Intergenerational Relations in Europe[i]

“Using people’s confidence about discussing personal matters as a litmus test of intergenerational relationships, the survey (cited below) looked at three different contexts, friendships, families, and the workplace.”

“When it comes to friendships, most countries showed that people tend to have friends among people of a similar age and tend to feel more comfortable with their peers.  It is striking that 80 percent of people aged 15 to 24 have no friends in their seventies. The majority of respondents are members of families that contain children or grandchildren between the ages of 15 and 30 and relatives over 70. Across Europe, people feel quite comfortable talking across generations. More people in the UK have family members over 70 than have children or grand children under 30, and 88 percent of respondents talk confidently to both groups, so their family intergenerational contact is positive.”

“In the workplace, perhaps unsurprisingly, all survey respondents had more contact with those in their 20s compared with the over-70s. Those under 64, perhaps predominant in the paid workforce, spend their time with colleagues under 20, while those over 65 – who are perhaps more involved with voluntary work – spend more time with those over 70.”

“If on balance, intergenerational contact seems to be at least modestly promising, most people do not see younger and older and younger people as part of a common group with a shared ethos. Rather, they are seen as two separate groups with distinctive attributes within one community.  Although this is a somewhat negative conclusion the different age groups also regard each other as individuals(led by Croatia and Sweden at of 40 percent, the UK and the European mean of 30 percent, Poland, Estonia and Hungary at about 15 percent), which mitigates a tendency to display prejudice to age groups as a whole.”

“A body of research[ii] had firmly established that a very powerful way to overcome prejudice is to foster close, honest and personal relationships is the key.  We need to be alive to trends which appear to be supportive of age segregation, and seek initiatives which can bring different generations together around issues of shared interest and importance.” 

My wife Elizabeth and I have been working on this goal for several years with our organization ICAL.Ca.  Full name Intergenerational Centre for Action Learning.

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[i]  The above material comes from Professor Dominic Abrams et al; The European Research Group on Attitudes to Age,  The data comes from the European Social Survey 2008.  It was published in Marck 2011 by Age UK

[ii] T.F. Pettigrew and L.R. Tropp (2006) “Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes – A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5): 751-83.

The Paths of Retirement

Exploring The Paths of Retirement

    

         I voluntarily left Kantlen Polytechnic University two years ago in August. I have been preparing to retire for some time, including the creation of this blog and workshop/seminars including humor, wisdom and retirement and ageism.  These can be helpful to both those doing pre-retirement planning, those who have already have already left work and employers seeking new workers and managing their business.

         According to Robert Atchley, a highly respected gerontologist, rather than thinking of retirement as a single event, it can be better understood as series of adjustments[i].  Not everyone goes through all of them.  See if any of the following three possible paths may reflect your experience. They are:

     1. The honeymoon path is a happy time; especially for those with good financial status when a person attempts to do all the things that he or she never had time to do while working.  Traveling is a frequent choice.

     2. Another option is immediate retirement routine. Many of us already have activities besides work.  For instance I volunteer and the local seniors centre and am creating a series of seminar/workshops that will not only benefit the community but also help me financially.

     3. The last option is rest and relaxation during which individuals sit back, relax and catch up on their reading. This period may last several years and then we pick up on our previous level of activity.  I approach this by stirring my creativity with painting and poetry writing.

         Retirees may also experience disenchantment.  Honeymoons don’t last forever. We may miss our work and feel a lack of productivity. Or we might experience the death of a loved one or be forced to move from our neighborhood and community. These experiences may last several years before we can return to our previous level of activity. In extreme cases we may experience depression. Fortunately the proportion of people who become depressed is reported to be quite small

         The return to activity is seen as a reorientation period during which we re-evaluate our situation and become more realistic in our choices.  We can then develop more satisfying routines.

         In planning for retirement it’s important to remember that, as a society we are increasing our longevity.  Retirement can last a long time.   Do any of the above descriptions reflect you own experience?

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[i]   Robert Atchley --  Retirement as a Social Institution

Women's Retirement Variety

Working Women’s Retirement[i]

         Much of the discussion about employment and retirement are gender biased.    This post is designed to help rebalance our understanding of contributions women make in paid employment and their considerations as the move into retirement. As I was surfing around I came upon an article that discusses nature of women’s employment and retirement. 

            The primary focus of the author, Dr, Christine Price, is two show and discuss similarity and differences between professional and non-professional women in the workforce. The method used to gather data was qualitative. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed.[ii]In the conventional view, qualitative methods produce information only on the particular cases studied, and any more general conclusions are only propositions (informed assertions).

         Getting on with the story, the research found five significant areas in which there were differences between professional and nonprofessional women.  They are (1) attachment to work, (2) professional identity, (3) social contacts, (4) family roles and obligations, and (5) community contacts.  

         I will go briefly through these areas but I encourage you, if you are really interested, to go to the sources, displayed at the bottom of this post.

Attachment to Work

          Perhaps the most important factor, and I can identify with this is that “For the professional women, the decision to retire involved the ending of a career that dominated a significant portion of their adulthood and retirement was “…an ending to a significant chapter of their lives.”

         On the other side is the non-Professional women did not appear to have difficulty leaving their jobs in fact many felt relieved? No more “punching the clock” and nobody felt that their job had been “fulfilling.”

Professional Identity

         Just over half of the professionals also felt that they had lost some social status. There were three components to this:  (1) misconceptions of reduced professional capabilities once retired, (2) immediate loss of professional titles and (3) “the assumption of permanent availability to others.

         No any of the non-professionals identified with the reduction of social status. Some actually said retirement helped them feel “…an increased sense of importance and responsibility.  Perhaps this is because many of the non-professionals weren’t paid a lot and didn’t have much responsibility a work.

Social Contacts

         This refers to the loss of daily contacts.  The professional women “…missed the casual friendships established at work in addition to the feelings of satisfaction they gained from impacting the lives of others.” The nonprofessional women did not report theses feelings.

Family Roles and Obligations

         Understandably. While family roles were important to both groups, almost all… “of the nonprofessional women mentioned family roles and obligations as influencing their decisions to retire as well as how they structured their time after retirement. The same women also described the roles and related responsibilities of wife, daughter, mother and grandmother as taking priority after retirement. This makes it apparent that the non-professional women held family roles as central to their sense of self in retirement. This was not so with the professional women

Community Involvement

After retirement both groups of women’s lives were “…filled with volunteer and recreational activities.  Teachers served as substitute teachers (me to), or on various community boards related to teens-at-risk and educational issues.  These activities were less varied among the nonprofessional women. “Nine (60%) of the nonprofessional retirees served their communities by volunteering with local organizations “…including hospital, recreation center and senior center.

In summary there continued to be differences between retirements for persons with professional roles compared to those with “jobs” Jobs were experienced primarily as sources of income.    I think these findings are probably similar for men, I think I’ll surf around and see if I can find some information

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[i]  Article source: http://www.HaworthPress.com

[ii]  Definition taken from wikapedia

Making Retirement Beneficial

Retirement Goals

         Alfred Adler identified and developed the basic ideas expressed in this blog entry[i].  I used his approach to the understanding of personality during the years I worked as an Industrial Clinical Psychologist. I still think of myself as an Individual Psychologist, which is what he called himself and those who used his model.

         During our lives we strive to achieve things, most of which are connected to our social relationships.  In addition during the years of our employment a central focus is to do the very best job we can to seek perfection. In addition we generally live and work within various forms of community relationships.

.  All of my life I have sought to do my very best.  I have also worked to help others.  I believe that I have had these goals since my younger brother Rodger was born and I started “helping” my mother. At first I did my best to please her. After a while I did my best because it felt good.

         Now in the middle of my second year of retirement I must respond to new challenges and adapt to the world as it changes. I expect that these adjustments will continue until the end of my life.  But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

           One of my key activities has the creation of this blog. In addition all of the over 171 posts on my blogspot are dedicated to my goal of doing my very best to help others who have either retired or are planning to retire. I have had over 1000 visits and I intend to continue posting.

         The questions I have asked myself are below. Ask yourself and let me know it they are helpful:

        1. What goals would you like to achieve during your                            retirement?

       2. What accomplishments are you most proud of during                            your work life?

      3. What social relationships are most important to you?

        

        

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[i] Adler,A. (1979).Superiority and Social Interest. George C. McCloud Limited,                Toronto    ISBN  978-0-392-00910-1

The Decision to Retire

Personality And The Decision To Retire

       This afternoon I came upon a very interesting research paper that adds a new dimension to ways we can explain our decision to retire[i] It is interesting not only because it was published this month but also because it considers the importance of personality in retirement decision making.

       The authors suggest that retirement decisions go through three Assessment Phases:

1.  Imagining the possibility of retirement in the future

2.  Assessing when it is time to let go of Long-held jobs

3.  Putting concrete plans for retirement into action in the present.

    Changes considered in the retirement context are:

ü    Joint decision making within the family

ü    Social normative expectations of colleagues and friends

ü    Greater opportunities for growth and development.

       They also suggest we should look more directly into personality and retirement relationships. Specifically, “…personality theory has the potential to substantially enhance our understanding of this process.”  They go on to suggest that we begin by using “the Big 5” as a model as a tool. .

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[i] Feldman,D.C. & Beehr,T.A. (2011)  A three-phase model          of retirement decision making, American Psychologist, vol 66(3) ,

193-203

New Blog, sharing my art & poetry

 Having fun with aging. 
 I have today created a new blog spot on which I will express my very strong interests in creativity.  It is titled Art with Wrinkles  For the past several years and now in retirement I have developed a great interest in poetry and painting. One of the best things about retirement is having the time and energy to reach inside and express that creativity.  I wish to thank my wife Elizabeth, for her help

Aging In The World of Light: A Poem

Growing Old With Wrinkles

As the morning sun twinkled

I looked down at my hands

And saw my skin wrinkled.

Looking in the mirror

They were also on my face.

For a while I found wrinkles

Difficult to accept as mine.

In any case I am who I am

And I am not one to whine

Later as I watched the News

An afternoon TV commercial

Advertised a way for them to lose

But that’s not for me to choose

My mother who is 97

With all her wrinkles

As she waits for heaven

I hope to live as long as her

As Christmas approaches I wonder

What Santa Claus thinks about wrinkles?

Self-Ageism

Relationship of Ageism to Self-Concept

         “Few studies have examined the impact of ageist attitude on the self-concept of older adults. This is interesting as this represents the group most affected by ageist attitudes. Kastenbaum and Durkee (1964a) discuss how elderly people view old age. They conclude that attitudes of the aged towards themselves as a population is improving. However, it still is hypothesized that as individuals age, their concept of themselves becomes less positive. In support of this contention they cite Kuhlen (1959) who reported that only 5 percent of older individuals surveyed select middle and later adulthood as the period of greatest happiness. It is important to remember that many of these earlier studies used a non-representative sample of older adults.”
         One potential outcome of internalized ageist attitudes in the older adult is a syndrome described as the social breakdown syndrome (Kuypers & Bengston, 1973). The social breakdown syndrome is hypothesized to involve the following stages:
          First, the individual becomes susceptible to dependence on external labeling. This is proposed to occur in response to role loss or the lack of a reference group. For example, retirement or widowhood might make the individual susceptible.
         The second stage is dependence on external labeling. If this labeling is positive, the syndrome continues no further.
         However, the third stage is characterized by the societal view of the elderly as incompetent or obsolete.
          If the individual accepts this negative attitude, he/she falls into the fifth stage of assuming a dependent role.
         This is followed by the atrophy of skills and finally the labeling of the self as inadequate, incompetent, and "sick". Therefore, what the social breakdown syndrome describes is the self-fulfilling nature of negative attitudes concerning age and aging.

Woolf Gerontology Page 

More about Elder Abuse

Elder abuse signs evident[i]

“Toronto -- Older people who have a wrist or hip fracture often get such injuries after taking a fall.  But researchers say there is a distinct pattern of broken bones and bruises that suggests something more sinister—elder abuse.

         After reviewing the international medical literature and Ontario coroner’s reports, Dr. Kieran Murphy and colleagues saw the same pattern of fractures and soft-tissue injuries repeatedly.

         ‘There is indeed a typical distribution of injuries that are seen radiologically in the elderly who are beaten..” said Murphy, a radiologist at the University Health Network in Toronto.”  So they have injuries around their eyes, they have injuries to their teeth.

         ‘They may have shaking injuries which cause bleeds (inside) the head called subdurals, they may have soft tissue injuries and upper extremities injuries’ he added.

          ‘A broken shoulder blade is another sign of elder abuse.’

         “Murphy and his team reviewed more than 1,100 cases of abuse in people over the age 60.”        

         “Their analysis also showed that these elderly abuse victims were most often in a home setting being cared for by

non-professionals, such as a family member or other untrained caregiver.”

         “Often the offender is financially dependent on the older person and may have an alcohol or drug addiction, he said.”

_The Canadian Press

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[i]  Material reported in The Province, Friday Nov 30^th 2012, Vancouver British Columbia,             THEPROVINCE.COM  Page B13

Media and Ageism

            The role of the media in supporting ageism[i]

Mass media, particularly television and movies, define social roles in contemporary culture by presenting a steady and repetitive portrayal of images and a system of messages. Studies reveal the common perception in the media that youth sells and youth buy. This view causes television shows, movies, and advertisements to feature young characters to bring in large audiences and revenues. The media emphasize youth and beauty, fast-paced action and lives, and overly simplistic portrayals of individuals. This emphasis exacerbates the negative image of aging and the elderly in American culture, because the stereotypes of aging are the antithesis of the attributes upon which television and movies thrive.

The image of aging depicted in the media has generally been one of negative stereotyping, a portrayal that seems to be more negative than any other social group. In American culture, the aged are not depicted as experienced "elders." Rather, older people are tolerated and respected to the extent they can act like younger people and work, exercise, and have healthy relationships.

Research from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, shows a continuing negative portrayal of older persons and the elderly by the media, manifested mostly through comments referring to decline and deterioration in old age.

The media also tend to exclude or severely underrepresent the elderly in the images presented on television compared to the proportion of elderly in the U.S. population. While the population age sixty-five and older represents almost 13 percent of the U.S. population, only about 8 percent of the roles in television commercials in the 1990s were of older persons (Tupper). Older women are almost invisible in prime-time television shows and movies.

Similarly, television advertising, which has a profound effect on influencing and shaping attitudes, repeatedly conveys negative stereotypes by representing older persons as feeble, forgetful, stubborn, and helpless. Repeated exposure to negative stereotypes about aging and the elderly in commercial advertising can lead to a devaluing of the elderly.

Advertisers clearly focus their marketing on younger women who are primarily responsible for household purchases. The common perception among advertising agencies is that younger age groups spend more than older age groups. Recent studies show that while sixty-five to seventy-four-year-old consumers outspend their counterparts in the thirty-five to forty-four-yearold category, ad agency staff ignored older audiences and underappreciated their potential and power as consumers.

Newspapers and magazines generally present neutral images of aging and do not create or support negative images of the elderly in their coverage of stories or in advertisements.

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[i]   http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ageism.aspx

Fighting Elder Abuse

Elder Abuse It’s Time to Face Reality[i]

         This material was found in a folder at the local senior’s centre and I think the information should have a wider exposure. The handout discusses psychological, financial, and physical abuse.

         “One in five Canadians believes they know of a senior who might be experiencing some form of abuse. Seniors from all walks of life are vulnerable to elder abuse and its happening in communities across Canada.”

         “Outlined here is basic information on how seniors and Canadians can spot elder abuse as well as information on how to help stop it.”

What is Elder Abuse?

         “Elder abuse is any action by anyone in a relationship of trust the results in harm or distress to an older person.  Neglect is a lack of action by that person in a relationship of trust with the same result. Commonly recognized types of elder abuse include physical, psychological and financial.  Often, more than on type of abuse occurs at the same time. Abuse can be a single incident or a repeated pattern of behaviour.”

         “Financial abuse is the most commonly reported type of elder abuse.”

Why does elder abuse happen?

         “Elder abuse often occurs because of the abuser’s power and control over an older person.  In some situations, the abuse may also result from addiction issues (drugs, alcohol, gambling), mental health problems, a cycle of family violence or ageism. Abuse can happen when the aggressor wants to intimidate, isolate, dominate, or control another person.”

Who abuses Seniors?

         “ Older adults effected by abuse often know and trust the person mistreating them.  Elder abuse can be caused by a family member, a friend, someone who provides assistance with basic needs or services, or health care providers in institutional settings. In many situations of elder abuse, the abuser is dependent on the other adult for money, food or shelter.”

Who is affected by elder abuse?

         “Most older people who experience abuse are able to make decisions for themselves.”

         “Abuse can happen to anyone, in any family or relationship. It can happen to people of backgrounds, ages, religions, races, cultures and ethnic origins.”

Why are some older adults reluctant to talk about elder abuse?

         “Older adults may feel ashamed or embarrassed to tell anyone they are being abused by someone they trust.  They may fear retaliation or punishment, or they may have concerns about having to move from their home or community.  They may also feel a sense of family loyalty.  Often, older adults may not be aware of people and resources that can help.”

Who can help?

         “It is important that the older person has access to information to make informed decisions and be aware of available help.  This may include support and assistance from family members or friends, health care providers, social services, police, legal professional and/or members of faith communities. No one ever deserves to be abused of neglected.”

What are the indicators of abuse and neglect?

         “Elder abuse and neglect can be very difficult to detect. The following signs and symptoms may indicate that an older adult is being victimized or neglected.”

·        fear, anxiety, depression or passiveness in relation to family member, friend or care provider;

·        unexplained physical injuries;

·        dehydration, poor nutrition, or poor hygiene;

·        improper use of medication;

·        confusion about legal documents, such as new will or a new mortgage;

·        sudden drop in case flow or financial holdings; and

·        reluctance to speak about the situation.”

What is:

“Physical abuse of seniors?”

·        striking;

·        hitting;

·        pushing;

·        shaking;

·        burning;

·        shoving;

·        inappropriate physical and chemical restraints; or

·        harm created by over or under medicating”

“Psychological abuse”

“Psychological abuse of seniors includes actions that decrease their sense of self-worth and dignity and may include:

·        insults;

·        threats;

·        intimidation;

·        humiliation;

·        harassment;

·        treating them like a child; or

·        isolating them from family, friends and regular activities.”

“Financial Abuse”

“Financial abuse includes actions that decrease the worth of an older person, without benefit to that person and may includes:

·        misusing or stealing a senior’s assets, property or money;

·        cashing an elderly person’s cheques without authorization;

·        forging an elderly person’s signature

·        unduly pressuring seniors to make or change a will, or to sign legal documents that they do not fully understand; and

·        sharing an older person’s home without paying a fair share of the expenses when requested.”

“Neglect of seniors”

“Neglect includes interactions that may result in harm to an older person and may include a caregiver or family member not providing appropriate:

·        water or food;

·        shelter;

·        clothing;

·        medication or medical attention; and

·        assistance with basic necessities.”

Seniors that are the most vulnerable to neglect include those who are socially isolated, and those with serious health conditions.”

 Finally, a survey that included 3,001 Canadians, including 718 seniors aged 65 and older that was conducted between May 21^st and June 6^th 2008 found that “…96 percent of Canadians think most of the abuse experienced by older adults is hidden or goes undetected.”

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[i] To find out more on what the government of Canada is doing for seniors visit www.seniors.gc.ca  ISBN 978-0-662-06370-4 

The Unique Nature of Ageism

There are many factors that lead to the expression of prejudice toward various social groups, including”…implicit attitudes, associations, social norms, social identity concerns, inter-group contact and inter-group conflict.”  (Just take a look at what’s happening in the Middle East right now). In terms of ageism, implicit attitudes toward older people tend to be quite negative.”  This is ironic because unlike the other group prejudices, everyone who lives long enough will enter into the category old age, elder, senior etc.

         “The transitional nature of age groups may add a number of unique factors that can trigger ageist attitudes. Research has found that among younger adults  “…exposure to older adults increases the accessibility of death related thoughts about one’s own death”. In other words being around elders may create negative feelings.  On the other side it has been found that more positive attitudes toward one’s own aging can lead to increased liking for older acquaintances like grandparents.

         Not much research has been done examining personal and interpersonal attitudes toward ones own aging “…for instance, in appearance, health, cognitive function, independence and relationships with friends and family.  There is also the concern about social identity, which includes personality and social roles.  For example as a young man I was an athlete and think about that as I do my morning jogs around the neighborhood

         “Research has shown that motivation to acquire and maintain positive identity for one’s own group” can lead to putting down and discriminating against other groups especially if it has to do with treat to the positive identity of one’s own group.”   This “us versus them” can help us understand a lot of inter-group conflict.

         But with respect to aging  “…young and middle aged adults may be adverse to joining the lower status older adult group, and might express prejudice as a means of distancing themselves from older adults.”

         At the same time, and this is a thought to think about carefully, “Young and middle-aged adults who express prejudice toward older adults are, in a sense, condemning themselves to future membership in a despised group.  At the same time it could be reversed because “…positive social identities apply to the future as well as current group memberships. 

The article I have referred to is 29 pages long and digs deeper into what we might do to help reduce age prejudice

[1]  The source of this material is Packer, D.J. & A.L. Chasteen; Looking To The Future: How Possible Aged Selves Influence Prejudice Toward Older Adults, Social Cognition, Vol 24, No. 3 pp. 218-247.

More Ageism in the Workplace

Work Managers and Ageist Biases [i]

         Eight years from now it has been predicted that at lease 39% of the United States workforce will be in their middle fifties. At the same time there are a growing number of workplace age discrimination claims. This situation has been found in other countries besides the United States. This situation is risky for organizations but also leads older workers to experience a lot of negative consequences.

         Why is this happening is a good question.“Age discrimination may be the result of the widespread belief that job performance decreased with age.”  At the same time “Evidence from a meta-analysis found no significant differences between age groups in objective work-performance measures.  But when the subjective measures were used the “…results indicated that older workers received lower performance scores when subjective supervisory ratings were used.”

         The authors (cited below) then state their research motivation.“What is lacking in this body of research, however, is an exploration of how employee age and manager ageism interact to create age bias, and how causal attributions mediate age-based decision making.”  Not much of previous research as investigated how these ageist biases that lead to personnel decisions manifest themselves. Finding our more about this is necessary so that ageism among management can be understood and reduced.

         So what may be causing this situation? “The current study seeks to explore if supervisors give systematically different (e.g. pessimistic) attributions for older versus younger workers’ errors on the job; and if such differences exist, whether such attributions affect the decisions made about these employees.”

         They used the following method.They gathered material from students at a university; most of them were females with average ages of 22 years and average years working 4.72. Participation was voluntary and all data collected was anonymous.

Procedure

         Participants engaged in the following:

1.   They were given a job description including; a description of tasks, working conditions, physical demands, knowledge, skills and abilities      involved in the job.  These were gathered from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles

2.   A vignette was then provided describing the work behavior of the hypothetical employee (Pat). She was described as either young (31 years) or old (63) years. It contained “…a description of (a) some cognitive problems that the employee had been having on the job, such as difficulties with memory, problem solving, and attention to detail; (b) difficulties with physical demands associated with the job; and (c) statements regarding the safety and economic consequences the errors could have caused

3.   Asked what recommendations that should be carried out (evaluated on a seven point scale);

         a. “The employee should be terminated.”

         b. “The employee should be asked to resign.”

         c. “The employee should be demoted

         d. “The employee should be assigned to a different position                                                         

         e. “The employee should be provided with temporary job support or personal                                    counseling through an employee assistant program.

  4.  They were then asked write out what they felt were the major causes of the target employee’s job performance errors

Results and Discussion[ii]

1.   Older employees received more severe recommendations for poor performance suggesting that “…performance errors of older workers were more likely viewed as being a result of stable factors, as compared to younger workers

2.   Younger employees were more likely to receive recommendation for formal assistance (EAP) to remedy performance problems

3.    Possible reasoning; older persons performance from more stable causes e.g. personality, memory loss which would not be altered easily by specific intervention and also there is less, and possibly insufficient time

        Finally it is stated that:   “Our results also suggest that some ageist attitudes (stereotypes; negative attitudes; beliefs about instrumentality, autonomy and integrity) are related to recommendations that are biased against older individuals.  The authors admit that it might be better if the research was done with employees rather than students and that this may limit generalization

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[i]  Rupp, D.E., Vodanovich S.J. & Crede, M. (2006). Age Bias in the Workplace:             The Impact of Ageism and Causal Attributions; Journal of Applied Social             Psychology, 36, 6, pp. 1337-1364 

[ii]   There’s a lot of information in the Results section I highly recommend that you             find a             way to get the original article.

A Poem of Happiness

This Morning’s Journey

Leaving home my heart beat faster

Returning to my former place of work

Loosing my way might be disaster

But the journey I would not shirk

Driving deep in a valley filled with fog

I began deep breath

Like galloping while on my jog

Far away from fear of death

Then back on hills the sun was shining

Deep warmth came from inside out

Such joy is not surprising

With joy I felt the urge to shout

This morning’s journey

Like the trip of life

Had ups and downs

We all must have

Roots of Ageism

Exploring the Roots of Intergenerational Ageism[i]

         I recently came across a research article (cited below) that can be very useful to ICAL: Intergenerational Centre for Action Learning.

[Go to ical.ca].  In this coming year our non-profit company, bc-communitybuilding [go http://www.bc-communitybuilding.com/] will begin a project using artistic activities to strengthen intergenerational relations and hopefully take another step in combating ageism. 

         The material in this blog entry is gathered from the article cited below. It is becoming increasingly clear that we must now increase our anti-ageism campaign.  The population is aging and we are continuing to struggle with an economic downturn (recession? depression?)

         The authors, after an extensive journal search tell us that  “Whatever the reason, age-based prejudice remains drastically under investigated, despite the salience of age in interpersonal judgments.”   Those who hold stereotypes, including ageism, go on to create “…pernicious short- and long-term consequences.”  These consequences can be subtle and complex.

         For instance the consequences are found in medicine where schools underemphasize geriatrics leading to medical mistreatment. In employment where “…evidence indicates that older applicants are rated less positively than younger ones, even when they are similarly qualified.”  And this is just some of the areas.

         Ageism can be very subtle and not hostile for instance “… well-meaning people unwittingly speak to older people using benevolent yet patronizing baby talk and demeaning, exaggeratedly slow and loud over accommodation.”

         As a consequence of ageism many seniors “…internalize negative stereotypes becoming more forgetful, sickly, and depressed, simply because they anticipate adopting such characteristics in their later life.”

         The authors go on to explore some theories used to explain ageism. I suggest that you go to the original article and explore them. If you have access you can find it on Psych Info or the author’s email address cited below.

         Here are just some of the additional topics discussed:

·  Benevolent Prejudices

·  Empirical Bases for Intergenerational Pessimism

·  Elder Optimism

·  Age Specific interests

·  Ensuring Successful Intergenerational contact

·  Cross-Cultural Explorations

·  Ageism against the young

          

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[i] North, Michael S. &  Fiske, Susan, T., Intergenerational Ageism and it’s potential intergenerational roots. Psychological Bulletin, 19391455,             20120901, Vol, 138, Issue 5.  Correspondence for article should be directed to: Michael S. North. Princeton University, Dept of Psych, Green Hall, Princeton Email: mnorth@princeton.edu

            

The Love of my LIfe

Sitting on the Edge of Time

Looking through the window of my computer
Listening to the outside world
With over seventy years of life gone past

To an uncertain future; slowing eyes, ears and memory
I smile, look over the edge of time, then jump.

No, someone says he’s too old
No one laughs
And then, released from damns in each of us
New ideas flood our conversation

At times each flounders
Fearing he or she is beyond their depth.
But always someone throws a lifeline.
No one drowns

At last we’re tired 
And sit on cushions staring
Eyes meet again from flowing minds
We leave our thought adrift

What is democracy
But the right
To swim together
In conversation