William Atkins
Thursday, 23 April 2009 21:27
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
On the other hand, the old-old group did worse than the young-old group when negative stereotypes were activated. This was called “stigma consciousness,” or when older-aged people perceived that younger people thought they had diminished memory performance.
Conversely, when senior citizens do not believe that they will do poorly on memory tests when they are told that elderly people do poorly on memory tests, then they do much better than their counterparts who believe such statements.
And, when the elderly do not believe that younger people look down on them because of lessened mental abilities, then they also do better on memory tests than other elderly persons who believe they have lower memories than younger people.
The researchers also found that these negative effects were most pronounced in those elderly with the highest educational levels, and when they believed in the perceived threats or the stigma consciousness.
Hess states, "
We interpret this as being consistent with the idea that those who value their ability to remember things most are the most likely to be sensitive to the negative implications of stereotypes, and thus are most likely to exhibit the problems associated with the stereotype." [ScienceDaily.com]
And,
"Such situations may be a part of older adults' everyday experience, such as being concerned about what others think of them at work having a negative effect on their performance – and thus potentially reinforcing the negative stereotypes." [ScienceDaily.com]
He adds,
"The positive flip side of this is that those who do not feel stigmatized, or those in situations where more positive views of aging are activated, exhibit significantly higher levels of memory performance." [ScienceDaily.com]
Page three concludes.
