Scholarly record

GENDER-AND-AGE RELATED, SOCIAL-AND-DEMOGRAPHIC, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF ESTIMATION OF A PERSONВ’S PERCEIVED AGE

Tatyana Shkurko

Abstract

“Perceived age” is the result of perception of a person's appearance representing the age of a perception object ascribed by a perception subject. Explosion of interest to the analysis of the factors of a person's perceived age is observed in the modern science, because the perceived age of a person is directly related to the biological age of such a person and is an indicator of mortality risk [1, 2]. Researchers studied genetic, ecological, and medical-and-esthetic factors effecting the perceived age of a person. At the same time, the effect of gender-and-age related, social-and-demographic, and psychological factors, to which our study is dedicated, is studied insufficiently. Hypotheses of the study: 1) the perceived age estimation can be conditioned by the gender-and-age related and social-and-demographic characteristics of perception subject and object; 2) estimations of a person's perceived age may differ depending on the type representation of such a person (full-height or portrait photo) to a perception subject; 3) parameters of a perception object's attitude to his/her appearance may condition his/her perceived age estimations. Methods of the study: 1) procedure “Photo and video presentations of appearance” (Labunskaya V.A., Shkurko T.A.) [3]; 2) method “Person's estimate-and-content interpretation of his/her own appearance and its correspondence with gender-and-age related constructs” (Labunskaya V.A.) [4]; 3) social-and-demographic questionnaire. Sample group of the study: 20 persons (10 men and 10 women at the age from 18 to 58 years) were selected as perception objects (“models”); 60 persons (47 women and 13 men at the age from 14 to 77 years) were selected as perception subjects. 80 persons in total participated in the study. Results: General tendency (independent of the gender and age of perception subject and object) towards “making another person older”, i.e. conceiving another person older than he/she is in reality, has been detected. It has been shown that the following factors effect the estimation of a person's perceived age: 1) age of a perception object; 2) age of the perception subject; 3) person's esthetic assessment of his/her own appearance. The following factors do not effect the estimation of a person's perceived age: 1) type of photovisualisation of a perception object (full-height or portrait photo); 2) gender of a perception object; 3) gender of a perception subject; 4) marital status and level of material prosperity of a perception subject. Conclusions: General tendency towards overstating another person's perceived age has been detected. The contribution of different types of a perception subject's age (chronological, psychological, perceived age self-estimation) to the precision of his/her estimation of another person's age has been described. Factors effecting / not effecting the estimation of another person's perceived age have been systematized.

Publication details

Back to publication list