Models: Projeto Samuel Rangel
Photo by Cristiano de Assis
Ongoing projects
Title: Human appearance: a narrative review and conceptual update
Researchers: Andrea Lopes, Suzanne Tanoue, and Brenda Carvalho de Andrade
Abstract: The term appearance has been used in many ways by different research fields, involving multiple goals. In the studies about humans, the appearance seems to be important especially to understand people’s lifestyles, social organizations, identities and body constitutions. However, a literature review from Social Sciences funded by São Paulo Research Foundation and made by the Aging, Appearance, and Meaning research group, pointed to a lack of a clear, complex and integrated definition of the appearance as well as its association with other terminology. This review culminated in the publication of an biopsychosociocultural concept of appearance that was applied to empirical studies made by the group. It was possible to identify three interrelated domains of the concept and their attributes. In order to update the concept, the present project intends to identify, correlate and synthesize the meanings, uses and results involving the term appearance present in the national and international literature from different research fields that study humans. The method will be the Scoping Review technique, which will be applied in the digital collection databases from University of São Paulo, looking for the descriptor “appearance” simultaneously in the title, abstract and keywords. It will also include articles from peer-reviewed journals, published between 2018 and 2022 in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, aiming to search for different aspects involved in the construction of individual and group appearances. The study will be developed in two years. It intends to introduce a biopsychosociocultural multidimensional concept of human appearance, which would be relevant for a better understanding of the diversity and meanings in the context of the aging process.
Keywords: Appearance; Aging; Biopsychosociocultural Aspects; Narrative Review.
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Title: Stereotypes about old age and aging: a scoping review
Researchers: Cristiano de Assis, Brenda Carvalho de Andrade, and Andrea Lopes
Abstract: The objective involved mapping, characterizing, and analyzing international scientific production in English related to stereotypes of old age and aging. A scoping review was chosen. A research protocol was published in a Brazilian scientific journal and made available in an online public repository. The review was conducted based on the criteria of the Joanna Briggs Institute, an expert in the field. It included original and review articles published up to 2022, peer reviewed. The databases used were BVS, EBSCO, EMBASE, ScienceDirect, and SciELO. The results revealed that the stereotypes identified and discussed in the selected literature are predominantly negative, portraying aging as a process of losses and older people as incompetent and frail. It is noteworthy that these generalized representations can contribute to phenomena such as stereotype threats and self-fulfilling prophecies, affecting various age groups and discouraging lifelong health promotion practices. This review enhances understanding of stereotypes as a complex phenomenon, influenced by domain-specific factors and moderated by contextual and individual aspects.
Keywords: Stereotypes. Old age. Aging. Elderly person.