PSYC 336 Week 7 Writing Assignment: Research Paper Example

Writing Assignment Research Paper: How Ageism Gets Under the Skin, Evidence on Age Stereotypes, Health and What Reduces Them

Abstract

This paper examines how ageism affects the health of older adults and what can reduce it. A global review of more than four hundred studies found harmful associations between ageism and health in nearly all of them, at both the structural and individual levels. Longitudinal evidence suggests that negative self-perceptions of aging predict shorter survival, and stereotype embodiment theory explains how cultural stereotypes become personal expectations that shape health. Programs combining education about aging with intergenerational contact reduce ageism most effectively. The findings support a public health response to ageism alongside individual efforts.

Introduction

Ageism, in the sense used throughout this paper, means treating people as lesser because of their years, whether through assumptions, feelings or actions. Quadagno (2018) shows that it operates both through institutions, as when employment, media or health care treat older people as less valuable, and through individuals, as when older adults themselves accept negative beliefs about aging. Because these forms reinforce each other, ageism may affect health more than any single encounter suggests. This paper reviews evidence on three questions: whether ageism harms health, how it does so and what reduces it. The question matters for the psychology of aging because it suggests that some of what looks like the natural course of growing old may in fact be shaped by how a society regards its older members. If that is true, part of aging well is a social achievement, not only a personal or biological one.

Does Ageism Harm Health?

The broadest answer comes from Chang et al. (2020), whose team screened more than thirteen thousand records in fourteen databases and analyzed 422 studies from 45 countries. Their review counted both kinds of ageism, the structural and the internalized, and looked across eleven health domains, from mental health and longevity to recovery from illness and quality of life. In nearly every study they included, ageism was tied to poorer health, and over a thousand separate links between ageism and health were examined. Harmful findings appeared in every region and grew more common in more recent research. Less-developed countries and less-educated older adults showed especially strong effects. The authors concluded that the health impact of ageism had probably been underestimated, because earlier reviews had looked at one level of ageism at a time.

A single longitudinal study shows what these associations can look like over a lifetime. Levy et al. (2002) matched survey answers from hundreds of middle-aged and older Ohio residents, collected from the 1970s onward, to national death records. The respondents who, years earlier, had described their own aging hopefully were still alive, on average, well over seven years after the most pessimistic ones had died, and the statistical controls for health and circumstances did not erase that difference. The comparison is observational, but the size of the difference rivals that of well-known health risks such as high blood pressure or a high body mass index, which the authors noted. It also matters that the self-perceptions were measured long before death, which makes it less likely that illness near the end of life produced the pessimism.

How Does Ageism Affect Health?

Levy (2009) proposes stereotype embodiment theory to explain the pathway. Stereotypes about old age are absorbed from childhood onward, long before they apply to oneself. They can operate without awareness. They become more powerful when a person grows old enough that they become self-relevant. And they affect health through several routes: psychological, such as lowered expectations and stress; behavioral, such as skipping exercise or medical care because decline seems inevitable; and physiological, such as heightened stress responses. In the Ohio study, part of the survival advantage traveled through will to live (Levy et al., 2002), one example of such a pathway. A person who expects old age to bring only decline may see little reason to recover from an illness or to keep up the habits that protect health.

Structural ageism adds external pathways. When older adults are excluded from work, overlooked in clinical decisions or portrayed only as frail, they face fewer opportunities and poorer care, which Chang et al. (2020) counted alongside internalized stereotypes. The two levels interact: institutional messages shape self-perceptions, and those self-perceptions shape how older adults use the institutions available to them. An older patient who has been told for years that aches and forgetfulness are simply part of getting old may not report a treatable symptom, and a physician who shares the same assumption may not ask. In this way, ageism at both levels can delay care for conditions such as depression, which is common in later life but often dismissed as an understandable response to age.

What Reduces Ageism?

Evidence on remedies is more limited but encouraging. Burnes et al. (2019) systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed controlled studies of programs designed to reduce ageism among young people and adults. Education about aging, contact between generations and programs combining both each improved attitudes and knowledge, and the combined programs produced the largest effect on attitudes. The finding suggests that facts alone, or friendly visits alone, are less powerful than both together. Education corrects mistaken beliefs, while contact lets people see older adults as individuals, and each seems to make the other more effective. The programs studied were mostly short, so the durability of their effects is less clear.

Writing for the World Health Organization, two authors (Officer & de la Fuente-Núñez, 2018) argued for a global campaign against ageism, describing it as widespread, socially accepted and harmful to health, and calling for better research, policy change and efforts to shift social norms. Quadagno (2018) likewise shows that policies, from retirement rules to long-term care funding, carry assumptions about older people's worth. A policy response would therefore address employment discrimination, representation in media and the ways health systems allocate attention, not only individual attitudes.

Implications

For families, the research suggests that how relatives talk about aging, including jokes about being "over the hill," may shape older members' expectations. Families can also notice and challenge the assumption that an older relative is too old to learn, travel or begin something new. For churches, intergenerational ministries that combine relationship with teaching could reduce ageism among young people, and honoring older members as mentors and leaders, not only as recipients of care, would counter the stereotype that later life is a time of uselessness. For health professionals, recognizing structural ageism in care decisions, such as attributing treatable symptoms to "just getting old," is a practical first step. Clinicians can also ask older patients about their own expectations of aging, since those expectations appear to matter for recovery and health behavior.

Conclusion

Ageism is not merely unkind; it is linked to measurable harm across countries and health outcomes, and negative self-perceptions predict shorter lives. The mechanism appears to run from culture to self-perception to health. The most effective responses combine accurate education with real relationships between generations and should be supported by policy that treats older adults as full participants in society.

References

Burnes, D., Sheppard, C., Henderson, C. R., Jr., Wassel, M., Cope, R., Barber, C., & Pillemer, K. (2019). Interventions to reduce ageism against older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 109(8), e1-e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305123

Chang, E.-S., Kannoth, S., Levy, S., Wang, S.-Y., Lee, J. E., & Levy, B. R. (2020). Global reach of ageism on older persons' health: A systematic review. PLOS ONE, 15(1), Article e0220857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220857

Levy, B. R. (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 332-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01662.x

Levy, B. R., Slade, M. D., Kunkel, S. R., & Kasl, S. V. (2002). Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(2), 261-270. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.261

Officer, A., & de la Fuente-Núñez, V. (2018). A global campaign to combat ageism. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 96(4), 295-296. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.202424

Quadagno, J. (2018). Aging and the life course: An introduction to social gerontology (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.