PSYC12H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Gerontophobia, Malignancy, Nuclear Family
18 Apr 2013
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Document Summary
Ageism: prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination directed at someone because of their age. Aging is different from examining racism or sexism because the members of an outgroup (the young) will eventually become part of an ingroup (the elderly). Brewer found that people have a generally negative view of the superordinate category older people, but they have several subcategories of older people (with both negative and positive subcategories). Overall, people have a more negative attitude toward older people than toward younger. Benign ageism: subtle type of prejudice that arises out of one"s conscious and unconscious fears and anxiety of growing old. Malignant ageism: a more negative stereotyping process in which older people are regarded as worthless. Benign ageism is more common because it is more subtle. Ageism is one of the most unnoticed and socially condoned forms of prejudice. Positive ageism assumes that older people are in need of special care, treatment, or economic assistance.
