The Influence of Changed Directions on Stereotypes About Ageing; Before and After Instruction

IN a previous study (I) the effect of a course on the psychology of the adult on the attitudes of graduate students toward old people and the older worker was investigated. The attitudes about old people and the older worker were measured both before and after instruction. Two questionnaires were used. The first questionnaire was about old people. It consisted of 137 statements regarding physical changes with age, mental deterioration, activities and interests, family relationships, conservatism, insecurity, etc. The second questionnaire was about the older worker. It consisted of 51 statements regarding physicaI decline, mental decfine, attitudes toward supervisors, attitudes toward retirement, and resistance to change. Except for statements about physical changes with age, for which there is supporting evidence, the majority of the statements in the two questionnaires involved beliefs, misconceptions and stereotypes about old people and the older worker. In the first study ( I ) , these two questionnaires were given to the class before instruction. After fourteen weeks of instruction, a shorter questionnaire of 40 items, 30 from the original questionnaire about old people and 10 from the original questionnaire about the older worker, was given to the class. The retest questionnaire had items that showed age or sex differences before instruction; the balance were chosen at random from different sections of the two questionnaires. The comparison of the responses of 124 graduate students (80 men and 44. women), before and after instruction indicated that the * Rctimncnt ond Adjufmcnt Srrics: Number 11. Sponsored cooperatively by the Institute of Adult Education and the Institute of Psychological Research, Teachers College, Columbia University.