14-12-30

Physical Ac+vity and

Aging II: This Time, Its
Personal
Guest Lecture by: Rachael Stone
PhD. Candidate
January 19th, 2015

Lecture Objec+ves
Physical Ac+vity
Barriers
Stereotypes and Aging-Iden+ty
Facilitators

The vast benets of PA for the aging

popula+on are known facts

AND
Declines are associated with a sedentary
lifestyle, which can be aSenuated with
more physical ac+vity

Why do so few older

adults remain ac7ve??

14-12-30

A Prole of Older Adult Exercisers?

(Mullen et al., 2013)

Pilot of healthy adults (Mage = 67 yrs)

50% aSri+on rate in rst 3-6 months of
exercise rou+nes
Dropouts:

Barriers to PA
Common Barriers:
Health issues (subjec+ve/objec+ve)
Lazy/Fa+gue
Busy
Fear
Environment
Lack of knowledge/medical advice
Low self-ecacy

Stereotypes
Cogni+ve schemas

14-12-30

Ageism (Butler, 1968)

Societal myths, stereotypes and
misunderstandings about people related to
their age

Stereotypes
How do we know what is old and what
being old cons+tutes?
Seefeldt et. al, 1977

Stereotypes
Internalized as early as 3 years old

14-12-30

Stereotypes
Defea+ng age

Stereotypes
Dana Torres
41 year old U.S. Olympic swimmer
41 and ripped: I want abs like hers
En+re ar+cle dedicated to how shockingly t she is
for her age (Globe and Mail, 2008)

Master Athletes
~ 35+ years
Track-meet style
compe++on
First World Masters
Championships (1975)
in Toronto

14-12-30

Master Athletes
Usain Bolt 100 m
record: 9.58 seconds
(Berlin, 2009)
Age:

Linford Chris+e 100 m

record: 9.97 seconds
(South Africa, 1995)
Age:

Master Athletes
Fauja Singh
Guinness World Record
(2011)

Role Model??

Biopsychosocial Aging
Biological

Aging-Iden7ty

Psychological

Social

14-12-30

Biopsychosocial Aging

Allaire, Li, & LaValley, 2003; Backman, 2006; Fuller-Thomas & Shaked, 2009; Furner et al., 2011; House & Kahn, 1985; Gandhi, Razak, Davey, & Mahomed, 2009; James, Miller, Brown, & Weaver,
2005; Jensen et al., 1991; Pennix et al., 2001; Suomi & Collier, 2003

The Social Clock

Personal vs. Social Aging

Stereotype Embodiment
Theory (Levy, 2000)

Exposure to
ageism

Internalize

stereotypes

Health/performance

consequences

14-12-30

Iden+ty Process Theory (Piaget)

Experience
Iden+ty

Iden+ty
accommoda+on
Iden+ty balance
Iden+ty
assimila+on

Ac+va+ng Stereotypes
1. Explicit priming
Obvious message

2. Implicit priming
Subconscious ac+va+on
Implicit.harvard.edu

Ac+va+ng Stereotypes

Stereotype
Threat/Boost
Regression

Enhancement

14-12-30

Ac+va+ng Stereotypes
Threat - Regression:
Reduced memory recall, hand-wri+ng, CV func+on, self-
ecacy (Levy et al., 2002)

Boost - Enhancement:
Adults (62-83 years) posi+vely primed before walking test
faster gait and beSer balance than nega+vely primed (Hausdor,
Levy, & Wei, 1999)

Facilitators of PA
For ANY age, the strongest determinants
of PA par+cipa+on and maintenance are:

Facilitators of PA
Social support
Increase social support=increase self-
ecacy=increase likelihood of exercise



(Resnick, Orwig, Magaziner, & Wynne, 2002)

14-12-30

Facilitators of PA
White Coat Respect

Facilitators of PA
Health message framing

A Need for Change

raystone@yorku.ca