Attitudes Toward Older Adults: A Reexamination of Two Major Scales

ABSTRACT

Two studies were conducted to reexamine the psychometric properties of two major scales measuring attitudes toward older adults. The Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (Kogan OP Scale; Kogan, 1961b) was administered to a sample of 512 college students in Study One. The refined version (Polizzi & Millikin, 2002) of the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD; Rosencranz & McNeivin, 1969) using an attitudinal target, older adults, was evaluated in Study Two with a sample of 785 college students. Overall, the refined ASD using a nongender and age-specific attitudinal target, older adults, was found to be more psychometrically promising than the Kogan OP Scale. Much refinement is needed for the Kogan OP Scale because of a major flaw associated with OP+ and OP– subscales. The refined ASD using older adults as the attitudinal target is a potentially practical tool in gerontological and geriatric fields with future clarification of its factor structure. Strengths and shortcomings of these scales are discussed based on psychometric features. Implications for future studies are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• ageism
• measurement
• scale
• instrument
• Kogan Attitudes Toward Old People Scale
• the aging semantic differential
• reliability
• validity