Essay Example on Stereotypes, Aging, and Society: An Exploration

A stereotype is a particular expectation from people concerning a certain or a particular group of people. Aging is a multifaceted process yet stereotyped. The stereotype shows a particular character that gives an impression on how we see, think and relate with people within a certain group that is stereotyped Haeley, Stepnic &O'brien,2018). They are fables and theories that are exaggerated and are spread through spoken, printed and film contexts within the society. They enable us to respond to hastily circumstances for we may have had a related understanding before. They negatively, make us ignore differences between individuals thus generalizing the differences. This paper contains a survey and a discussion of the survey results.

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Stereotypes make simpler our social domain for they decrease the amount of doling out when we have met new people. They exist of different races, culture or national groups. The racial stereotyping was published when there were reported the results of a questionnaire completed by students at Princeton University in the USA (Haeley, Stepnic &O'brien,2018). It was found that the students apprehended clear,negative stereotypes, a few students showed difficulty in answering the questionnaire. The best students at that time were the Americans who were said to be industrious and intelligent, Jews as astute and mercenary, Japanese as perceptive and sly and Negroes as lazy and happy-go-lucky.

The psychologist claims that it is a natural feature of human behavior that aids each group, however, it is not unexpectedly that racial stereotypes always seem to favor the race of the owner of other races. Stereotype threat is a threat that occurs when a person is in a situation when the fear of doing a particular thing that will trigger a negative stereotype. On an experimentation carried on concerning students who took a hard test consuming things from a skill test.The test was compared between the White and African American students. In a stereotype risk state, they were told that the exam was to test the enactment of their knowledgeable abilities, in a non-threat condition they were told that they were being tested on a problem-solving exercise. The enactment was equated and the binary situations revealed that African American partakers did a smaller amount than what the White did.

From another study, Asian women were negligibly retold of their Asian personality or their female uniqueness before taking a hard math test. It is afterward that outcomes displayed that females recapped 'Asianness' achieved well than the resistor cluster women prompted their female personality done worse than the control group. Stereotype threats may cause students to take the test under it to become incompetent and also can encourage attributional doubt.

Stereotypes affect our health in different conditions. Studies linking stereotype activation have displayed implied subconscious and conscious negative age stereotyping have possessions on the routine of the older people. A meta-analysis conducted by Meisner to relate the strength of the optimistic and the adverse age stereotyping effects in older adults and found out that irrespective of the type of prime awareness, the discipline of study technique or contestant cluster the negative age stereotype has a stouter outcome on the behavioral outcome in older adults. The major limitation of this research in the review came from Levy's lab. However, Hess et al.Found out that emplacing on positive stereotypes weakens the negative influences in older adults.

Inherent priming studies exposed that the positively primed group improved their performance or had no change in their performance after being primed. Expectations were made that optimistic peaks may act as a barrier to the effects of the negative stereotypes. Readings display that the possible for stereotype enhancement properties with the older adults, Swift et al, examined the older adults' performance by stereotyping more favorably younger people and resulted in enhancing the social comparison performance on older adults. In current years, experimental approaches have demonstrated that a decline in cognitive functioning can be attributed to beliefs about aging and the social context of the testing.

Test that features memory may invoke the presence of the older people. In research by Rahhal, Hasher and Colcombe stressed that memory was being tested repeatedly, in another condition the commands were the same only that they stressed, contributors were guided to learn as many statements as they could Haeley, Stepnic &O'brien,2018). Effects were the age differences when memory was emphasized but there was no age change when memory learning was stressed. In the study of Thomas and his adder participants read one of the three stimulated newspaper articles, one article confirms memory decline, the second article described research that memory may improve in some ways with age while the third article was unbiased. The result that the younger people outperformed older people but the difference was deduced. Participants were asked to engrave what they can remember.

Effects of Stereotypes In Life

Some interventions change the ageist attitudes, changing negative stereotypes is hard for people to encrypt information then strengthening themselves and are strong to modification. Research has been more effective in battling ageism. Contact by itself cannot change stereotyping and negative attitudes, changing communication patterns for the younger and older people has been ineffective because of the difference in communication(East, 2016). These changes result in negative perceptions and narrowed interest in relations. Research can state whether and how greater contact between older and younger people can lead to fewer negative stereotypes. Research can survey the degree which paradigms used to change racist and sexiest beliefs to ageism and negative stereotypes.

In conclusion, it is significant to regulate the level to which the seen failures in older adults' cognitive running reflect an intellectual shortage and the range to which cognitive damage is influenced by purposes related to an adverse social setting. Research on so advocates that healthy older adults are capable of more effective cognitive working when working within a facilitative social context(East, 2016).Identifying situations in which positive stereotypes serve the beneficial and protective function that may enhance both the performance of the older adults and the others' perceptions of the elderly.

Interviewee 1- A child is a human being between the development period of infancy and puberty. A teenager is a person aged 13years to 19years. Middle-aged adults are the people in a period of early adulthood and old age. Seniors citizens are the people aged 60-65 years of age. (P)

Interviewee 2-A child is a human being that is in an age of growth and development, a teenager is a person who is at a period of puberty and undergoes growth and development. A middle-aged adult is a person not so old and not so young, seniors citizen is a person who is mature and old enough not completely old and has led an experienced life. (P)

Interviewee 3-A child is a hominid being that is under the care of its parents, a teenager is a person who is still under parent's care but not mature enough to make choices, a middle-aged adult is a human being that decides of its own and mature enough and has undergone gone various stages of growth and development. A senior citizen is a person with the capability to determine the choices and decisions. (N)

Interviewee 4-A child is just an infant, not mature, a teenager is a person that has undergone growth from an infant, a middle-aged adult is a person transformed from being a teenager. A senior citizen is a person that has undergone growth and development from a middle-aged adult. (O)

Interviewee 5-A child is a person who is a baby, a teenager is a person from an adolescent age, and a middle-aged adult is an age of young adulthood. A senior citizen is an elderly person. (P)

Interviewee 6-A child is a young offspring of a human, a teenager is a kid going through physical development, a middle-aged adult is a young adult, a senior citizen is a person ranked top of all age brackets. (P)

Interviewee 7-A A child is a newborn baby, a teenager is a kid with intense growth, a middle-aged adult is a person over the intense growth rate, and a senior citizen is an old person. (P)

Interviewee 8-A A child is a growing infant a teenager is a growing kid, a middle-aged adult is a grown person, a senior citizen is a person that has attained retirement age. (N)

Interviewee 9-A A child is offspring from a human being, a teenager is a minor adult, a middle-aged adult is a fully grown-up, a senior citizen is an aging human being. (O)

Interviewee 10- A child is a preschooler kid, a teenager is a juvenile kid, a middle-aged adult is a mature person aged between early maturity and old age, a senior is a person that is fully mature and has well-experienced age. (P)

The distribution frequency of positive, negative and neutral meaning is not on equilibrium since the interviewees gave out their different opinions during the survey. The most used suggestion is the positive (P), followed by the negative (N) and last by the neutral (O). The most mentioned words during the interview are; offspring, development, and growth, mature, human being, a period of age and grown, these words are more negative as I move from children to senior citizens, this creates boredom that breaks the positives in it (East, 2016). A lot of time is consumed as I move up each group.

References

East, T. (2016). Income Stereotype Threat and the Consequences for Consumer Behaviour (Doctoral dissertation, University of Waikato). https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/10807

Healey, J. F., Stepnick, A., & O'Brien, E. (2018). Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change. Sage Publications.