• Failing performance
• Physical unattractiveness
• Loneliness
• Morbidity
The present study focuses on;
• The effects that indivually held age stereotypes
may have on the self-views of elderly people.
 is
“...a fixed, over generalized belief about
a particular group or class of people.”
(Cardwell, 1996).
 Stereotypes
 For
can be positive or negative.
example, we could stereotype all older
people as cranky or we could stereotype
them as wise.
 Concerning
the relation between age streotypes
and self-views in older people, 3 general
assumptions are determined.
1. Contamination Hypothesis
2. Comparison Hypothesis
3. Externalisation Hypothesis
 People
tend to gradually include stereotyped
views about age and aging into their self
views.
 Negative age stereotypes are acquired early
in life
 As people grow older, self-views become
increasingly contaminated with negative
implications of the age stereotype.
Social Comparison Theory
1.

States that in the absence of objective measures for
self-evaluation, we compare ourselves to others to find
how we are doing.

a.
Upward Comparison; ourselves vs. better than we are
b.
Downward Comparison; ourselves vs. worse than we are.
Assumes that age stereotypes serve as a reference
standard for self enhancing

Old age automatically seems to activate a negative age
stereotype.
 Older
people might revise prior expectations about
age and ageing on the basis of their own
experiences viewing own experiences as common
and typical = false consensus effect.
 Indivually
held age stereotypes are a projection
of elderly persons’ self-views.
A
view of one's self; specifically, carefulness or
regard for one's own interests.
 According to the contamination hypothesis,

self-views are assimilated to previously held
stereotyped views of the typical elderly.
 According

to externalisation hypothesis,
A person’s self-views should influence her or his views
about elderly people in general.

Contamination effects are triggered by self-categorisation as
‘old’!

Become more prevalent in old age

To counteract contamination effects, elderly people can try to
dissociate their self-concept from age stereotypes;
 By playing down the importance of negative aspects of
the stereotype
 By avoiding a self-categorization as ‘old’
(many elderly people report feeling less
than they actually are)

Self-views can be defended against the influence of a
negative age stereotype;

By changing the criteria for ascribing personally
relevant attributes

By rescaling the personal importance of these
attributes.

Such adjustments represent an accomodative mode of
coping.

Older persons = accomodative flexibility
they are more prone to enrich the attribute ‘old’ with
positive meaning
 Accomodative
flexibility;
should help to protect the self-concept of elderly

people against contamination effects of stereotyped
expectations of the typical old person.
 The

present study;
Appraisals of the self and the typical old person were
assessed.
 Sample;







Recruited from an urban area in south west Germany.
Participants were randomly selected
Contacted by e-mail
Middle and old age (54 to77 yrs)
Longitudinal interval of 8 yrs
690 participants
Measures of self-evaluation and individual age
stereotype;
Self evaluations, stereotypes of the typical old person, were
assessed by semantic differential.
 Contained 32 pairs of antonyms (e.g. Patient-impatient)

 Flexible
Goal Adjustment is measure of
accomodative flexibility


Assesses the readiness to adjust goals
Readiness to find positive meanings in aversive
situations
+ I find it easy to see something positive
even in a serious event.
- I am never really satisfied unless things
come up to my wishes exactly.

Global ratings for the typical old person were
much more negative than the self-ratings.

People who score high on FGA tended to view
the typical old person more positively.

Similarity between patterns of self ratings and
stereotype ratings was more pronounced for
older participants and for participants scoring
low on the FGA scale.
 Conforming

Stereotyped expectations about elderly people predicted
later self-appraisals.
 Conforming

to the contamination hypothesis;
to the externalisation hypothesis;
Self-views had an influence on individually held age
stereotype.
 People


score high on;
dispositional variable seem capable of protecting
theirselves from negative stereotypes.
FGA seem more able to dissociate problems.
 Age
stereotypes taint (lekelemek) selfevaluations.

Rothermund,K. & Brandtstädter, J. (2003). Age stereotypes,
self-views in later life: Evaluating rival
assumptions. International Journal of Behavioral
Development, 27, 549-554.