Ageism: A literature review

Background: The studies analyzed have shown among other things that ageism appears to be an overlooked category in intersectionality studies, elderly is offered care in worse conditions than non-elderly and stereotypes restrict elderlys social space to act. The gray tsunami is approaching but studies show that large gaps separate different agegroups. Aims: The study discuss how scientists reason about ageism towards elderly in a social science discussion. Method: A literature review was conducted in which fifteen articles were analyzed. The database used, is the librariescatalog Summon, at Malmö University. The articles was compiled in themes to give dilated clarity in ageisms complexity towards elderly. The results are being discussed on the basis of terror management theory, gerotranscendence and social identitity theory. Results: Elderlys relation to society's expectations about aging can affect a self/body-dualism, a split. Scientists are often looking for one explanation to include all elders which gives the effect of homogenizing the group. Terror management (TMT) may explain young people's anxiety based on notions of elderly and aging. Social identity theory (SIT) could be one explanation of elderlys ageism towards their own age group, which has shown to be built on societies conceptions about aging and elderly. Conclusion: It is shown an eminent need to examine ageism more. The articles reason that many elderly undergoes a self/body dualism split, where aging can not be accepted because of society's perceptions of it. Elderly homogenized through stereotypes to which properties are attributed. By perceptions of elderly as different and acting in a way non-elderly can´t understand, because the lack of experience. Therefor, the theory of gerotranscendense can be discussed as one explanation for the distance and or that some of the non-elderly have difficulty identifying with some of the elderly