Ageism Older Individuals Are Often

Ageism

Older individuals are often oppressed or limited in what they are told they should do or be expected to do. Aging is the inevitable process that leads to the end of the life cycle beginning at birth, which consists of biological, social, emotional, and cultural processes. There are few people who like being old, since desire for immortality runs counter to the results of the aging process. Aging can be a source of unhappiness, pain, disability and alienation. However, it also can be a source of strength, wealth, wisdom, and knowledge. Universally, the aged gain respect and concern because of the positive characteristics. In truth, however, increasing age often leads to discrimination, neglect, and hostility (Frye).

Ageism can be defined as the systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals because they are old. The term has been widely debated since first noted by Robert Butler in the late 1960s. Bytheway and Johnson stressed three major traits of the ageism definition. First, the stigmatization of older people; second, use of age to deny resources and opportunities that could be enjoyed by those who are not old; and third, the interpersonal results of the decline of society. The authors cite the view of Alex Comfort that ageism is "the notion that people cease to be people, cease to be the same people or become people of a distinct and inferior kind, by virtue of having lived a specified number of years." stereotype is a fixed idea about the traits or qualities of a certain group (that is, race, class, profession, etc.) of individuals. A stereotype about a group is normally created by people outside that group who may make observations about some members of the group, then generalize that all members of the group behave in certain ways.

A number of different stereotypes go hand-in-hand with ageism. For example, it is said that all elderly go into a type of second childhood. This can be seen by the pictures of people in nursing homes wearing children's birthday hats. Such stereotypes have led to other similar generalizations, such as the elderly cannot take care of themselves, all of them live in nursing homes and they need to be taken care of by someone younger. The over-80-year-olds are often dwarfed by the bodily presence of a young nurse or attendant (Fetherstone).

This common misconception of older people as poor, frail, fearful, depressed, idle, unwanted and selfish does not agree with their self-perception. Lou Harris and Associates compared the public's expectations of the problems connected with aging to the responses of older people about their actual problems (Fugate and Lamdin). On all these commonly agreed upon ideas about aging, public expectations were dramatically more negative than by what older people said: 77% of older people do not fear crime; 79% consider themselves in good health; 85% have enough money; 88% are not lonely; 93% feel needed; and 94% keep busy. nor, does the mind go quickly as one becomes older, with great forgetfulness, lack of learning ability and senility.

An important point is that older people participate actively in learning and remembering. Although perceptual and motor decrements clearly may inhibit the ability of persons to adapt to psychosocial stress, they are not crucial in most situations. Even declines in speed of intellectual, cognitive, and problemsolving as determined largely from laboratory experiments or standardized tests, may not be so critical in adapting to real life situations where quality of response is much more important than speed or quantity.

Due to this stereotype there is often a bias against starting an older worker in a long-term developmental career path or even a short-term training program. Organizational gatekeepers for the amount of time in which the organization can profit from the investment is too short to warrant starting the process Finally, although the media often treat older individuals' sexuality with humor, there are many older people who keep healthy and fit, exercise, engage in sports and have good sexual lives with their partners.

Homophobia is the hatred or fear of homosexuals - that is, lesbians and gay men - which, in its worst form, may sometimes lead to acts of violence and expressions of hostility, but normally results in stereotyping and oppression. Homophobia is not confined to any one segment of society, and can be found in people from all walks of life.