[en] Objectives. Negative age stereotypes have negative, assimilative effects on the subjective aging experience due to internalization processes, but sometimes positive contrast effects are reported as well, reflecting dissociation and downward comparisons. Our aim was thus to compare short-term and long-term consequences of age stereotypes on the subjective aging experience, to test the hypothesis that contrast effects are visible cross-sectionally, whereas internalization processes are observed when considering long-term changes.
Method. We assessed age stereotypes and subjective age in a core sample of N=459 participants (initial age range 30 – 80 years) from the Ageing as Future project (Lang et al., 2022) across three consecutive measurement occasions spanning a longitudinal interval of 10 years. Short-term and long-term effects were estimated with latent growth models by assessing effects of age stereotypes on the intercepts (cross-sectional) and on the slopes (longitudinal) of subjective age, respectively, while controlling for current self-views.
Results. Age stereotypes had opposite effects on subjective age depending on the time frame. A cross-sectional contrast effect was found, whereas longitudinal effects were assimilative in nature.
Discussion. Our findings support the time-dependent nature of effects of age stereotypes on the subjective aging experience. Negative age stereotypes temporarily lead to a significantly younger subjective age, indicating dissociation from one’s age group and downward comparison. In the long run, however, negative (positive) age stereotypes become internalized into the self-views of older people and are linked to a relatively older (younger) subjective age.
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
KORNADT, Anna Elena ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS)
Weiss, David
De Paula Couto, Clara
Rothermund, klaus
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Internalization or Dissociation? Negative age stereotypes make you feel younger now but make you feel older later
Publication date :
2023
Journal title :
Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
ISSN :
1079-5014
eISSN :
1758-5368
Publisher :
Oxford University Press, Cary, United States - North Carolina
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