Reviews recent histories of geriatrics which suggest that early physicians contributed to the degradation of old age by labeling it a disease. Records of the Boston Almshouse Hospital indicated that assessments of the elderly's morbidity were prompted as much by doctors' desires for self-advancement as by the elderly's needs. (JAC)

Reviews Western art and literature, revealing many examples of older people being characterized as avaricious and miserly. Describes historical reasons for characterizing older people as misers, such as their need to control wealth, intergenerational conflict, and lack of social support programs. Sees industrialization, Social Security, and other…

Reading literature that presents adolescents with realistic and believable youth-aged relationships can help young people understand and have meaningful relationships with the elderly. Reading and analysis of some contemporary adolescent literature that depicts youth-aged relationships revealed that attitudes, actions, and feelings of fictional…

Reviewed 73 children's storybooks to explore how grandparents were depicted. Found that grandmothers and grandfathers both portrayed stereotypic roles. While the older-age population is a diverse group, this diversity was not reflected in the storybooks reviewed. (Author/NB)

Seniors are routinely subjected to negative stereotypes regarding their physical and cognitive abilities. The power and prevalence of cultural stereotypes of aging essentially results in a "double-whammy" to seniors. First, they influence the way that seniors are treated by society. Second, cultural stereotypes affect how seniors see…

Semantically traced, over time, terms used to represent old people, aging, and effects of aging. Major themes found included differences between terms used for old men and old women; ambiguity of terms; older people subjected to more pejoratives than in past; and terms characterizing the old being focused on negative and debilitative effects of…

Negative stereotypes of older adults' computer illiteracy are not supported by research. Their attitudes to computer use improve with experience and training, although studies show they need approximately twice as long to learn. Trainers should consider factors related to equipment, information, tasks, and individuals in designing computer…

Overviews evolving program of interdisciplinary, multimethod research concerned with intergenerational communication. Concludes from studies that young people process and respond to speech of older people in stereotypical ways. Uses lifespan and intercultural perspectives to argue that communicative patterns observed in studies are sometimes…

Notes that suicide is common in old age, but public opinion remains negative. Following a review of theories of suicide and summary of arguments against suicide, constructs argument for why elderly have unique claim to an ethical, unobstructed suicide. Claim rests on their "developmental autonomy," based on experience and wisdom of the elderly.…

Analysis of 28 studies of characters on television and in children's books, magazines, and basal readers reveals that elderly people, especially women, were underrepresented, generally depicted in a negative light, and rarely cast in major or fully developed roles. (SK)

Many children have a limited conception about old age. Asking children to draw a picture of an old person and then to explain or tell a story about the picture is a unique way to unlock the hidden attitudes children may hold. This study concluded that children are abandoning stereotypes related to the attitudes and abilities of older persons. (KW)

This literature review explores societal attitudes about older individuals and the influence of these attitudes on the self-esteem of older persons. These topics are examined: identification of common stereotypes and myths about older persons; media depiction of older persons; influence of stereotypical images on older persons' self-perceptions;…

Images of aging that appear in popular child/teen curricular materials used in church-related contexts were examined to determine how older adults are portrayed in words and pictures in these materials and what images of aging emerge. Materials from the following sources, randomly selected from those that had been checked out of the Ecumenical…

Psychological and physical segregation are not conditions intrinsic to the aging process--they are created and propagated by society's response to it. Eradication or reduction of older adults' role loss, collective stereotyped treatment, and physical separation require the awareness and application of gerontological concepts in public library…

Arguing that the stereotypes of aging and the aged in books and other media are generally negative, this article provides an overview of media study findings and comments extensively on the image of the elderly in several contemporary realistic young adult novels. Eleven references and additional novel titles are provided. (EJS)