[单项选择]American society has been described as maintaining a stereotypic and often negative perception of older adults. This negative and/or stereotypic perception of aging and aged individuals is readily apparent in such areas as language, media, and humor. For example, such commonly used phrases as "over the hill" and "don’t be an old fuddy-duddy" denote old age as a period of impotency and incompetency. The term used to describe this stereotypic and often negative bias against older adults is ageism. Ageism can be defined as "any action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of age or any assignment of roles in society purely on the basis of age". As an "ism", ageism reflects a prejudice in society against older adults. Ageism, however, is different from other "isms’’ ( sexism, racism, etc. ), for primarily two reasons. First, age classification is not static. An individual’s age classification changes as one progresses through the life cycle. Thus,
A. A perception of any action, or institutional structure.
B. Age or any assignment of roles in society purely based on age.
C. Respect to others maintained to stereotype other people.
D. Respect to self maintained to affect one’s self-concept.