Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:44:39.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Contact and perspective taking improve humanness standards and perceptions of humanness of older adults and people with dementia: a cross-sectional survey study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2017

Anca M. Miron*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Susan H. McFadden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Nathan J. Hermus
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Jennifer Buelow
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA
Amanda S. Nazario
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Katarena Seelman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Anca M. Miron, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901, USA. Phone: 1-920-424-2328. Email: mirona@uwosh.edu.

Abstract

Background:

No empirical work has systematically explored perceptions of humanness of people with dementia and of older adults and the variables that could improve these perceptions. We thus investigated the role of contact and perspective taking in improving perceptions of humanness of these social groups. To do so, we developed a new concept, humanness standards, defined as the amount of evidence of ability impairment needed to conclude that elderly people and those with dementia have lost personhood.

Methods:

We used a cross-sectional survey design (n = 619) to assess participants’ humanness standards and perceptions of uniquely human characteristics and human nature characteristics of two social groups (people with dementia and older adults). Half the participants (n = 311) completed a survey about people with dementia and half (n = 308) assessed older adults.

Results:

People with dementia were perceived as possessing humanness characteristics to a lesser extent than were older adults. For both groups, contact predicted enhanced perceptions of humanness characteristics. Participants’ degree of contact with individuals with dementia also predicted humanness standards, but only under low perspective-taking conditions. As predicted, for older adults, participants set the highest humanness impairment thresholds in the high contact/high perspective-taking condition.

Conclusions:

We conclude that while social programs that bring persons with dementia and other individuals in contact could change humanness standards and perceptions of humanness characteristics of people with dementia, in the case of elderly adults, the contact must be supplemented by variables that facilitate taking the perspective of the person.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrighetto, L., Baldissari, C., Lattanzio, S., Loughnan, S. and Volpato, C. (2014). Human-itarian aid? Two forms of dehumanization and willingness to help after natural disasters. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 573584. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12066.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aronson, E. (2000). Nobody left to hate. Humanist, 60, 1721.Google Scholar
Bastian, B. and Haslam, N. (2010). Excluded from humanity: the dehumanizing effects of social ostracism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 107113. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.06.022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behuniak, S. M. (2011). The living dead? The construction of people with Alzheimer's disease as zombies. Ageism and Society, 31, 7092.Google Scholar
Biernat, M., Collins, E. C., Katzarska-Miller, I. and Thompson, E. R. (2009). Race-based shifting standards and racial discrimination. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1628. doi: 10.1177/0146167208325195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bousfield, C. and Hutchison, P. (2010). Contact, anxiety, and young people's attitudes and behavioral towards the elderly. Educational Gerontology, 36, 451466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyle, P. J. and Rubinstein, R. L. (2013). Person-centered dementia care and the cultural matrix of othering. The Gerontologist, 54, 952963.Google Scholar
Haslam, N. (2006). Dehumanization: an integrative review. Personality & Social Psychology Review, 10, 252264. doi: 10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_4.Google Scholar
Haslam, N., Bain, P., Douge, L., Lee, M. and Bastian, B. (2005). More human than you: attributing humanness to self and others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 937950. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.937.Google Scholar
Haslam, N., Bastian, B. and Bissett, M. (2004). Essentialist beliefs about personality and their implications. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 16611673.Google Scholar
Illiffe, S., Mathorpe, J. and Eden, S. (2003). Sooner or later? Issues in the early diagnosis of dementia in general practice: a qualitative study. Family Practice, 20, 376381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kane, M. N. (2003). Teaching direct practice techniques for work with elders with Alzheimer's disease: a simulated group experience. Educational Gerontology, 29, 777.Google Scholar
Kane, M. N., Hamlin, E. R. and Hawkins, W. E. (2004). How adequate do social workers feel to work with elders with Alzheimer's disease? Social Work in Mental Health, 4, 6384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitwood, T. (1997). Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Loughnan, S. and Haslam, N. (2007). Animals and androids: implicit associations between social categories and nonhumans. Psychological Science, 18, 116121. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01858.x.Google Scholar
Loughnan, S., Haslam, N. and Kashima, Y. (2009). Understanding the relationship between attribute-based and metaphor-based dehumanization. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 12, 747762.Google Scholar
Miron, A. M., McFadden, S. H., Nazario, A. S. and Buelow, J. (2017). Perspective taking, empathic concern, and humanness standards of people with dementia. Educational Gerontology. Advanced online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2017.1333788.Google Scholar
Miron, A. M., Wicklund, R. A., Diestelmann, M., Moore, T. and Schroeder, H. (2015). Perspective taking and specificity of sensory contact, Journal of Relationships Research, 6, 113. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/jrr.2015.10.Google Scholar
Morris, J. C (1997). Clinical dementia rating: a reliable and valid diagnostic and staging measure for dementia of the Alzheimer type, International Psychogeriatrics, 9, 173176, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610297004870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Connor, M. L. and McFadden, S. H. (2012). A terror management perspective on young adults’ ageism and attitudes toward dementia. Educational Gerontology, 38, 627643.Google Scholar
Phillipson, L., Magee, C., Jones, S. C. and Skladzien, E. (2014). Correlates of dementia attitudes in a sample of middle-aged Australian adults. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 33, 158163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preacher, K. J., Curran, P. J. and Bauer, D. J. (2006). Computational tools for probing interaction effects in multiple linear regression, multilevel modeling, and latent curve analysis. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 437448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rinaldi, P. et al, (2005). Predictors of high level of burden and distress in caregivers of demented patients: Results of an Italian multicenter study. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20, 168174, doi: 10.1002/gps.1267.Google Scholar
Ryvicker, M. (2009). Preservation of self in the nursing home: contradictory practices within two models of care. Journal of Aging Studies, 23, 1223. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2007.09.004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabat, S. R. (2001). The Experience of Alzheimer's Disease. Life Through a Tangled Veil. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Scodellaro, C. and Pin, S. (2013). The ambiguous relationships between aging and Alzheimer's disease: a critical literature review. Dementia, 12, 137151. doi: 10.1177/1471301211421230.Google Scholar
Shim, B., Barroso, J. and Davis, L. L. (2012). A comparative quantitative analysis of stories of spousal caregivers of people with dementia: negative, ambivalent, and positive experiences. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49, 220229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skorinko, J. L. and Sinclair, S. A. (2013). Perspective taking can increase stereotyping: the role of apparent stereotype confirmation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 1018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stohminger, N. and Nichols, S. (2015). Neurodegeneration and identity. Psychological Science, 26, 14691479. doi: 10.1177/0956797615592381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaes, J. and Muratore, M. (2013). Defensive dehumanization in the medical practice: a cross-sectional study from a health care worker's perspective. British Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 180190. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12008.Google Scholar
Werner, P. (2004). Beliefs about memory problems and help seeking in elderly persons. Clinical Gerontologist, 27, 1930.Google Scholar
Yamashita, T., Kinney, J. M. and Lokon, E. J. (2013). The impact of a gerontology course and a service-learning program on college students’ attitudes toward people with dementia. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 32, 139163. doi: 10.1177/0733464811405198.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Miron supplementary material

Miron supplementary material 1

Download Miron supplementary material(File)
File 21.8 KB