scholarly journals Stereotypes of Old Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 69-88
Author(s):  
Christiane Monteiro Machado ◽  
Jorge Pedro Sousa

Ageing, more than a demographic phenomenon (a consolidated process in Europe, still a recent one in Brazil), is a social construction influenced by the media. Advertising, which simultaneously reflects and contributes to the construction of social values, uses stereotypes as a tool for creating easily identifiable characters. This study aims at identifying aspects explored by advertising messages using stereotypes to portray older people. The sample consists of nineteen pieces selected from more than 4,500 posts on Facebook and Youtube by the ten companies with the largest advertising spending in Brazil from July 2017 to June 2018. Among the 104 pieces that feature elderly people, nineteen did use stereotypes. In twelve of them, positive stereotypes, always related to longlife accumulated experience, while seven included negative traits, such as elderly people losing touch with reality, having difficulties with technology, poor social interaction, physical impairements, or old-fashioned clothing. Negative stereotyping reflects an outdated perspective of the ageing process.

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110125
Author(s):  
Kun Li

From the perspective of communication and media studies, this article explores a comparison between the image of older adults presented on media and online self-representation facilitated by the use of smartphones. The qualitative textual analysis was conducted with a sample (228 posts, from 1 January to 31 December,2019) selected from a representative WeChat Public Account targeting at older adults in China. The results demonstrate that leisure and recreation is the most frequently mentioned topic (58%) with memories of past life receiving the least references (3%). The striking features of popular posts among older people include a highly emotional tone, bright colours and multimedia. Sentiment analyses shows 68.42%, 13.16% and 18.42% of positive, neutral and negative emotions, respectively. A generally positive attitude of self-representation is in a sharp contrast with the stigmatic media image of older adults. The article concludes that the visibility of Chinese older people may help to reduce the stigma surrounding old age in China.


1996 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Gibb ◽  
Eleanor Holroyd

AbstractThe present study set out to identify how the experience of being old in Hong Kong is represented through images commonly recurring in the print media. A case is presented for how the media not only reflect social images and views on ageing, but actively participate in the social construction of views about being old. Two newspapers in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post (English medium) and the Sin Tao (Chinese medium), were surveyed and contents of stories depicting old age were analyzed, using a qualitative and quantitative methodological design. Dominant amongst the themes was vulnerability in old age. Newspapers used stories according to journalistic formulae to present both negative and positive depictions of old age; however, positive stories carried a sense of the exceptional rather than ordinary life. Results were analysed through a comparison between the two Hong Kong newspapers as well as a comparison with a similar study undertaken on the Australian print media.


1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
SE Gariballa ◽  
AJ Sinclair

One of the greatest challenges of medicine in old age is for physicians to understand the process of aging and to be able to distinguish it from disease, lifestyle factors and environmental exposures whose cumulative effects account for many of the changes observed in older people. As a result, physicians have a duty to recognize and intervene appropriately against age-related diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Khrystyna Kachmaryk ◽  
Sophia Grabovska ◽  
Kateryna Ostrovska ◽  
Viktor Syniev

The aim of the study. The aim of the paper is a comparison of tolerance to uncertainty in two groups of elderly: the students of the University of the Third Age (UTA) and older people who are not enrolled but help to educate grandchildren. A relation to uncertainty was shown to infl uence on decision making strategy of elderly that indicates on importance of the researches. Methods. To obtain the objectives of the paper the following methods were used: 1) Personal change readiness survey (PCRS) adapted by Nickolay Bazhanov and Galina Bardiyer; 2) Tolerance Ambiguity Scale (TAS) adapted by Galina Soldatova; 3) Freiburg personality inventory (FPI) and 4) The questionnaire of self-relation by Vladimir Stolin and Sergej Panteleev. 40 socially involved elderly people were investigated according the above methods, 20 from UTA and 20 who are not studied and served as control group. Results. It was shown that relations of tolerance to uncertainty in the study group of students of the University of the Third Age substantially differ from relations of tolerance to uncertainty in group of older people who do not learn. The majority of students of the University of the Third Age have an inherent low tolerance for uncertainty, which is associated with an increase in expression personality traits and characteristics in self-relation. The group of the elderly who are not enrolled increasingly shows tolerance of uncertainty, focusing on  the social and trusting relationship to meet the needs of communication, and the ability to manage their own emotions and desires than a group of Third Age university students. Conclusions. The results of experimental research of the third age university student’s peculiarities of the tolerance to uncertainty were outlined. It was found that decision making in the ambiguity situations concerning social interaction is well developed in elderly who do not study. The students of the University of Third Age have greater needs in conversation, social interaction than the control group and should learn to make decisionin ambiguity or uncertainty situations.


Author(s):  
Mustafa Kamal ◽  
Godavari D. Patil

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Activity theory suggests that except for the inevitable changes in biology and health, older people are the same as middle-aged people with essentially the same psychological and social needs. In this view, decreased social interaction that characterizes old age results from the withdrawal of society from the aging person. Our study suggests that a large percentage of older citizens are computer literate, use Internet on a regular basis and b</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">elieve that lack of basic computer skills is a disadvantage<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. Various activities ranging from email and chat on the Internet to surfing the net for useful information are common. We conclude that computer uses among older population adds value to their life.</span></span></span></p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Naomi Nisari Rosdewi ◽  
Theresia Puspitawati ◽  
Herta Meisatama

Increased Life Expectancy has an impact on increasing the number of elderly people. Older people are part of a society that cannot be solved in our lives. Widodomartani Village, Ngemplak Subdistrict, Sleman DIY is one of the villages that has a high number of elderly people. Some of them still remain productive in their old age. This needs to be maintained and improved, considering that the elderly are the age group that is susceptible to disease. Promotive and preventive efforts are very important to do to improve the health of the elderly and to increase family expectations.Keywords: mucoskeletal, elderly, examination


1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Larose ◽  
Lionel Standing

This study examined whether elderly people would show the typical halo effect of attributing more desirable personality traits to those individuals who have attractive faces (Dion, Bercheid & Walster, 1972). It was predicted that age should bring wisdom, leading to the elimination of this judgmental bias in older people. Fifty-two female subjects (aged 65 or above) were required to match photographs of stimulus persons (attractive or unattractive) with descriptive paragraphs (positive or negative). Contrary to predictions, the usual halo effect occurred: positive personality characteristics were attributed more frequently to the attractive individuals, indicating that this bias occurs across the life-span, from childhood to old age. Also, female faces were judged more positively than male faces.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Gopal Prasad Sedhai

This study focuses on the response of elderly people on the old age allowance and its impact on socio-economic issues. The allowance is the cash provided by the government of Nepal as a social security allowance to the people of age 70 years and above. Both qualitative and quantitative data has been used in this study from complete enumeration. The information was collected from three municipalities: Sundar Bazar Municipality, Maddhye Nepal Municipality, and Rainas Municipality of Lamjung District. A face-to-face interview method was applied to collect information regarding social and economic aspects from all 51 elderlies of Kumal respondents who received allowance. Chi-square test was applied to find out the factors associated with satisfaction of elderly people. Most of the respondents felt that the allowance is negligible and administrative difficulties like error in date of birth in citizenship, delay in receiving, inaccessibility to bank due to ageing, etc. in receiving the allowance. People who were satisfied with this allowance reported that it was a privilege from the government and they can use this money on their own. This finding is based on a single ethnic group of small area and cannot be generalized to whole population but explored some idea how the allowance is perceived in Nepal. The allowance establishes the right of older people and essential for poor people to fulfil their daily needs. The government should take some initiatives for better management of the allowance with other processes rather than cash distribution and take more initiation for very poor older people who have no other income sources.


2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 721-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKE HEPWORTH

Sociological research shows that individuals attempt to make sense of the meaning of the ageing process in the course of conversations with other people. The social construction of ageing is therefore an interactive process during which ideas and beliefs about ageing are negotiated and exchanged. Novels are a rich and easily accessible source of data on the social construction of the meaning of ageing during the course of social interaction and this paper explores the imaginative contribution of the English novelist Stanley Middleton to our awareness of these subtle processes. It is suggested that Middleton's fiction provides a particularly rewarding example of the contribution of the novelist to our understanding of the origins of the experience of growing older as a product of social interaction.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
PHIL LYON ◽  
ANNE COLQUHOUN

Survey evidence on the living conditions of older people has a long and creditable history in Britain. Booth's work alerted policy makers to the often dire circumstances of older people, and accounts of their housing, diet, domestic arrangements and general quality of life stiffened resolve to ensure an adequate minimum standard of living in old age. At the start of what has been termed the welfare state, there were two important studies of old age in the works of Rowntree and Sheldon. In their depiction of the lives of independent elderly people, they provided a useful mid-century benchmark on progress.The question of income and support infrastructure recurs over the decades and, in many ways, these concerns are central to the question of adequate diets with implications for health and wellbeing. The possibility, or otherwise, of being able to afford, buy and prepare food which is of appropriate nutritional and social quality, is fundamental to an independent life in old age. Using food as a focus for review, this article maps what has been said about the circumstances of independent elderly people and what has been done to support them in the community. It is concluded that while considerable progress has been made over the century, their relative position remains problematic. This is especially the case for those living on their own in old age and with a reliance on the basic state pension.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document