The Impact of Ageism and Wellbeing Strategies for Older Adults

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper discusses ageism, including its definition, causes, and characteristics, the effects of ageism on older people, and older people’s responses to their experiences of ageism. The term ageism was first used by Robert Butler in 1968 and refers to the emotional, behavioral, customary, and institutional discrimination against older people based on prejudice against them because they are older. Ageism has various social and psychological roots, including civilization, fear of aging, materialism, and fear of disease. This paper also discusses the unconscious nature of ageism, the scapegoating of both older people and ageists, and the polarization of ageism. Although many older adults are negatively affected by ageism, they are able to maintain a positive self-identity through defense mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is identity assimilation, in which older adults control the information process and only take in information that confirms their positive self. In contrast, identity accommodation, another response to aging and ageism, involves acceptance of age-related changes while also despairing of those changes. In order for older adults to overcome ageism, they need to identify and affirm that they are still who they are, even though they are changing during the aging process.