"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," you might joke. Or think to yourself, "I'm too old to do that." Stop it, we beg you. A new study shows perceptions of age are as good as reality when it comes to physical functioning. Researchers from Yale University and University of California, Berkeley set out to find out just how powerful negative -- or positive-- stereotypes or perceptions of aging can be. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, found implicit exposure to positive associations with aging were shown to be more effective on physical abilities than a similar study which prescribed six months of exercise! "Negative age stereotypes that older individuals assimilate from their culture predict detrimental outcomes, including worse physical function," the study's authors wrote. A total of 100 subjects between ages 61 and 99 were split into four groups. A control group, an implicit intervention group, an explicit intervention group and a implicit-explicit intervention group. According to The New York Times, implicit intervention consisted of subjects coming in for 15-minute sessions, once a week for four weeks. They were shown a smattering of words like wise and spry, coupled with words like senior and old. The explicit intervention group was asked to write about fit, active older people. After four sessions and follow-up at one and three weeks, they were given physical tests like their ability to walk, balance and get up from a chair. There were no improvements in the explicit intervention group, but the implicit intervention group showed considerable improvements in their fitness. “People have encountered negative stereotypes for so long, in media and marketing and everyday conversations, that people build up ways to hold onto them. Implicit interventions can bypass that," Yale researcher Becca Levy told The New York Times. Indeed perceptions have shown to be powerful in a number of studies, like one Texas A&M study which found older subjects felt an average of five years older after having to take a memory test, due to stereotypes of aging and memory loss, even if there was really nothing wrong with their performance. Just a reminder of the power of positive thinking. Yagana Shah
What if Age Is Nothing but a Mind-Set? By BRUCE GRIERSON One day in the fall of 1981, eight men in their 70s stepped out of a van in front of a converted monastery in New Hampshire. They shuffled forward, a few of them arthritically stooped, a couple with canes. Then they passed through the door and entered a time warp. Perry Como crooned on a vintage radio. Ed Sullivan welcomed guests on a black-and-white TV. Everything inside — including the books on the shelves and the magazines lying around — were designed to conjure 1959. This was to be the men’s home for five days as they participated in a radical experiment, cooked up by a young psychologist named Ellen Langer. more . . .
What about ones that don't think.... like you know... Democrats. Obj joke: An elderly man suffered a massive heart attack. The family drove wildly to get him to the emergency room. After what seemed like a very long wait, the ER doctor appeared wearing his scrubs and a long face. Sadly, he said, "I'm afraid Grandpa is brain-dead, but his heart is still beating." "Oh, Dear God," cried his wife, her hands clasped against her cheeks with shock. "We've never had a Democrat in the family before!"
wow, really earth breaking, if you weren't such an anti Christian/anti Jew you would know they wrote about 3k years ago As a man thinketh so is he Stop bitching about it and read it
Gee, that's pretty deep, loyek. So do you thinketh you're tolerant, compassionate, charitable? Do you work to feed the hungry, heal the sick, shelter the poor? If so, kudos.
maybe I think I don't give a shit for the unfortunate, as long as I get mine the point is, this is an old Jewish thought, written in the scriptures, long before somebody got paid to go to college and write a paper as a man thinketh so is he you should have been taught that before you ever had your first ejaculation and by the time you are as old as you are now you should have thought about it many times I'm not a Christian so I am not bound by the laws of the church. I don't have to visit my friends in prison like Jesus told me to, even though they are there because republicans and democrats don't like it when they smoke pot If I think I am a hard hearted bad ass, after years of that, that is the way I will be, even if, in reality I am just a dumbshit that watches FOX news and agrees.