Self-perceptions of ageing from a cross-cultural perspective: do collectivist cultures provide a buffering effect for the impact of negative stereotypes about age?

Negative attitudes towards ageing can have detrimental long-term effects to health, self-esteem and employment prospects of older people. Individuals making the transition from mid-life into old age can be highly sensitive to age ‘stereotype threat’, a phenomenon of anxiety arising from the fear of being reduced to a stereotype that can result in poor memory performance on simple tasks (Hess et al., 2004; Levy at al., 2002; von Hippel et al., 2013; Nguyen, 2008). Cross-cultural studies have shown stark differences in memory performance between older Chinese and older Americans (Levy and Langer, 1994). Yoon et al (2000) observed some differences in two out of five memory tests between Chinese Canadians and Anglophone Canadians, but questioned whether culture or language accounted for this variance. In the present set of studies, it was hypothesised that those with a more interdependent self-concept from a collectivist culture (Markus and Kitayama, 1991) would have more positive attitudes to ageing and therefore not be as affected by negative age stereotypes compared to individualists. This thesis explored this using mixed methods. The first study was qualitative and comprised focus group discussions of 3–6 people (n = 53) on ‘transitioning through life stages’ with younger (20 –35 years) and older (60–96 years) adults from Australia and the Philippines, to understand some of the deeper culturally influenced attitudes about ageing. The other two studies were quantitative. Another sample of older adults (52–79 years old, Australians n = 66; Filipinos n = 41) carried out memory tests under stereotype threat conditions and participated in a survey on cultural orientation and attitudes towards ageing. For both nationalities, the subtle explicit primes about age that constitute ‘stereotype threat’ did not have a significant effect on memory performance. However, a multiple regression analysis revealed that the culture in which one lives (i.e. Australia/ individualistic versus the Philippines/ collectivistic) is associated with psychological growth in old age. The items of this subscale are characterised as framing ageing in a more positive manner such as: “It is a privilege to grow old” and “As people get older they are better able to cope with life”. When cultural orientation (Bierbrauer et al., 1994) was entered into the regression model, it was significantly associated with all domains of the Attitudes towards Ageing Questionnaire and not just psychological growth (Laidlaw et al., 2007). That is, those who were higher on collectivist orientation tended to also have overall positive attitudes towards psychological growth, physical change and psychological loss than those with a lower cultural orientation score (those with more individualistic orientation). This finding from the survey supports Levy’s (2009) work on stereotype embodiment that asserts that an individual’s surrounding culture can influence the way they perceive themselves as they age. Overall, the studies in this thesis show that if one grows up in a culture with a higher degree of intergenerational contact, where age is seen in a more positive light, then one is less likely to be affected by negative attitudes to ageing. Implications for these findings on social policy are elaborated upon within the chapters of this thesis

The Visit VR. An immersive experience to counteract stigma about dementia.

The Visit is an interactive 6-dof real-time Virtual Reality experience, developed from an interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic and responsive character whose dialogue is created largely from verbatim interviews, drawing us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has scientific validity but also the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional/perceptual world of Viv

The Visit

The Visit is an interactive non-linear 6-degree-of-freedom real-time video installation and Virtual Reality experience, developed from an interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic, and responsive character whose dialogue is scripted largely from verbatim interviews. The work draws us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has both scientific validity and the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional and perceptual world of Viv. The character’s expression and motion are predominantly scripted, but she also exhibits a level of autonomy and responsiveness. Viv is semi-aware of the presence in her home. The system analyses the viewers’ attention by examining the gaze direction. This allows the character to respond in a more natural way. She makes eye-contact and sometimes smiles if the viewer looks at her. The viewer’s role shifts from a passive observer to an active participant in the story. The narrative supports this notion, the viewer takes up the role of a (imaginary) visitor, represented as a disembodied hallucination. The virtual set, a kitchen and living room, is constructed from a 3D scan of the former home of one of our participants in the study. The work aligns with the theme Re|Dis]Connection in two ways: it establishes an emotional connection to a digital human character and at the same time disconnects the viewer from himself as a dis-embodied entity in the narrative

EmbodiMap VR. A tangible and immersive body-mapping experience.

EmbodiMap is a creative research and therapeutic tool that enables users to connect with and explore how thoughts, sensationsand emotions are experienced in the body. It extends existing body-mapping research and protocols by facilitating a tangible immersive experience

The Visit

The Visit is an interactive real-time video installation and Virtual Reality experience, developed from a ground-breaking interdisciplinary research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic animated character, drawing us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The characterisation has scientific validity but also the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional/perceptual world of Viv

An Analysis of PubMed Abstracts From 1946 to 2021 to Identify Organizational Affiliations in Epidemiological Criminology: Descriptive Study

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological criminology refers to health issues affecting incarcerated and nonincarcerated offender populations, a group recognized as being challenging to conduct research with. Notwithstanding this, an urgent need exists for new knowledge and interventions to improve heath, justice, and social outcomes for this marginalized population. OBJECTIVE: To better understand research outputs in the field of epidemiological criminology, we examined the lead author's affiliation by analyzing peer-reviewed published outputs to determine countries and organizations (eg, universities, governmental and nongovernmental organizations) responsible for peer-reviewed publications. METHODS: We used a semiautomated approach to examine the first-author affiliations of 23,904 PubMed epidemiological studies related to incarcerated and offender populations published in English between 1946 and 2021. We also mapped research outputs to the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index to better understand whether there was a relationship between research outputs and the overall standard of a country's justice system. RESULTS: Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark) had the highest research outputs proportional to their incarcerated population, followed by Australia. University-affiliated first authors comprised 73.3% of published articles, with the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) being the most published, followed by the University of New South Wales (Australia). Government-affiliated first authors were on 8.9% of published outputs, and prison-affiliated groups were on 1%. Countries with the lowest research outputs also had the lowest scores on the Rule of Law Index. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important information on who is publishing research in the epidemiological criminology field. This has implications for promoting research diversity, independence, funding equity, and partnerships between universities and government departments that control access to incarcerated and offending populations

A visit with Viv: Empathising with a digital human character embodying the lived experiences of dementia

The Visit, an immersive participatory artwork (viewed on a screen or virtual reality headset), was produced as part of a research programme investigating the subjective experience of dementia and the relational dynamic between people with dementia and others. It invites viewers to engage with a digital human character, ‘Viv’, as she shares her experiences of living with dementia. The experiences that Viv recounts are based on verbatim accounts from in-depth interviews with four women living with dementia. The artwork was designed with the combined aim of generating insights into the lived experience of dementia and establishing conditions under which viewers might cultivate empathy for the character portrayed. Viewers engaging with Viv were invited to complete pre- and post-engagement measures of state empathy alongside an assessment of emotional distance. State empathy was significantly greater after engaging with The Visit, and correspondingly, there was a significant decrease in emotional distance (aversion), suggesting that the aims were met

The Visit

The Visit is an interactive real-time Virtual Reality experience, developed from a ground-breaking research project conducted by artists and psychologists working with women living with dementia. Visitors are invited to sit with Viv, a life-sized, realistic animated character whose dialogue is created largely from verbatim interviews, drawing us into a world of perceptual uncertainty, while at the same time confounding stereotypes and confronting fears about dementia. The character is sensitive to the motions of the viewer, she is aware of the presence in her home by making eye-contact and directly addressing the visitor. The characterisation has scientific validity but also the qualities of a rich, emotion-driven film narrative. The point of the work is to draw the viewer into the emotional/perceptual world of Viv. Like the women who co-created her, Viv experiences various dementia-related symptoms, including hallucinations and confabulation, but she is also insightful and reflective. Viv is living a life and coming to terms with a neurological change