RANKING OF WORDS CHOSEN TO DESCRIBE OLDER WOMEN IN GENERAL AND OLDER FEMALE RELATIVES

Two-hundred-ninety-six people completed a rating scale of 40 words tha t could be used to describe older women. Using Pearson Product Moment Correlations, there were weak but significant relations between the pa rticipants' age, gender, education, number of visits, and the applicab ility rating of words. There was a greater relationship when looking a t the older female relative's health and the applicability of words wi th sick at a .69 and slow with a .437 correlation at the .01 significa nce level. When looking at relationships between closeness of the resp ondent with the older female relative, considerably more words were fo und to have some relationship with seven having between a .40 and .485 at the .01 significance level. It would seem that the relative's heal th and the closeness of the respondent with the older female relative indicate how the words are perceived and thus ranked.