Suchergebnisse

Almost 50 years ago, ageism (negative attitudes toward older adults) was introduced as a significant social issue. Since then, the worldwide population of adults ages 60 and over has rapidly become the fastest growing age group, making the study of ageism an even more pressing social issue. This review outlines three broad and intertwined themes as the field continues to develop a fuller understanding of ageism: studying both positive and negative aspects of ageism, taking a lifespan focus, and integrating the study of ageism with the study of aging. The review also focuses on several timely subthemes such as the need and benefits of expanding measures of ageism and intervening variables, expanding the diversity of study samples, expanding the research methodologies, and expanding the contexts under study toward greater cross‐cultural and within‐culture investigations. This review and the international, interdisciplinary research showcased in this special issue are intended to set the stage for the next wave of international research on ageism across the lifecycle and of effective interventions and public policies supporting older adults and positive intergenerational relations.

With a worldwide aging population and increasingly youth‐centered societies around the world, there are mounting concerns about how perceptions of age and aging may influence the workplace. Using an age diverse national sample of workers (n= 800) from a wide range of occupations and socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States, this study investigated understudied psychosocial factors (age identity, aging anxiety, perceived age discrimination, perceived social support at work, and work centrality) that may buffer or hinder job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement. Identity variables, both age identity and work centrality, as well as perceived social support at work, were found to be positively associated with job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement, while both perceived age discrimination and anxiety about aging were negatively associated with these three job longevity variables. The results suggest that psychosocial factors such as age identity, work centrality, and perceived social support could be targeted to improve job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement, while it would be beneficial for organizational policies to continue to focus on reducing age discrimination as well as reducing anxiety about aging in the workplace.

Prejudice and stereotyping are common processes between groups, and these processes frequently result in conflict. This volume presents work by both developmental and social psychologists on the origins and stability of intergroup conflict, along with research on ways to reduce conflict between groups.

AbstractK‐12 public school teachers faced unprecedented and novel disruptions in their workplace during the first entire school year of the COVID‐19 pandemic, leading to concerns about their treatment, mental health, and job satisfaction. Between April and June 2021, 341 public U.S. K‐12 school teachers from 12 states (covering Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, West, and Pacific Northwest) completed online surveys regarding their perceived general support, experiences of ageism and sexism, job satisfaction, and mental health. Mental health symptoms mediated the relationships between sexism, ageism, and perceived support with job satisfaction (Model 1) and job satisfaction mediated the relationships between sexism, ageism, and perceived support with mental health symptoms (Model 2). Thus, the data supported two models pointing to dual co‐existing pathways from (a) general support and (b) experiences of discrimination to both job satisfaction and mental health. These results highlight the importance of developing and implementing policies and programs that can improve teachers' general support from their community along with addressing job satisfaction.

Abundant research on the relationship between ideologies and sexual prejudice has not focused on intergroup ideologies such as colorblindness, multiculturalism, and polyculturalism. In three studies with racially and ethnically diverse college and community samples, endorsement of polyculturalism—an ideology focusing on the interactions, influences, and connections among racial and ethnic groups—was associated with lower sexual prejudice (as measured by affective prejudice toward gay men and lesbians, traditional heterosexism, denial of discrimination against homosexuals, and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians). Polyculturalism's relationship with lower sexual prejudice was mediated by greater openness to criticizing elements of one's culture that marginalize some groups. Polyculturalism accounted for unique variance in sexual prejudice even when controlling for colorblindness, multiculturalism, social dominance orientation, ethnic identity, conservatism, as well as race and gender. Colorblindness and multiculturalism were not consistently related to lower sexual prejudice. Future work on intergroup ideologies and sexual prejudice is discussed.

AbstractThe 2016 U.S. Presidential Election provided a unique opportunity to examine how ageism and sexism may impact attitudes (perceived presidential qualities and endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes) toward Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Community participants (N= 875) indicated their attitudes and voting intentions 3 weeks before the election. Endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes and perceived presidential qualities for Clinton and Trump varied based on participants' attitudes toward women, political stance (conservative/liberal), and demographic characteristics (racial/ethnic identification, education, gender identification). Individuals who perceived sexism to be more prevalent and perceived women as more competent in general had more positive attitudes toward Clinton, in contrast, only perceptions of lower prevalence of sexism (and not competence of women) predicted attitudes toward Trump. Individuals who perceived sexism as less prevalent viewed Clinton as less presidential and endorsed stronger negative age stereotypes for Clinton, while they viewed Trump as more presidential and endorsed stronger positive and weaker negative age stereotypes for Trump. Our findings suggest that both ageism and sexism present barriers for qualified women when pursuing positions of power. Implications for future research are discussed.

U.S. universities are increasingly racially/ethnically diverse. Simultaneously, undergraduate graduation rates and alcohol use remain important concerns. Understanding factors that contribute to success and well‐being among students in these diverse college settings is critical to informing educational policy and programming. Polyculturalism is the belief that different racial/ethnic groups have always interacted, exchanged, and influenced each other, and it has been associated with more positive intergroup attitudes and greater comfort with diversity. Across four studies (three cross‐sectional, one longitudinal) with racially/ethnically diverse undergraduates at two diverse institutions in the Northeastern United States, controlling for potentially confounding variables (year in college, age, race/ethnicity, nativity, high school GPA, current GPA, endorsement of multiculturalism and colorblindness, self‐esteem, ethnic identification, general social anxiety, and mood across time points), greater endorsement of polyculturalism was associated with greater academic self‐efficacy, greater sense of belonging, less use of alcohol to cope with intergroup anxiety, and fewer adverse alcohol‐related consequences; further, lower intergroup anxiety mediated those associations. Results suggest studying polyculturalism and intergroup anxiety may contribute to our understanding of undergraduate outcomes at diverse institutions. Future work might explore how educational policy and programming can incorporate polyculturalism to promote engagement and well‐being of undergraduates at these diverse institutions.

Lay theory research on intergroup relations has rapidly grown over the past two decades. Drawing on articles in this Special Issue, we showcase the latest developments. First, we define lay theories, addressing the extent of overlap with scientific theories and differences among lay theories in terms of type of representation, level of articulation, frequency of activation and use, range of applicability, and degree of universality. Second, we describe advances in the understanding of the functions of lay theories. Third, we review the far-reaching implications of lay theories for group and intergroup processes. Fourth, we discuss the movement toward comparing and contrasting related lay theories. Taken together, these articles suggest the study of lay theories provides a fuller understanding of intergroup relations.

Lay theory research on intergroup relations has rapidly grown over the past two decades. Drawing on articles in this Special Issue, we showcase the latest developments. First, we define lay theories, addressing the extent of overlap with scientific theories and differences among lay theories in terms of type of representation, level of articulation, frequency of activation and use, range of applicability, and degree of universality. Second, we describe advances in the understanding of the functions of lay theories. Third, we review the far-reaching implications of lay theories for group and intergroup processes. Fourth, we discuss the movement toward comparing and contrasting related lay theories. Taken together, these articles suggest the study of lay theories provides a fuller understanding of intergroup relations.

AbstractIncreasingly, individuals identify with two or more racial or cultural, yet are sometimes externally misclassified, contributing to experiences of invisibility within U.S. society. Using computational techniques, we examined the transmission of cultural identity terms through time, providing some evidence for the changing representation of social identity. We examined the usage patterns of identity terms with the prefixes (mono‐, bi‐, multi‐), modifying the social identity terms: culture, ethnicity, and race (e.g., comparing monocultural, monoethnic, and monoracial). For bicultural and multicultural terms, those with ‐racial suffixes were the earliest used terms, while those with ‐cultural and ‐ethnic suffixes gained more popularity in recent years. We examined the evolution of the higher frequency social identity terms in lay sources (the NY Times, Reddit), and found that interracial and multicultural were the most popular over time, peaking recently. We examined the potential time lag in the sequence of identity terms among academic (PsycINFO, NIH, and NSF Databases), lay (the NY Times), and mixed sources (Google Books N‐Grams), demonstrating that newer terms (e.g., multicultural) are first used and gain prevalence in lay sources, then mixed sources, and eventually academic sources. The implications of these findings for research, public policy, and psychosocial experiences of individuals are discussed.