STEREOTYPES OF THE ELDERLY HELD BY YOUNG, MIDDLE-AGED, AND ELDERLY ADULTS

This two-part study extended the research on multiple stereotypes of e lderly adults by examining the perceptions of young, middle-aged, and elderly adults. First, one set of participants engaged in a trait gene ration task which yielded a trait list for use in the second part of t he study. Second, other participants sorted the set of traits into gro ups representing different types of elderly individuals. Trait groupin gs were analyzed with hierarchical cluster analysis. Results supported the hypothesis that older adults have more complex representations of aging than do middle aged and young ones, and that middle-aged adults have more complex representations than do young ones. For example, mi ddle-aged and elderly adults reported more stereotypes of the elderly than did young adults, and elderly adults reported more stereotypes th an did middle-aged adults. Results also showed, as expected, that thes e differences in complexity exist against a background of general agre ement about the nature of aging: Trait lists produced by those in the three age groups were significantly correlated, and the stereotype set s of the three age groups included seven shared stereotypes. Results a re interpreted in terms of their support for two alternative explanati ons of the complexity differences: ingroup/outgroup and developmental.