IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v73y2018i6p925-933..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Inevitability of Aging: Essentialist Beliefs Moderate the Impact of Negative Age Stereotypes on Older Adults’ Memory Performance and Physiological Reactivity

Author

Listed:
  • David Weiss

Abstract

Objectives The goal of this research was to investigate how individual differences in essentialist beliefs about aging affect how older adults’ respond to negative age stereotypes. Essentialist beliefs about aging (EBA) define the process of aging as fixed and inevitable rather than malleable and modifiable.MethodTwo experiments including older adults tested the hypothesis that EBA moderate the effect of negative age stereotypes on older adults’ memory performance and physiological reactivity.ResultsIn line with predictions, results of Experiment 1 (N = 79, 61–87 years) showed that for older adults with strong EBA, the activation of negative age stereotypes (vs neutral information) led to stereotype assimilation entailing a poorer memory performance. In contrast, for older adults with non-EBA, the activation of negative age stereotypes led to stereotype reactance entailing a better memory performance. Experiment 2 (N = 41; 65–92 years) replicated this pattern and also showed that older adults who endorsed rather than rejected EBA exhibited increased systolic blood pressure reactivity when negative age stereotypes were activated.DiscussionThe discussion focuses on pathways through which age stereotypes impact cognitive performance and health in later adulthood, as well as ways to stimulate positive plasticity by changing EBA.

Suggested Citation

  • David Weiss, 2018. "On the Inevitability of Aging: Essentialist Beliefs Moderate the Impact of Negative Age Stereotypes on Older Adults’ Memory Performance and Physiological Reactivity," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(6), pages 925-933.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:6:p:925-933.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw087
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas M. Hess & Corinne Auman & Stanley J. Colcombe & Tamara A. Rahhal, 2003. "The Impact of Stereotype Threat on Age Differences in Memory Performance," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(1), pages 3-11.
    2. Corinne Auman & Hayden B. Bosworth & Thomas M. Hess, 2005. "Effect of Health-Related Stereotypes on Physiological Responses of Hypertensive Middle-Aged and Older Men," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(1), pages 3-10.
    3. Bert N. Uchino & Wendy Birmingham & Cynthia A. Berg, 2010. "Are Older Adults Less or More Physiologically Reactive? A Meta-Analysis of Age-Related Differences in Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory Tasks," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 65(2), pages 154-162.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Verena Klusmann & Nanna Notthoff & Ann-Kristin Beyer & Anne Blawert & Martina Gabrian, 2020. "The assessment of views on ageing: a review of self-report measures and innovative extensions," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 403-433, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eun Hee Hwang & Kon Hee Kim, 2021. "Quality of Gerontological Nursing and Ageism: What Factors Influence on Nurses’ Ageism in South Korea?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Peggy Voss & Julia K. Wolff & Klaus Rothermund, 2017. "Relations between views on ageing and perceived age discrimination: a domain-specific perspective," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 5-15, March.
    3. Eugene Tay & Ivo Vlaev & Sebastiano Massaro, 2022. "The Behavioral Factors That Influence Person-Centered Social Care: A Literature Review and Conceptual Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Surr, Claire Alice, 2006. "Preservation of self in people with dementia living in residential care: A socio-biographical approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1720-1730, April.
    5. Hui-Ying Chu & Hui-Shan Chan & Mei-Fang Chen, 2021. "Effects of Horticultural Activities on Attitudes toward Aging, Sense of Hope and Hand–Eye Coordination in Older Adults in Residential Care Facilities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-28, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:6:p:925-933.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.