Transcript
AGEING AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST OLDER PEOPLE:
Comfort H. Cooper
Roger Williams University
Abstract
There are a lot of preconceptions toward other groups that is often expressed hostilely, especially towards older adults. Older adults may sometimes encounter hostile ageism, but at other times face benevolent ageism. Attitudinal ambivalence is taken into consideration when studying ageism. In Cary, Chasteen, & Remedios (2017) , they examined ageing and discrimination against older people. Their study consisted of 41 benevolent ageist items that were adapted from existing ageism measures. In the study, they predicted that the benevolent and hostile ageism subscales differentially predicted attitudes toward older adults. The higher scores on the hostile subscale predicted lower competence and warmth ratings, whereas higher scores on the benevolent subscale predicted higher warmth perceptions. In our study, our sample size consisted of 23 students where we were able to display two variables. The first variable which is the independent variable, focused on the attitudes of stereotypes and the measures of older people, the ageism scale. The second variable which is the dependent variable, it focused on the exposure to stereotypes about the elderly. While doing the study, our results showed that the p value was significantly over .05, it was .075. Due to the p value being too high, our results found that there was no difference in the priming of stereotypes.
Ageing and Discrimination Against Older People
The purpose of the Ambivalent Ageism Scale: Developing and Validating a Scale to Measure Benevolent and Hostile Ageism; Cary, Chasteen, Remedios (2017) was to show how older people are commonly stereotyped and discriminated because of their age. Cary, Chasteen, & Remedios (2017) is an important study because older people’s experiences as targets of ageism has become an increasingly important avenue of research especially in the context of global population ageing. This is a potential obstacle because there are measures of perceived age discrimination that have comparable meaning across age and across different cultural contexts. Only then, is it possible to make meaningful comparisons across age and context.
In Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996), it demonstrated that stereotypes are more than a trait such as “being old” it is sufficient to obtain behavioral effect in the absence of awareness. The finding in this study showed how stereotypes of old age seems to affect or change behavior, the priming may occur automatically and influence behavior with little or no awareness, but the study proved that we can change behavior subtly.
In some places or countries discrimination against older people is quite common. Although discrimination can be done to younger people, but there is only little to be known about their experiences with age discrimination compared to older people where its more common and prevalent (Abrams & Houston, 2006; Garstka et al., 2004; Hagestad & Uhlenberg, 2005; Snape & Redman, 2003). In this study, the researchers believe that there needs to be more studies and research done to fully address ageism and discrimination against younger people, and not just in adulthood. They also believe that different factors need to be taken into consideration that will contribute to the forms of ageism experienced by every age and life stages.
We hypothesized that the priming of stereotypes about the elderly will increase ageist attitudes and stereotypic response about the the elderly. We also conducted a correlational hypothesis, where we said the more old people that you are in touch with, the less likely you are to be ageist.
Method
Participants
Those running the study were undergraduate students in a PSYCH 340 Research Methods class. The researchers were Roger Williams University students in Bristol, Rhode Island. The participants for the study consisted of undergrad students that also attend Roger Williams University. Our sample size consisted of 28 students all between the ages of 19 – 24 years old, with an average of 20.4. 16 students identified as female, 11 identified as male, and 1 identified as non-binary.
Procedures and measures
For this study, we were randomly divided into 2 groups, one being the control group (negative words) and the other being non-control group (positive words). We were then given 2 of the same surveys based on the group we were assigned to. Next, we were to then have the participants fill out the surveys where they had to form 4 or 5 sentences with the scrambled words. When the participant asked what was the meaning or the essence of the study, they were to be told that it’s a survey for our PSYCH 340 Research Methods class, and we wanted to see people’s view and response on the elderly. After forming their sentences the participants were then asked to complete the Likert Scale on the next page, where they were told to rate the degree to which they agree with the following statements on older people. The independent variable was the exposure to stereotypes about the elderly, and the dependent variable was the ageism scale.
Results
For our study, we used an independent sample t-test. The test was conducted to compare scores on the hostile ageism sub scale. The difference approached significance, t (26) = 1.86, p = .075, two tailed. Participants in the control group had somewhat higher scores on the hostile ageism scale subscale (M?=?13.13, SD?=?5.63) than those who were exposed to stereotypes about the elderly (M?=?9.67, SD?=?3.60). For the correlation, we found that the relationship between scores on the total ageism scale and number of close relationships with elderly people were investigated using ’s product-moment correlation coefficient. There was a small, significant negative correlation between the two variations where r = -.27, n = 28, p = .159.
For our study, we also found that the correlation also used an independent sample t-test. The test was conducted to compare scores on the hostile ageism subscale. The difference approached significance, t (26) = 1.86, p = .075, two tailed. Participants in the control group had somewhat higher scores on the hostile ageism scale subscale (M?=?13.13, SD?=?5.63) than those who were exposed to stereotypes about the elderly (M?=?9.67, SD?=?3.60). For the correlation, we found that the relationship between scores on the total ageism scale and number of close relationships with elderly people were investigated using ’s product-moment correlation coefficient. There was a small, significant negative correlation between the two variations where r = -.27, n = 28, p = .159. We found that the correlation also used and independent sample t-test. The test was used to compare the benevolent ageism subscale. The difference approached significance, t (26) = .383, p = .705, two tailed. Lastly, we found that the correlation also used and independent sample t-test. The test was used to compare the benevolent ageism subscale. The difference approached significance, t (26) = 1.494, p = .147, two tailed.
Discussion
The purpose of this research was to investigate the stereotypical and age discrimination against the elderly. Older people are the foremost targets of age-based discrimination.
Cary, Chasteen, & Remedios (2017) study has helped us with our research in the sense that there is a higher level of age discrimination against older people. During this study, Cary, Chasteen, & Remedios (2017) we found that our hypothesis was not confirmed because the words in the
non-control groups were not sympathetic, it primed negative benevolent ageism which reduced our hostile ageism. Overall, the study would like to examine the relationships between implicit ageist attitudes and explicit ageist attitudes. They have not yet tested implicit ageist attitudes or whether they share some similarities.
References
Cary, L. A., Chasteen, A. L., & Remedios, J. (2017, April 1). The Ambivalent Ageism
Scale: Developing and Validating a Scale to Measure Benevolent and Hostile Ageism.
Bargh JA, Chen M, Burrows L. Automaticity of social behavior: direct effects of trait
construct and stereotype-activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Bratt, C., Abrams, D., Swift, H. J., Vauclair, C.-M., & Marques, S. (2018, January).
Perceived age discrimination across age in Europe: From an ageing society to a society for all ages.
