Improving expectations regarding aging in younger adults: a classroom study

Collective Perceptions of Aging and Older Persons Held by Students From Eight Healthcare Professions

“…However, the fear regarding perceived age-associated physical and mental decline seemed to exert a strong influence towards negative attitudes, which is consistent with other findings that suggest that negative viewpoints are more pervasive and easily-activated (Weiss & Zhang, 2020). Increasing students’ knowledge about the aging process has been suggested as an avenue to increase positive attitudes towards older persons in both medical students (Samra et al, 2017) and undergraduate students (Whatley & Castel, 2020). Our results support the need to carefully and frequently include education for HCP students on the normal aging processes in order to dispel their fears (exemplifying fears are represented in Table 4).…”

Implications of Older Adults’ Attributions for Young Adults’ Attitudes to Aging: A Vignette Study

“…First, as one of only a handful of CEMSA studies to use an experimental design rather than cross-sectional survey methods, our study can speak to issues of causality in ways that previous investigations cannot. Second, although expectations regarding aging are widely discussed in the gerontological literature (e.g., Sarkisian et al, 2005; Whatley et al, 2020; Whatley & Castel, 2020), they have not featured in previous CEMSA scholarship. We believe environmental chatter is important precisely because it may shape what people expect their future (and the futures of all people experiencing aging) to hold.…”