Temas em Psicologia
Print version ISSN 1413-389X
Abstract
VIEIRA, Rodrigo de Sena e Silva and LIMA, Marcus Eugênio Oliveira. Stereotypes about the elderly: dissociation between personal and collective beliefs. Temas psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.23, n.4, pp.947-958. ISSN 1413-389X. https://doi.org/10.9788/TP2015.4-11.
The elderly are increasingly representative in society, whether abroad or in our country, and they raise discussions on how they are conceived. This paper investigates the stereotypes about this group formed by university students in the city of Aracaju. Through the concept of dissociation, we sought to understand how personal beliefs and those assigned to the society about the elderly are organized. A survey was conducted with 393 participants from two institutions, one public and one private, from a self-administered instrument that questioned about the society's and the participant's vision about the group. The results show a dichotomy in which personal beliefs are mostly positive, while the collective beliefs are mostly negative. These are discussed through the concept of dissociation and the possible consequences of this situation, and serve to think about how we deal with elderly people in daily life, besides suggesting future research.
Keywords : Aging; elderly; stereotypes; dissociation; college students.