“How Old Do You Feel?” The Difficulties and Ethics of Operationalizing Subjective Age

Abstract

This article provides an integrative presentation regarding ageism within the professional culture of gerontological research by examining the operationalization of subjective age, a construct most commonly assessed by asking an individual to report how "old" they feel. According to the life span perspective [Baltes, P. B. (1987). Theoretical propositions of lifespan developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23, 611-626] and the life course perspective [Elder Jr, G. H. (1975). Age differentiation and the life course. Annual Review of Sociology, 1(1), 165-190.], growing older represents a complex, multidirectional process that encompasses maintenance, growth and decline as well as cultural factors that influence development. Viewing the construct of subjective age from these perspectives casts doubt on the validity of its operationalization. This article argues that operationalizing subjective age in this manner contributes to the dominant societal view of aging as decline by perpetuating the use of the term "old" as an undesirable state. As well, we purport that as gerontological researchers and scholars our professional code of ethics requires us to examine the unintentional communication and perpetuation of ageism by focusing attention on our own use of language.

The uniqueness of subjective ageing: convergent and discriminant validity

“…We found that the included dispositional and well-being variables explained only 10% of variance in SA. The low correlation with other subjective ageing measures and the low proportion of explained variance resonate with the ongoing debate about what SA actually measures (Gendron et al 2018 ; Zacher and Rudolph 2018 ). SA can be regarded as a highly aggregated construct that is presumably based on personal experiences of ageing in many different domains (e.g.…”

“…Despite some evidence to the contrary, however, there remains some controversy about whether “subjective ageing” truly represents a unique construct distinct from people’s general tendency to see things in a positive/negative light or their well-being (cf. Gendron et al 2018 ; Jung and Siedlecki 2018 ; Wurm et al 2007 ). Furthermore, to date there has been little stringent theoretical elaboration regarding the extent to which the SA, ATOA and AgeCog measures tap into the same or different aspects of subjective ageing (though see Diehl et al 2014 for a recent exception), nor has any study empirically examined the extent to which the three measures actually converge (i.e.…”

“…Zacher and Rudolph 2018 ). Gendron and colleagues ( 2018 ) recently presented persuasive arguments that cast doubt on the content and construct validity of the single-item SA measure. In sum, existing evidence does support the idea that different subjective ageing measures capture something unique from general dispositions and well-being, though evidence on the whole is still rather limited.…”

Considering the Impact of Research Assessments: A Commentary on “COVID-19 Related Loneliness and Psychiatric Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Buffering Role of Subjective Age”

“… 6 Gendron and colleagues suggest that studies such as this one indicate that subjective age is likely an indicator of the degree to which someone has internalized ageism and that asking participants to consider how old they feel may be perpetuating ageist messages. 7 They pose the following thought experiment: imagine that you asked research participants, “how female do you feel” or “how white do you feel?” Without asking follow-up questions, would you know how to interpret their responses? Would those questions yield meaningful data, and would you know what you were measuring?…”

“…Would psychotherapists encourage patients to consider the many ways in which they live vibrant, active lives and thus challenge their beliefs that they are “old?” This type of intervention assumes that perceiving oneself as older is necessarily negative. Gendron and colleagues 7 suggest that we consider: “What does old feel like? Is feeling old intended to capture the accumulation of wisdom, life experience, and knowledge, or is feeling old intended to capture physical and/or mental decline?” Would intervening to reduce someone's subjective age send a message that feeling older is something to avoid?…”