Ageism in Middle-Aged Adults
Miesha Bell
Southern Methodist University
Adults entering the midlife years (middle adulthood) are experiencing an overabundance of life changes. Hall, Hernandez, Wong, and Justice (2015) stated that, during middle adulthood important changes occur across the physical, cognitive, and social domains of development. There is a mounting amount of research on the changes that middle-aged adults experience. One of the most unexplored factor that middle-aged adults experience is Ageism. Ageism can be defined as the act of being prejudice or discriminative towards a specific age group. Although, Ageism can occur at any given place and in any age group. Research shows that it is more prevalent in older adults,
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Discrimination can be defined as the act of showing favoritism of or against a person based off of group, class, or category. Prejudice does not necessarily consist of the actual action on the attitude. There are two types of discrimination covert and overt. Overt discrimination is more blatant, whereas Covert discrimination lies beneath the surface, meaning that it not easily noticed. (Wong 2015) Covert discrimination is the most common discrimination that is experienced by middle-aged adults in the work place. In a study done by Kossen and Hammer, it was found that middle-aged job seekers experienced discrimination by Job network agencies in many different forms. In this study, Job networks agencies didn’t want to place the middle-aged clients in a job that matches their skills. The participants noticed that the agencies put more of their attention to the clients that were considered to be, “easy to place” clients. In most cases, the “easy to place” clients, were younger than the middle-aged clients. The staff showed a lack of willingness to help the older clients. Participants in this study also experienced a restrictiveness of job information. The staff of the agencies provided limited information on the job title and descriptions to the middle-aged clients, therefore, the clients really couldn’t tell whether or not they could meet the standards of the employers or properly prepare …show more content…
Middle-age adults experience Ageism on a regular basis. Counselors may encounter many cases where middle-age adults have experienced Ageism (discrimination). (Wong 2015). Younger counselors may need to explore their own bias attitudes towards working with middle-aged adults to better prepare themselves for working with middle-aged clients who have experienced Ageism. It is imperative that counselors be able to identify how Ageism can affect the individual emotionally and socially. By doing this, they serve as an advocate for middle-aged adults who experience Ageism. Due to the depth of the changes that mature-aged individuals, (job seekers), experience, they require more time with caseworkers to overcome certain barriers to employment. Training implications should be put in place to help diversify the mature-aged adult’s skills. This would expand the individual qualifications. As a result, making job-searching easier for them. Also, this approach can help alleviate some of the stereotypes and bias attitudes that people have toward the mature-aged group. As stated by Boswell 2012, Prior studies have linked poor knowledge of aging to negative attitudes and emotions about Aging. Researchers impose that there should be more education about Aging. Increasing knowledge on Ageism may result in the creation of successful intervention programs. It can also increase the younger generation
Ageism is shown in both novel by Harper Lee and the article by Scott Wooldridge about millennial’s by stating that because of how young you’re more likely to be less intelligent and have almost to no experience compared to older people therefore making them seem more superior.
certain age. Studies of ageist attitudes tend to focus on negative aspects and also have a positive
...a minor section of the society to ruin the good relations and the respect that has continuously existed among the society members and families in particular. As many consider ageism as a man made disease, it can be healed by the same man through propagation of media and society to consider old as gold and uncommon source of knowledge that is highly useful in the society. Sociologist should come up with theories on how to end this prejudice, rather than postulating theories that propagate ageism and age prejudice, as well as stereotypes. Ageism should be treated just like any other form of prejudice, such as ethnicity, racism and others, as a means to eliminate it. Lastly, it should be understood that whatever you do to an older person, the same will be done in your older age, although this time it will not be in the same measure you did, but a top up will be added.
Hiller, S. M., & Barrow, G. M. (2011). Aging, the individual, and society. (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
There are profound effects of ageism that can be harmful to a patient’s overall health. Ageism can cause physicians to consistently treat older patients unequally compared to younger adults. Unequal treatment can be divided into the under-treatment of symptoms and the over-treatment of symptoms. The imbalance in how a physician would treat a geriatric patient is ageist because the older adult is not getting fair treatment in every case. Under-treatment and over-treatment are different; however, they are both equally as harmful to a patients health.
The life expectancy of aging adults has increased therefore; the need for counseling psychologist to provide services to this population has become more prevalent now than ever before. Due to physical and psychological decline, dependency issues, unexpected loss of employment, societal consequences and death are all challenges that older adults face throughout the aging process. This chapter highlights the growing issues that older adults often face.
Attitudes are the foundation of quality of care for older adults. Among health care professionals, discrimination and stereotypical behaviors are very prevalent, even though more often than not these individuals do not realize their actions are ageist. “Ageism hinders people from seeing the potential of aging, anticipation their own aging, and being responsive to the needs of older people” (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). Attitudes are directly correlated with how individuals age and whether individuals stay health and live longer (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). The care that older adults receive from healthcare professionals is directly influenced by that provider’s attitude about growing older. All too often, health care providers rely on a patient’s chronological age rather than their functional age when determining their needs and what interventions are prescribed. Another issue lies in providers viewing the complaints of older patients as a part of “normal aging”, therefore potentially missing life-threatening problems that may have been easily resolved. “Age is only appropriate in health treatment as a secondary factor in making medical decisions, and it should not be used as a stand-alone factor” (Nolan, 2011, p. 334).
Clinicians reducing their biases that can impede their work with older adults, it is important for clinicians to examine their attitudes toward aging and older adults.
The thought of aging is not void of hesitance given it produces questions deprived of answers in the absence of a crystal ball. Subsequently, aging parallels the unknown; thus, faced with uncertainty adopting a positive perspective remains elusive. Although, it’s preferred to view aging optimistically one cannot escape its negative connotations. Will I be an active agent or isolated burden remains a noteworthy unknown that enervates my optimism. Another consideration leading to my vacillating view on aging is, not knowing to what degree personal competencies and capacities will carry forward, thereby affording autonomy in the elder years. However, as research suggest, the aging process transforms healthy adults into frail ones; thus, dashing one’s hope that such traits will endure (Friis, 2010). Incidentally, at age 48, these lingering questions will soon be answered. In the interim, there is an inherent responsibility to prepare physically, psychologically, and financially for entry into the aging population. Ideally, the goal is to
According to DeBrew, author of “Can being ageist harm your older adult patients?” stereotypes and discrimination are evident in various aspects of patient care. “Ageism [is] defined as stereotyping or discrimination aimed at older adults and a lack of knowledge about normal changes of aging and presentation of illness in older adults (. . .)” (DeBrew, 2015). DeBrew (2015) states, “research findings suggest that ageism is common in healthcare” (DeBrew, 2015). Ageism is not only an issue in the healthcare setting, but also among older adults as well as their families. When ageism is present in the healthcare setting it poses
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 is an act that was passed that clearly states that employers can’t be discriminate against someone based on their age 40 and older. The older adults are trying so hard to hold onto their jobs with dear life, because if not they will be nudged out and pushed aside. Not because of anything but rather because of their age. Age discrimination is on the rise as young as 50 years old. Age discrimination can happen to anyone regardless of your race, ethnic backgrounds or sexual orientation. A study was published in the Journal of Age Ageing and in the report it said that British People 50 years old and older faces discrimination about one third of them. In a resent survey older adults says job insecurity
305). Society is constantly bombarded by messages informing us about how to reduce the signs of aging, instead of accepting the natural process (Germov, 2014, p. 305). These beliefs have lead to ageism being very common in society. Ageism is best defined as the negative attitudes, which are associated with the aging process (Novak, 2006, p. 3). Ageism involves an individual or group being stereotyped and experiencing discrimination due to their biological age (Novak, 2006, p. 3). This discrimination can be direct or indirect discrimination, victimisation or harassment (Johnson, 2013, p. 27). Unlike other individuals and groups who are stereotyped and discriminated against, those who are making these comments will one day themselves be of old
“Though the age boundaries are not set in stone, we will consider middle adulthood as the developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age” (Santrock, 2013, p. 485). I interviewed two individuals for this paper. Each person was asked the same fifteen questions (Appendix). I interviewed a male and a female who fell in the midrange of middle adulthood.
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Another study and test with the purpose to empirically test this hypothesis by estimating different effect of age discriminations policies on older women and older men in the work force. The results in this study found huge differences between older women and older men in retirement and employment, which lead to the point that more discriminatory laws should be implemented to protect older women.