As we age, our brains slowly shrink in volume and weight. This includes significant atrophy within the frontal lobes, the seat of executive functioning. Executive functions include planning, controlling, and inhibiting thought and behavior. In the aging population, an inability to inhibit unwanted thoughts and behavior causes several social behaviors and cognitions to go awry.
In a study appearing in the October issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, University of Queensland psychologist, Bill von Hippel, reports that decreased inhibitory ability in late adulthood can lead to unintended prejudice, social inappropriateness, depression, and gambling problems.
Regarding prejudice, von Hippel and colleagues found that older white adults showed greater stereotyping toward African Americans than younger white adults did, despite being more motivated to control their prejudices. Von Hippel suggests that “because prejudice toward African Americans conflicts with prevailing egalitarian beliefs, older adults attempt to inhibit their racist feelings, but fail.”
Age-related inhibitory losses have also been implicated in social appropriateness. Von Hippel found that older adults were more likely than younger adults were to inquire about private issues (e.g. weight gain, family problems) in public settings. Furthermore, these age differences emerged even though older and younger adults both agreed that it is inappropriate to inquire about such issues in public settings. The older adults seemed to know the social rules but failed to follow them, which is consistent with diminished frontal lobe functioning.
In late-onset depressed older adults, poor inhibition predicted increased rumination, which in turn predicted increased depression. This finding suggests that people who struggle to control their rumination begin to lose that battle as they age, with the end result being the emergence of depression late in life.
Von Hippel also found that a penchant for gambling can be toxic for older adults, as those with poor executive functioning are particularly likely to have gambling problems. Interestingly, these problems are exacerbated in the afternoon, when older adults are less mentally alert. Older adults were more likely to get into an unnecessary argument and were also more likely to gamble all their money away later rather than earlier in the day. These findings suggest a possible avenue for intervention, by scheduling their important social activities or gambling excursions earlier in the day.
While social changes commonly occur with age, they are widely assumed a function of changes in preferences and values as people get older. Von Hippel argues that there may be more to the story and that some of the changes may be unintended and brought about by losses in executive control. -Association for Psychological Science
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#1 I really disagree. There
I really disagree. There are deepseated cultural differences and in the celebration of diversity they have been allowed full reign. I was waiting for my turn in a bank recently so I had much opportunity to watch interaction. There was some elderly white folk and a young black mother with many children. The children were allowed to invade other peoples space when they were trying to conduct transactions with the teller - transactions that they have spent a lifetime knowing that they should be kept private and they have spent a lifetime honoring privacy of others. The bank also had lollipops for kids. The lollipops at the mothers teller station were gone so the kids just went around and helped themselves to lollipops at other teller stations despite the fact that there were people there in the middle of their transactions. The children were not overtly rude other than interupting to get their lollipop which they seemed to think was their due and they had not been taught the concept of waiting until an adult was done with their transaction before bopping in and grabbing what they wanted. Until their mother gets old enough and health challenged enough to not be able to concentrate with such interuptions she will never understand how disabling these interruptions can be to an older adult. You can label those elder white adults with racism if you want but I really see most of the difficulties that occur in terms of cultural variations that are not acknowledged or discussed, merely perceived at another level and reacted to.
I do agree that loss of executive control is obviously exhibited but alot of freedom of expression comes with retirement from a socially stifling work environment and the honesty that is shared by the very young and the very old is something to be cherished and keeps us sane.