Stereotypes of Aging: Their Effects on the Health of Older Adults
Open Access
- 12 November 2015
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Hindawi Limited in Journal of Geriatrics
- Vol. 2015, 1-9
- https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/954027
Abstract
The purpose of this review is to present findings on the effects of stereotypes of aging on health outcomes related to older adults, such as physical and mental functioning (specifically) and overall well-being and perceived quality of life (more broadly). This review shows that both positive and negative stereotypes of aging can have enabling and constraining effects on the actions, performance, decisions, attitudes, and, consequently, holistic health of an older adult. This review further highlights a variety of limitations in stereotype research in aging contexts, including a lack of qualitative studies focusing on older adult perspectives and the fluctuating definition of what constitutes “good health” during older age.Keywords
This publication has 67 references indexed in Scilit:
- Meanings of Aging Among Older Canadian Women of Varying Physical Activity LevelsLeisure Sciences, 2011
- Contexts of Aging: Assessing Evaluative Age Stereotypes in Different Life DomainsThe Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2011
- Multiple Mechanisms of Prime‐to‐Behavior EffectsSocial and Personality Psychology Compass, 2009
- Stereotypes of Aging: Their Effects on the Health of Seniors in North American SocietyEducational Gerontology, 2007
- Moral Argumentation in Talk about Health and Old AgeHealth: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2004
- Challenging aging stereotypesStrategies for creating a more active societyAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2003
- Commentaries on "Mind Matters: Cognitive and Physical Effects of Aging Self-Stereotypes" and Author's Reply: When Is an Age Stereotype an Aging Self-Stereotype? A CommentaryThe Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2003
- Aging stereotypes--internalization or inoculation? A commentary.The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2003
- The effects of stereotype activation on behavior: A review of possible mechanisms.Psychological Bulletin, 2001
- Age-Ism: Another Form of BigotryThe Gerontologist, 1969