"How we think about who we're going to be in old age is very predictive of exactly how we will be," said Shelbie Turner, a doctoral student in Oregon State University- OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences and co-author on a study.
If you believe you are capable of becoming the healthy, engaged person you want to be in old age, you are much more likely to experience that outcome.
Because self-perceptions of aging are linked to so many major health outcomes, Turner and Karen Hooker, who also partook in the study, wanted to understand what influences those perceptions.
Their study looked specifically at the influence of two factors: self-efficacy associated with possible selves, meaning a person's perceived ability to become the person they want to be in the future; and optimism as a general personality trait.
Results showed that, as predicted, higher optimism was associated with more positive self-perception of aging. Both "hoped-for" self-efficacy and "feared" self-efficacy were also significantly associated with self-perception of aging, above and beyond optimism as a trait, according to the News Guard website.
A major factor in how people see their own aging selves is internalizing ageist stereotypes, the researchers said. Examples of such stereotypes include assumptions that older adults are bad drivers, or suffer memory problems, or are unable to engage in physical activity anymore.
"Kids as young as four years old already have negative stereotypes about old people. Then, of course, if you're lucky enough to live to old age, they eventually apply to you," Hooker said.
Those stereotypes get reinforced every time an older adult forgets something and jokes, "Another senior moment!" But the researchers say these thought patterns can do real harm.
"People need to realize that some of the negative health consequences in later life might not be biologically driven. The mind and the body are all interwoven. If you believe these bad things are going to happen, over time that can erode people's willingness or maybe even eventually their ability to engage in those health behaviors that are going to keep them as healthy as they can be," Hooker said.
