AGEISM, MYTHS AND RIGHTS OF OLDER PERSONS IN A CHANGING WORLD

Ageing is a process that is possible to happen to everyone in his/her life time, aging affects a person in different stages of his life, whether on deterioration of physical health or becoming calm, and experienced. Growing old is a natural phenomenon however attitudes, expectations, biases and myths related to it have their own defining definition for aging. Old age has been associated with positive and negative traits, the associations not only reflect the treatment of the old but also determine how it is being perceived by society. In Nigerian society many social factors such as our personal assumptions, expectations, and fears about growing older influence ageing process. Research reviews indicate that negative age stereotypes are prevalent in the majority of the population and different forms of age discrimination, this paper found that older people with negative beliefs about old age and ageing showed a deterioration of their self-concept over an interval. Some of the myths our society has about aging people include: Senility is a normal part of aging, oldest people are alone and lonely, Old people are more likely to be victims of crime and poverty, Retirees suffer decline in health and early death, oldest people have no interest or capacity for sexual relations, oldest people end up in nursing homes and are less productive than younger workers. New images of ageing should be brought into the mass media and into the cognizance of the general public, showing that older people are in fact a potential societal resource.