Viewing “older people”: A comparative method-comparative sample approach

Abstract

Two studies assessing perceptions of “older people” are reported. Study I compared self-perceptions of middle-class adolescents, young adults, middle-aged and older respondents on predefined personality dimensions with their perceptions of “older people”. On 6 of the 10 dimensions, the aged were perceived as different from the respondents' self-perceptions and invariably in less desirable terms. Study II used an open-ended method asking samples of university students and trainee nurses to list the five most typical characteristics of ”old people”. The results basically supported the findings of the first study. The majority of characteristics attributed to the aged were negative, and most of these seemed related to a biologically-based decline model.