The Defense of My Aging Self: A Report From the Field.
This article offers a field report-experiences, thoughts, and anecdotes-of my personal passage into older adulthood and my attempts to maintain a healthy sense of personhood in the context of the normative ageism in my world. Specifically, I illustrate how my career-long engagement with the scientific base of gerontology-particularly life-span developmental and social psychology-has been a key ally in informing my aging and in assisting my defense against internalization of negative stereotypes. Also, I offer some thoughts drawn from personal life experience that may inform research and application efforts designed to modify some of the psychological motives that sustain ageism in our shared environment.
School of Family Studies and Human Services, Kansas State University, Manhattan. rscheidt@ksu.edu.
Rick J
RJ
Scheidt
D063506:Ageism / Q000266:history; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States
Age-related attitudes; Ageism; Aging; Autobiography; Stereotypes