Senior Citizens as a Multicultural Group: Elderly People in the USA

AbstractSenior citizens of the USA have been in the focus of interest of a substantial number of studies throughout social sciences. In spite of such a popularity of this topic, little attention has been paid to the cultural characteristics of senior citizens. The following essay takes into account cultural diversity and illustrates that there are some very serious differences inside the group of American senior citizens in several aspects. Minority elderly people suffer from double jeopardy. It is revealed in their lower economic status, higher morbidity and mortality rate. In addition, they suffer from additional stress related with their ethnicity. Keywords: senior citizens, culture, ethnicity, descriminationSenior Citizens as a Multicultural Group: Elderly People in the USASenior citizens of the USA have been in the focus of interest of a substantial number of studies throughout social sciences (Feldmeyer & Steffensmeier, 2007). In this connection, various aspects have been researched: starting from the physical and mental wellbeing, finishing by crime and social exclusion of this group. Such a vivid interest of the scientist can be explained by the process of “aging” of the American population. The recent decades showed a growing percentage of the elderly in the US population (Feldmeyer & Steffensmeier, 2007). In spite of such a popularity of this topic, little attention has been paid to the cultural characteristics of senior citizens. Most researchers, apart from those who did it intentionally, ignore the circumstance that elderly people in the USA are a multicultural group. It means that from the first steps they make, when the research problem is defined and the main hypotheses are put forward, they treat this group as if it was homogeneous. In return, it means that the whole US population is treated as homogenous.The most important goal of the following essay is to show that senior citizens are a multicultural group. This goal is achieved by analyzing articles that take multiculturalism into account, and comparing them to those where multiculturalism is ignored.From the point of view of psychology, cultural differences can be viewed from the perspective of values that people share. It is presumed that a person, who evaluates her or his life by assigning values, identifies these values with the ones determined by culture. So, personal values reproduce cultural values (Westerhof, Dittmann-Kohli, & Katzko, 2000). In the comparative study of collectivism and individualism (Westerhof, Dittmann-Kohli, & Katzko, 2000) elderly people of the USA were compared with the elderly from Congo/Zaire. It is interesting how the researchers try to be objective in measurements. One would suppose the difference to be great, judging from the common sense. However, it was found that the difference between the two countries was less than the difference between the individual responses. The study also conducted that both Congolese and American elderly made more collectivist statements. Although this research doesn’t take into account the cultural diversity inside groups, it gives valuable information about the values of American senior citizens as a whole. It was found that American senior citizens describe themselves positively …