In the "Through their Eyes Project" health sciences students are partnered with older adults to explore and assess the age-friendliness of their neighborhood. Using an innovative data collection tool -- 'moving interviews' -- these intergenerational research teams learn about the community and each other by traveling, observing, and…

Biases against the elderly and people with disabilities can lead to discriminatory behaviors. One way to conceptualize attitudes toward the elderly and people with disabilities is through the differentiation of explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) factors. Although both explicit and implicit attitudes and biases contribute to the full…

The major goals of the present study were to (a) examine age differences in susceptibility to age stereotypes and (b) test a self-awareness manipulation in counteracting age stereotypes. Young and older adults read two sets of descriptors that only differed in the to-be-ignored age-related information. In the high self-awareness condition,…

Human services educators must address the issue of students' bias toward older adults to encourage interest and meet the growing need for professionals in the field. The use of literature can challenge students' preconceptions of older adults while innovative teaching methods can guide their development of more tolerant views and introduce them to…

The present paper, drawing from the perspective of social cognition, examines and evaluates an intervention based on social-cognitive perspective-taking on the reduction of stereotyping and prejudice in older adults. Data were collected in a sample of Spanish participants with a mean age of 63.2 years. The intervention, aimed at reducing prejudice…

Aging is a complex process that involves factors such as cultural, ethnic, and gender differences and is unique to each individual. Love, sexual intimacy, and sexuality are characteristics that help define individuals and often contribute to how well they will continue to live and age. Enhanced knowledge and healthy attitudes about sexual needs…

Research suggests there is a connection between stereotypes, beliefs, and behavior in older individuals. To explore this link of stereotypes affecting beliefs and beliefs affecting behavior, we interviewed young (age 60 to 75) seniors in an effort to further examine these relationships. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20…

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…

Undergraduate social work and criminal justice students completed 1 of 4 vignettes that were identical with the exception of the age and gender of the vignette's subject. In each vignette, the subject interacted with an opposite-sex 24-year-old waiter or waitress. Following each vignette, respondents answered 20 items relating to the age, gender,…