14
Thursday, April 1. 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Study examines aging
Professor researches effects of stereotypes on lives of elderly
By Brian James Special to the Kansan
The first time Noreen Chechei, Kansas City, Kan., senior, delivered a meal from the Lawrence Senior Center to a Lawrence elderly adult's home, she felt like she was dealing with a grumpy old man.
"When we delivered the meal, Wayne kind of looked at us with a scowl and didn't seem to appreciate that we were there," she said.
Cheechi tried to work around that initial feeling and get him to smile a little more, and she said, "It worked."
Dealing with those initial positive and negative signals is nothing new to Checchi and others like her who interact with the elderly on a regular basis
Identifying those professionals would allow health-care professionals, for example, to communicate better with the elderly.
Mary Lee Hummert, an assistant professor of communication studies, is researching stereotypes and the effect they have on communication with the elderly. She is also looking for the cues adults 45 or older may project that evoke stereotypes — both positive and negative. Those
cues include facial expression, physical features and clothing.
Hummert said she hoped that results from the study would help older adults learn to deal with the effects of negative stereotypes, such as patronizing speech and behavior.
Stooped posture and old-fashioned clothing, for example, may prompt a receptionist to speak loudly when giving instructions to an elderly office visitor, without knowing whether that person had a hearing problem, Hummert said.
"You also avoid talking about important issues with the person," she said. "It can hurt the self-esteem of the older adult. If people continually talk to me as if I'm more of a child than an adult, I may begin to question my own abilities.
If the older adult is hard of hearing,
it's appropriate to increase your
speaking volume. But to automatically
speak louder and presume a person
is hard of hearing because they are in
their 80s is insulting.
"We haven't had an older adult in the study who has been shy about saying, 'I can't hear you, speak up!'"
The study, financed by a $504,250 grant in August 1991 from the National Institute on Aging, is the first of its kind in the nation to use men and women from three age groups: college, middle-age, and 65 and older. The 10-study project, which Hummert and her research assistants will complete in 1996, includes gathering
students' reactions to photographs and interviews with all three groups. KU students from speech classes are participating.
"There's a tendency to presume we live in a high-age iist society, and our research is showing that that is a little simplistic." Hummert said. "In the positive conceptions of growing old and some negative conceptions."
But Hummert said her research had shown that college students did not automatically oppose negative stereotypes, such as Dana Carvey's "cranky old man" character or that of a severely impaired elderly person, any more than positive stereotypes, like the active, energetic "golden age" or the kindly grandparent.
"If you encounter an older adult in one of your classes, that's probably not going to trigger a negative stereotype in your mind," she said. "You're going to think, Wow, here is a person who's elderly, still interested and learning." In contrast, if you encounter this person in a nursing home you are likely to stereotype them negatively."
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Besides physical appearances, different situations also trigger stereotypes, Hummert said.
Cheechi and others have found that their initial negative stereotypes can be incorrect.
"We found out Wayne's a pretty nice guy, after we visited him more and got to know him," she said.
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Return to the SUA Office, Level 4 of the Kansas Union by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, 1993
The Kansas and Burge Unions will be placing a 1993 Time Capsule in the cornerstone of the Kansas Union in October 1993 dedicated to the current KU students in appreciation for funding the renovation. It will be scheduled to be opened in the year 2050. We need your suggestions for items to be placed in the time capsule!
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