Aging Perceptions in Tsimane' Amazonian Forager-Farmers Compared With Two Industrialized Societies.
OBJECTIVE
Cross-cultural studies suggest that aging attitudes show some variation across societies, but this evidence is mostly drawn from industrialized settings. The limited research record on pre-industrial societies is largely qualitative in nature. The present study targeted this gap by adapting an existing multidimensional measure of aging attitudes for use in traditional populations and administering it to samples from one traditional society and two industrialized societies.


METHODS
We administered the adapted multidimensional measure of aging attitudes to samples from one traditional society (Tsimane' Amazonian forager-farmers in Bolivia, n = 90) and two industrialized societies (the United States, n = 91, and Poland, n = 100).


RESULTS
Across societies, aging perceptions were more favorable for respect and wisdom than for other domains of functioning, and women were perceived to be aging less favorably. Further, the Tsimane' reported more positive aging perceptions than the U.S. and Polish samples, especially with regard to memory functioning. Within the Tsimane' sample, there was no evidence of an influence of acculturation on aging perceptions.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study contributed to our understanding of cross-cultural differences in aging attitudes. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.
Piotr
P
Sorokowski
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.|Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
Agnieszka
A
Sorokowska
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.
Tomasz
T
Frackowiak
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Corinna E
CE
Löckenhoff
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D001838:Bolivia / Q000208:ethnology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D019049:Developed Countries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000067565:Farmers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland / Q000208:ethnology; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology
Acculturation; Aging perception; Aging stereotypes; Cross-cultural studies; Gender; Tsimane’