Subject(s)
Ageism/history , Aging , Biomedical Research/history , Geriatrics/history , Health Policy/history , Patient Advocacy/history , Age Factors , Ageism/legislation & jurisprudence , Biomedical Research/legislation & jurisprudence , Geriatrics/legislation & jurisprudence , Health Policy/legislation & jurisprudence , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Patient Advocacy/legislation & jurisprudence , Policy MakingABSTRACT
This article offers a field report-experiences, thoughts, and anecdotes-of my personal passage into older adulthood and my attempts to maintain a healthy sense of personhood in the context of the normative ageism in my world. Specifically, I illustrate how my career-long engagement with the scientific base of gerontology-particularly life-span developmental and social psychology-has been a key ally in informing my aging and in assisting my defense against internalization of negative stereotypes. Also, I offer some thoughts drawn from personal life experience that may inform research and application efforts designed to modify some of the psychological motives that sustain ageism in our shared environment.
Subject(s)
Aging , Geriatrics/history , Human Development , Ageism/history , Aging/physiology , Aging/psychology , Geriatrics/education , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , United StatesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The focus of this study was the collective images of aging that were unconsciously used despite rationally led social discourse on aging. Hypothesized was that despite changes in aging over the last 50 years these images went unaltered and thereby negative stereotypes of previous generations were maintained. In an effort to verify this hypothesis images of aging in cartoons were empirically examined, a first in the field of German language. METHODS: Using a social scientific operationalization of age stereotypes and culturally historical topoi as a basis, a content analysis was conducted on 2,546 cartoons (with 8,882 characters) from the years 1960-1964 and 2007. RESULTS: In general both young and old age are equally encoded with negative connotations by deficient characteristics and acknowledged stereotypes partially significantly more often in the cartoons from 2007 than from 1960-1964. CONCLUSIONS: The last 50 years have seen no substantial changes in the images of aging as depicted by magazine and newspaper cartoons. Humor requires more frequent analysis as it often unconsciously reveals socially unacceptable images of aging, even those embedded in science.
