Becca Levy

Becca R. Levy is a Professor of Epidemiology (Social and Behavioral Sciences) at Yale School of Public Health and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of social gerontology and psychology of aging. She has conducted foundational research on how self-stereotypes operate and how older individuals are influenced by and can influence their societies.

Career

Levy was born in Atlanta, GA. She studied psychology and Near Eastern studies at the University of Michigan. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School in the Division on aging and Department of Social Medicine. Afterward she started teaching as an assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health.

Levy’s primary research interests lie in examining the psycho-social influences of aging on individual health and well-being. In particular, her work has focused on elucidating the mechanisms by which self perceptions of aging and age stereotypes impact both cognitive and physical health. In a seminal series of studies, Levy for the first time established causal links between age stereotypes held by individuals and a number of outcomes previously unknown to be affected by such stereotypes including: memory, cardiac reactivity to stress, and even longevity.[1][2][3] Subsequently, this body of research has come to form the basis for Levy’s Stereotype Embodiment Theory (SET).[4]

Since the beginning of her career, Levy has contributed over 90 articles and chapters to leading psychological, gerontological, and medical journals and books. As an expert in the field of health and aging, her research has been featured on the front page of the New York Times;[5] and she was invited by the U.S. Senate to give testimony before the Special Committee on Aging regarding the harmful impact of ageism in popular media and marketing.

Awards

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Levy, B. (1996). Improving memory in old age by implicit self-stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1092-1107.
  2. ↑ Levy, B., Hausdorff, J., Hencke, R., & Wei, J. Y. (2000). Reducing cardiovascular stress with positive self-stereotypes of aging. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55B, P205-P213.
  3. ↑ Levy, B., Slade M. D., & Kasl, S. V. (2002). Increased longevity by positive self-perceptions of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 261-270.
  4. ↑ Levy, B. (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychological approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 332-336.
  5. ↑ In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a hurt for the elderly. (2008, October 6). The New York Times.

External links

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