This article is an
extremely useful one as it encourages us to look carefully at what we mean by
the term ageism. It is based on a review of ageist research projects and
provides us with deeper meaning. I am going to reproduce and discuss a couple of
paragraphs on page 15. The section is entitled “A comprehensive
definition of Ageism. Then
I will add some comments of my own.
“Our comprehensive definition of Ageism is as
follows:
“Ageism is defined as
negative or positive stereotypes, prejudice, and/or discrimination against (or
advantage of) elderly people on the basis of their chronological age or on the
basis of a perception of them as being ‘old’. Ageism can be implicit or
explicit and can be expressed on a micro- meso- or macro-level.”
The concept includes the
classic social psychological components in the form of; 1) cognitive
(stereotypes), 2) affective (prejudice) and 3) behavioral components
(discrimination); in other words, how we on the basis chronological age or age
categorization mistakenly: 1) think about, 2) feel about, 3) and act toward the
aging human. Furthermore, ageism can operate both consciously (explicitly) and
unconsciously (implicitly); and it can manifest itself on three different
levels: individual (micro-level), in social networks (meso-level), and
institutional and cultural level (macro-level).
As a consequence the
definition contains the following key dimensions:
The
three classic components (the cognitive, affective and behavioral)
The
positive/negative aspect (positive and negative ageism)
The
conscious/unconscious aspect (implicit and explicit ageism)
The
typological division of levels (ageism on micro-, meso- and macro level.
1 Iversen, T.N, (2009). A Conceptual Analysis of
Ageism, Nordic Psychology Vol 61,(3) 4-22 DOI
10.1027/1901-2276.61.3.4
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