Stereotype threat in older adults

老年人的刻板印象威胁

基本信息

批准号：
8926842
负责人：
Sarah J Barber
金额：
$ 23.93万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2014
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2014-09-15 至 2017-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Almost everyone has at least one social identity that is associated with a negative stereotype. For some people it is their age, for others it is their race, weight, religion, socioeconomic status or political affiliation. Problematically, according t stereotype threat theory, when people encounter these negative stereotypes they often underperform compared to their potential, and in doing so inadvertently confirm the stereotype. For example, older adults are stereotyped as having poor memory abilities. When this stereotype becomes salient to older adults their memory performance tends to decrease. This has serious clinical implications. In one study, stereotype threat increased the proportion of older adults scoring below the clinical cut-off for dementia from 14 to 70%. Given that 20% of Americans will be over the age of 65 by 2030, and that annual dementia screenings are now covered by Medicare, it is important to understand why stereotype threat impairs older adults' performance and how stereotype-threat-related performance deficits can be ameliorated. In Aim 1, we test the role of regulatory focus in contributing to older adults' stereotype threat effects. Regulatory focus theory leads to the counterintuitive hypothesis that although stereotype threat impairs performance when the task emphasizes gains, it should improve performance when the task emphasizes losses. Our preliminary data supports this; stereotype threat impaired older adults' memory when remembering led to gains, but improved memory when forgetting led to losses. In this application we test the generalizability of these results by examining how stereotype threat affects older adults' performance in other cognitive (e.g., verbal fluency, visuospatial skills, decision quality) and non-cognitive (i.e., screened vision and hearing) domains. Many of these domains have not previously been examined. If our regulatory focus predictions are consistently supported, it would suggest that emphasizing the importance of avoiding errors during assessments could be a simple, no-cost clinical intervention to eliminate stereotype threat effects. In Aim 2, we examine the contribution of physiological arousal to older adults' stereotype threat effects. Recently we proposed an arousal-biased competition (ABC) theory. According to our ABC theory, arousal increases the processing of high priority stimuli and decreases processing of low priority stimuli. Preliminary studies support this hypothesis. Of relevance to this application, based upon the regulatory focus theory we predict that under stereotype threat loss-related information is high priority and gain-related information is low priority. Thus, according to ABC theory, arousal should enhance the regulatory focus effects predicted above. Finally, Aim 3 is to examine the functional implications of stereotype threat for older adults. Thus, the domains in which we test our Aim 1 and 2 hypotheses each have relevance for older adults' health, practical, and financial well-being. We also test the hypothesi that genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease carries the risk of inducing stereotype threat and reducing memory performance in asymptomatic, healthy older adults.

描述（申请人提供）：几乎每个人都至少具有与负面刻板印象相关的社会身份。对于某些人来说，这是他们的年龄，而其他人是他们的种族，体重，宗教，社会经济地位或政治隶属关系。在问题上，根据刻板印象的威胁理论，当人们遇到这些负面的刻板印象时，与潜力相比，他们经常表现不佳，并且这样做无意中确认了刻板印象。例如，老年人被定型为具有差的记忆能力。当这种刻板印象对老年人显着时，他们的记忆表现往往会降低。这具有严重的临床意义。在一项研究中，刻板印象威胁将低于痴呆症临床临界的老年人的比例从14％增加到70％。鉴于到2030年，有20％的美国人将超过65岁，并且现在的痴呆症筛查已被Medicare涵盖，因此重要的是要了解为什么刻板印象威胁会损害老年人的表现以及与刻板印象与威胁性相关的表现不足如何得到改善。在AIM 1中，我们测试了监管重点在促进老年人刻板印象威胁影响方面的作用。监管重点理论导致了以下假设，尽管刻板印象威胁会在任务强调收益时会损害性能，但在任务强调损失时，它应该改善绩效。我们的初步数据支持这一点；刻板印象的威胁在记住时会损害老年人的记忆，导致了增长，但忘记损失时的记忆得到了改善。在此应用中，我们通过研究刻板印象威胁如何影响老年人在其他认知（例如，口头流利性，视觉空间技能，决策质量）和非认知（即筛选的视力和听力）领域的表现来测试这些结果的普遍性。这些领域中有许多以前没有被检查。如果我们的监管重点预测得到一致的支持，这将表明，在评估过程中避免错误的重要性可能是一种简单的，无成本的临床干预措施，以消除刻板印象的威胁效应。在AIM 2中，我们研究了生理唤醒对老年人刻板印象威胁影响的贡献。最近，我们提出了一种唤醒偏见的竞争（ABC）理论。根据我们的ABC理论，唤醒增加了高优先刺激的处理，并减少了低优先刺激的处理。初步研究支持这一假设。与本应用相关的是，基于监管重点理论，我们预测，在刻板印象中，与威胁损失相关的信息是高优先级，与增益相关的信息是优先级较低。因此，根据ABC理论，唤醒应增强上述预测的调节焦点效应。最后，目标3是检查刻板印象威胁对老年人的功能含义。因此，我们测试目标1和2假设的领域每个都与老年人的健康，实用和财务状况相关。我们还检验了假设，即对阿尔茨海默氏病的基因检测具有引起刻板印象威胁并降低无症状，健康的老年人的记忆表现的风险。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（4）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Confucian Values as a Buffer Against Age-Based Stereotype Threat for Chinese Older Adults.

DOI：
10.1093/geronb/gby049
发表时间：
2020-02
期刊：
The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences
影响因子：
0
作者：
Shyuan Ching Tan;S. Barber
通讯作者：
Shyuan Ching Tan;S. Barber

An Examination of Age-Based Stereotype Threat About Cognitive Decline.