This week, we have been having an interesting dialog about the assigned reading from Baltes & Smith (2003) whose final line of the abstract provides a reasonable summary of the thrust of their article, when they write:
"Future study and discussion should focus on the critical question of whether the continuing major investments into extending the life span into the fourth age actually reduce the opportunities of an increasing number of people to live and die in dignity " (Baltes & Smith, 2003, p. 123).
This article has stimulated provocative commentary from our RAs as the authors are discussing the issues of quality of life relative to social and technological attempts to extend lifespan. In one post, a student used the term 'stigma' which got me thinking about ageism, as one potential product of stigma.
According to Nelson (2009) 'Ageism is defined as prejudice against anyone based on his or her age' (p. 432). Nelson continues to define both malignant ageism and beningn ageism; the former is when we can sense in someone/some entity we are observing 'an extreme dislike toward the older person' and the belief that 'the older person is worthless'(p. 432). In contrast, benign ageism occurs when we 'view the older person through prejudice and stereotypes due to (our) own feelings of fear of aging' (p. 432).
A point Nelson makes, which I find particularly intriguing, is that apparently we are more likely to report negative attitudes against older individuals in general yet when we are asked to discuss attitudes toward an older individual we know (e.g. our grandparent, elderly relative/friend), our attitudes are more positive. The author notes that research in this area is young, so we must consider such findings in this light (Nelson, 2009).
I cannot help but wonder if ageism, in either form, is something we can actually reduce? We understand a good bit more about the stereotype process and about the relationship between stereotypes and discrimination than we did earlier (Stangor, 2009; Gaertner & Dovidio, 2009). To the extent to which our stereotypes about the aged reflect our own fears about aging, I am unsure - can we/ are we willing/able to confront such fears enough to address ageism as a social issue?
AES
Baltes, P.B. & Smith, J. (2003). New frontiers in the future of aging: From
successful aging of the young old to the dilemmas of the fourth age.
Gerontology, 49, 123.135.
Gaertner, L, & Dovidio, J.F. (2009). A common ingroup identity: A categorization-
based approach for reducing intergroup bias. In T. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook
of Prejudice, Stereotyping,and Discrimination ( pp. 489-506). New York,
NY: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
Nelson, T.D. (2009). Ageism. In T. Nelson (Ed.), Handbook of Prejudice,
Stereotyping,and Discrimination (pp. 431-440). New York, NY: Taylor
and Francis Group, LLC.
Stangor, C. (2009). The study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination with
social psychology: A quick history of theory and research. In T. Nelson
(Ed.), Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping,and Discrimination (pp. 1-
22). New York, NY: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
Dr. Sickel,
ReplyDeleteThe piece on ageism that you cite is quite similar to the descriptors that Dr. Daniel Tatum used in the context of race. While the subject is quite different, the core concepts of what I will call otherism and its set of stigmata seem quite the same.
Daniel Tatum (1997) wrote: "People are commonly defined as other on the basis of race or ethnicity...age, and (p. 22, para. 1)." Now, while Nelson considers the area of ageism research young, I suggest that the suffix -ism is a grandfather of language used to describe otherness.
You wrote,"A point Nelson makes, which I find particularly intriguing, is that apparently we are more likely to report negative attitudes against older individuals in general yet when we are asked to discuss attitudes toward an older individual we know (e.g. our grandparent, elderly relative/friend), our attitudes are more positive."
Daniel Tatum (1997) wrote: "The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflect back to us (p. 21, para. 2)."
Our families do just that, they reflect back on us, while others do not.
Might this not help to explain why our attitudes about family are different from our attitudes about others (ageism)?
One more from Daniel Tatum (1997), who posited a range of racism. Substitute the word ageism or age in the following:
Active racism, blatant, intentional acts of racial bigotry and discrimination.
Passive racism is more subtle and can be seen in the collusion of laughing when a racist joke is told, of letting exclusionary hiring practices go unchallenged, of accepting as appropriate the omissions of people of color from the curriculum, and of avoiding difficult race-related issues. (p. 11)
The last item is one I cannot find in the book at this moment, but I know it is there. I have often suggested that our language is what Daniel Tatum (1997) described as color-coded. We age code our language, as well and, in fact, we may code our language in such a way that we shape the form of stigma and send it on its merry way into perpetuity. When we fail to use capital letters, i.e., white for White (race) or refer to age as 'an 18-year-old', we fail to recognize the power of coded language. Drs. Tatum and Ayvazian visited with newspaper editors and suggested ways to remove bias from news reporting.
Ageism is, indeed, a social issue and oddly more so our Western culture than others. We can see a present day example of this in looking at the influence of Western culture in Japan. Many younger workers have left Japan for work in China (opportunism and independence), where their skills are highly valued vs. waiting for their elders to retire from the Japanese workforce (obedience and collectivism)(Fackler, 2011).
I think if we change the frame of reference from ageism to something we know a great deal about, racism, we can attempt to understand the basis of stigmata associated with the elder life spanners.
Thank you for continuing a very important discussion given that ageism is a social issue that is global in nature, number, and absolute fact as the population pyramid stands on its head and teeters on, perhaps, to an unpleasant fall one way or the other.
References
Fackler, M. (2011, January 27). In Japan, young face generational roadblocks. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/asia/28generation.html?scp=8&sq=japanese%20young%20workers%20go%20to%20china&st=cse
Daniel Tatum, B. (1999). "Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?": And other conversations about race. USA: Basic Books.
Hi Cherb,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for this analogy! You are quite right in that our work on ageism does indeed stem from the work on racism and the subtle/blatant racism distinction clearly influenced this work on ageism.
AES