Ageism Essay

Ageism refers to the stereotyping, prejudice and/or discrimination against people on the basis of their chronological age or on the basis of an opinion of them as being ‘old’ or ‘elderly’ (Iversen, Larsen & Solem, 2009, p. 15). Ageism involves cognitive, affective and behavioral components through negative or positive stereotyping, that can be implicit or explicit and can be expressed on a micro or macro-level (Iversen, Larsen & Solem, 2009, p. 15). Hoffnung et al. (2013, p. 638) suggests this might be because of worldwide trends in modernisation, with social changes reducing the rank and competiveness of older adults. This greatly affects how older adults are perceived and treated in a variety of everyday contexts including the workplace (Hoffnung et al, 2013, p. 638). This essay will discuss some of the key issues of ageism that affect potential and current older employees in an education environment.

86). They were valued for their concrete performance, fundamental skills, and corporative nature. This is positive stereotyping. While negative typecasting of older educational employees may include them being considered less intelligent, less ambitious, less accountable than younger adults and commonly less efficient than younger employees in various job-related responsibilities (Bodner, 2009, p. 1004). Dennis and Thomas (2007, p. 86) found older employees were seemingly inflexible, unwilling to adapt to technology, resistant to new ways, having some physical restrictions and complacent. Such negative categorization towards aging can cause a decrease in motivation, the sense of self-efficacy and cognitive performance in older people (Bodner, 2009, p.