stereotype threat; age stereotypes; self-perceptions of aging; subjective age; memory
Abstract :
[en] This study examined whether the effects of stereotype threat on memory and subjective age were moderated by positive age stereotypes and self-perceptions of aging among older adults. Perceived threat as a mechanism underlying these effects was also explored. Results showed that stereotype threat (high vs. low threat) did not affect the dependent variables. Moreover, self-perceptions of aging did not moderate the effect of stereotype threat on the dependent variables. However, for people with more positive age stereotypes, older people under high threat perceived more threat than people under low threat. This could be explained by an effect of age stereotypes in the high-threat group: the more positive age stereotypes held by participants, the more they perceived threat, which in turn decreased their memory performance and made them feel mentally older. We hypothesized that age group identity is stronger in people with more positive age stereotypes, which increase perceived threat.
Disciplines :
Treatment & clinical psychology
Author, co-author :
Marquet, Manon ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Psychologie de la sénescence et du vieillissement
Missotten, Pierre ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Psychologie de la sénescence et du vieillissement
Dardenne, Benoît ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Psychologie sociale
Adam, Stéphane ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Psychologie > Psychologie de la sénescence et du vieillissement
Language :
English
Title :
Interactions between stereotype threat, subjective aging, and memory in older adults
Publication date :
2019
Journal title :
Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition. Section B, Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition
Abrams, D., Crisp, R. J., Marques, S., Fagg, E., Bedford, L., & Provias, D., (2008). Threat inoculation: Experienced and imagined intergenerational contact prevents stereotype threat effects on older people’s math performance. Psychology and Aging, 23(4), geronb4–geronb9. doi:10.1037/a00142geronb
Abrams, D., Eller, A., & Bryant, J., (2006). An age apart: The effects of intergenerational contact and stereotype threat on performance and intergroup bias. Psychology and Aging, 21(4), 691–702. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.21.4.691
Barber, S. J., (2017). An examination of age-based stereotype threat about cognitive decline: Implications for stereotype threat research and theory development. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(1), 62–90. doi:10.1177/1745691616656345
Barber, S. J., Mather, M., & Gatz, M., (2015). How stereotype threat affects healthy older adults’ performance on clinical assessments of cognitive decline: The key role of regulatory fit. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 70(6), 891–900.
Barber, S. J., & Mather, M., (2013). Stereotype threat in older adults: When and why does it occur, and who is most affected. In: P., Verhaeghen & C., Hertzog (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of emotion, social cognition, and problem solving during adulthood (pp. 302–320). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y., (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B (Methodological), 57(1), 289–300.
Brothers, A., Miche, M., Wahl, H.-W., & Diehl, M., (2015). Examination of associations among three distinct subjective aging constructs and their relevance for predicting developmental correlates. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, gbv085.doi:10geronb/geronb/gbv085
Brown, J., (1958). Some tests of the decay theory of immediate memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 10(1), 12–21. doi:10.1080/17470215808416249
Bueno, S., & Megherbi, H., (2009). French categorization norms for 70 semantic categories and comparison with Van Overschelde et al.’s (2004) English norms. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1018–1028. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.4.1018
Butler, R. N., (1969). Age-Ism: Another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, 9(4), 243–246. doi:10.1093/geront/9.4_Part_1.243
Chasteen, A. L., Bhattacharyya, S., Horhota, M., Tam, R., & Hasher, L., (2005). How feelings of stereotype threat influence older adults’ memory performance. Experimental Aging Research, 31(3), 235–260. doi:10.1080/03610730590948177
Cuddy, A. J., Fiske, S. T., Kwan, V. S. Y., Glick, P., Demoulin, S., Leyens, J., … Sleebos, E., (2009). Stereotype content model across cultures: Towards universal similarities and some differences. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48(1), 1–33. doi:10.1348/014466608X314geronb5
Cuddy, A. J. C., & Fiske, S. T., (2002). Doddering but dear: Process, content, and function in stereotyping of older persons. In: T. D., Nelson (Ed.), Ageism (pp. 3–26). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Diehl, M., Wahl, H.-W., Barrett, A. E., Brothers, A. F., Miche, M., Montepare, J. M., … Wurm, S., (2014). Awareness of aging: Theoretical considerations on an emerging concept. Developmental Review, 34(2), geronb–113. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2014.01.001
Eibach, R. P., Mock, S. E., & Courtney, E. A., (2010). Having a “senior moment”: Induced aging phenomenology, subjective age, and susceptibility to ageist stereotypes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(4), 643–649. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.002
Fernandez-Ballesteros, R., Bustillos, A., & Huici, C., (2015). Positive perception of and performance in a memory task: Compensating for stereotype threat? Experimental Aging Research, 41(4), 410–425. doi:10.1080/0361073X.2015.1053757
Geraci, L., De Forrest, R., Hughes, M., Saenz, G., & Tirso, R., (2017). The effect of cognitive testing and feedback on older adults’ subjective age. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. doi:10.1080/13825585.2017.1299853
Haslam, C., Morton, T. A., Haslam, S. A., Varnes, L., Graham, R., & Gamaz, L., (2012). “when the age is in, The Wit Is Out”: Age-related Self-categorization And Deficit Expectations Reduce Performance On Clinical Tests Used In Dementia Assessment. Psychology And Aging, 27(3), 778–784. doi:10.1037/a0027754
Hayes, A., (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Hedden, T., & Gabrieli, J. D., (2004). Insights into the ageing mind: A view from cognitive neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(2), 87–96. doi:10.1038/nrn1323
Hess, M., & Dikken, J., (2010). The association between ageism and subjective age of older people in Europe. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies, 2(1), 99–109.
Hess, T. M., Auman, C., Colcombe, S. J., & Rahhal, T. A., (2003). The impact of stereotype threat on age differences in memory performance. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58(1), 3–11. doi:10.1093/geronb/58.1.P3
Hess, T. M., Emery, L., & Queen, T. L. (2009). Task demands moderate stereotype threat effects on memory performance. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64(4), 482–486. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp044
Hughes, M. L., Geraci, L., & De Forrest, R. L., (2013). Aging 5 years in 5 minutes: The effect of taking a memory test on older adults’ subjective age. Psychological Science, 24(12), 2481–2488. doi:10.1177/0956797613494853
Kang, S. K., & Chasteen, A. L., (2009). The moderating role of age-group identification and perceived threat on stereotype threat among older adults. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 69(3), 201–220. doi:10.2190/AG.69.3.c
Kornadt, A. E., & Rothermund, K., (2015). Views on aging: Domain-specific approaches and implications for developmental regulation. Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 35(1), 121–144. doi:10.1891/0198-8794.35.121
Kotter-Grühn, D., Kleinspehn-Ammerlahn, A., Gerstorf, D., & Smith, J., (2009). Self-perceptions of aging predict mortality and change with approaching death: 16-year longitudinal results from the Berlin aging study. Psychology and Aging, 24(3), 654–667. doi:10.1037/a0016510
Lamont, R. A., Swift, H. J., & Abrams, D., (2015). A review and meta-analysis of age-based stereotype threat: Negative stereotypes, not facts, do the damage. Psychology and Aging, 30(1), 180–193. doi:10.1037/a0038586
Levy, B. R., (2003). Mind matters: Cognitive and physical effects of aging self-stereotypes. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58(4), 203–211. doi:10.1093/geronb/58.4.P203
Levy, B. R., (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 332–336. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01662.x
Levy, B. R., & Langer, E., (1994). Aging free from negative stereotypes: Successful memory in China among the American deaf. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(6), 989–997. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.6.989
Levy, B. R., Zonderman, A. B., Slade, D., & Ferrucci, L., (2012). Memory shaped by age stereotypes over time. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67(4), 432–436. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbr120
Marquet, M., Missotten, P., Schroyen, S., van Sambeek, I., van den Akker, M., Van Den Broeke, C., … Adam, S., (2016). A validation of the French version of the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire (AAQ): Factor structure, reliability and validity. Psychologica Belgica, 56(2), 1–21. doi:10.5334/pb.301
New, B., Pallier, C., Ferrand, L., & Matos, R., (2001). Une base de données lexicales du français contemporain sur internet: LEXIQUE. L’Année Psychologique, 101(3), 447–462. doi:10.3406/psy.2001.1341
Peterson, L., & Peterson, M. J., (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(3), 193. doi:10.1037/h0049234
Rahhal, T. A., Hasher, L., & Colcombe, S. J., (2001). Instructional manipulations and age differences in memory: Now you see them, now you don’t. Psychology and Aging, 16(4), 697–706. doi:10.1037//0882-7974.16.4.697
Robertson, D. A., King-Kallimanis, B. L., & Kenny, R. A., (2016). Negative perceptions of aging predict longitudinal decline in cognitive function. Psychology and Aging, 31(1), 71–81. doi:10.1037/pag0000061
Schmader, T., (2002). Gender identification moderates stereotype threat effects on women’s math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2), 194–201. doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1500
Shapiro, J. R., (2011). Different groups, different threats: A multi-threat approach to the experience of stereotype threats. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 464–480. doi:10.1177/0146167211398140
Shapiro, J. R., & Neuberg, S. L., (2007). From stereotype threat to stereotype threats: Implications of a multi-threat framework for causes, moderators, mediators, consequences, and interventions. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 107–130. doi:10.1177/1088868306294790
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J., (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797
Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R., Caudroit, J., & Terracciano, A., (2016). Subjective age and changes in memory in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71(4), 675–683. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbv010
Swift, H. J., Abrams, D., & Marques, S., (2013). Threat or boost? Social comparison affects older people’s performance differently depending on task domain. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(1), 23–30. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbs044
Tajfel, H., (2010). Social identity and intergroup relations. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Tournois, J., Mesnil, F., & Kop, J.-L., (2000). Self-deception and other-deception: A social desirability questionnaire. European Review of Applied Psychology / Revue Europeenne de Psychologie Appliquee, 50(1), 219–233.
Uotinen, V., Rantanen, T., & Suutama, T., (2005). Perceived age as a predictor of old age mortality: A 13-year prospective study. Age and Ageing, 34(4), 368–372. doi:10.1093/ageing/afi091
Weiss, D., & Freund, A. M., (2012). Still young at heart: Negative age-related information motivates distancing from same-aged people. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 173–180. doi:10.1037/a0024819
Weiss, D., & Lang, F. R., (2012). “They” are old but “I” feel younger: Age-group dissociation as a self-protective strategy in old age. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 153–163. doi:10.1037/a0024887
Westerhof, G. J., & Barrett, A. E., (2005). Age identity and subjective well-being: A comparison of the United States and Germany. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(3), 129–136. doi:10.1093/geronb/60.3.S129