physician to provide worse instead of better care.
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From page 46... ...
Kathy Greenlee of the Center for Practical Bioethics emphasized another aspect of framing aging that often goes unnoticed: society often describes aging as an individual experience, and many messages tell older people that they are responsible for their own future. This is true, she said, but it prevents us from getting to a collective sense of "we." She said that there is a much better sense of we in the disability field and that the aging field needs to create more cohesion among stakeholders and older people in order to mobilize people en masse around issues of aging.
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