Wednesday, October 24 / 12:00 Noon / Byrd Center for Legislative Studies
 

Dr. Heidi Dobish
Dr. Dobish earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Experimental (Social) Psychology from Tufts University in 1999 and 2004 respectively. She also has a B. S. degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Dr. Dobish is a member of the Psychology Department where she was hired by Shepherd University in 2005. She teaches the developmental courses such as Infant/Child Development, Adolescent Development and Psychology of Aging. Her main research interests are in the area of emotion perception and stereotypes across the life span with an emphasis on people’s perceptions of older adults.  

 

Emotional Stereotypes Across the Life Span

 

What motivates us to make judgments about other people? “My grandfather is a curmudgeonly old man.” “My mother giggles like a silly school girl when she is around her friends.” What expectations do these judgments arouse in us when we hear them? Do they make us want to interact with them or avoid them like the plague?

There is a great deal of research literature exploring age-related stereotypes and how these biased expectations affect our perceptions of others and our interactions with them. However, very little of this research focuses on emotional stereotypes. This presentation will explore what people believe regarding the experience and expression of emotions from infancy through late adulthood. How might these beliefs affect the way we interact with people or even if we want to interact with them at all? What does it mean when we say someone is “emotional?” Are some emotions more common in young children versus older adults? This presentation will discuss current research on this socially-relevant topic.
 

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