Perceptions of Old People: A Review of Research Methodologies and Findings Riley (1971) recently called for the study of age stratification in society, @ focus which would lude all age strata and the societal processes which characterize, explain and flow from ege stralificotion. This perspective pulls together 9 umber of strands of research in social geron- tology about how individuals relate to each other ond are influenced by their own status in patterned age relations. One of these strands Of research is that of orientations others have toward alder people This review focuses on the part of this general topic having a relatively direct bearing on the patterned social orientations (perceptions, atti fudes, views) others, including the elderly, have oward old people in various social contexts. ‘An important feature of the social space with which those defined as old must contend is the extent to which others are oriented to invite or shun, include or ignore, plan for or with, support for attack, reward or negatively sanction. As Rosow (1962) remarks, By now it should be ele the osing probie fe groups for i Stave and. postion of the older perton in the socal order. that the crucil people in Havighurst (1968) olso notes that © supportive social environment is an important factor in successful aging. It is felt that an examination of changes in orientation by others who relale in various ways 40 the elderly should be useful in predicting trends among alternative pattems of social engagement with the aged in society. Ag, Protenor, Boot, of Sailony, Usivnity of | utd The canted soit Gorda S HB'cotiaae re eehann Donald G. McTavish, PhD! Research on Perceptions of Old People ‘Among US investigators central comments on the standing of the elderly in society probably begin with the statements by Linton in 1942, al- though prior comments can be found. Research work dates from the seminal, cross-cultural study by Simmons (1945) and Dinkel's 1944 study of altitudes of children toward supporting aged perents. The main impetus in the field, ond the earliest source usually cited by gerontologists in thie atna, is tha instrimant-davalapment study on attitudes toward old people by Tuckman and Lerge in the early 1950s, Most investigators have remarked on the prevalence of erroneous and negative imores- sions about the elderly, an emphasis undoubtedly heightened as gerontological research provided new documentation of “facts” about society's aged. Considerable emphasis in studying ati tudes toward old people hes been on research instrumentation. Recently there seems to have been a renewed interest in the subject, explora- tion of @ broader range of measurement tech- riques, and modestly increasing concern for the theoretical relevance of attitudes toward old people. Investigetions of the subject differ in 2 num. ber of respects: by source of data, instruments used, cultural areas covered, extent of analysis of attitudes in terms of other variables, and ex- planatory stance. A crucial distinction, however, appears fo be in terms of the unit of analysis. ‘One tradition of inquiry focuses on a cultural or sociely-wide unit of analysis end the other tradition concentrates primarily on individuals fr analytic sub-groups. The former tends to use the general level of regard or prestige of the The Gerontologist whad200 hielderly in society as « dependent voriable, seek- ing societal explanations for cross-time and cross-culture variation. The latter approach em- phasizes stereotypes others hold and describes these in terms of relatively few, standard, so- iological and psychological variebles (.e., age, sex, authoritarianism, institutional residence, 30 cial class, etc). The two traditions overlep to some extent and are surrounded by discursive aura of opinions and considered statements on the level, couses and consequences of percep fions of the elderly (Aldridge, 1953; Barron, 1954; Busco, 1968; Butlor, 1989; Cohen, 1960; Edermon, 1966: Goldfarb, 1963; Kastenbaum, 1965: Linden, 1957b; Rosow. 1962: Youmans, 1968). The following sections summarize instruments and main research findings in the two traditions noted above, explanations for veriation in orien- tations foward the elderly, and suggestions for further reseorch Society-Level Studies A number of studies explicitly mention general attitudes toward the elderly. Some of these in- vestigate single societies: Arth, (19682) end Shelton (1965), on the Igbo; Streib, {19686}, fon Ireland: Cowgill, (1968), on Thailand: Har: lan, (1968), on three villages in Indio; Chandler, (1949), on China: Haynes, (1962), on Greece and (1963), on Rome: and Duncan, (1963), Mar- tel, (1968), Hevighurst and Albrecht, (1953), Palmore, (1971}, and Seltzer and “Atchley. (1971), on the US. Others compare cultures: Simmons, (1945), on 71 societies; Maxwell, (1971), on 26 societies: Bringmann and Rieder. (1968). on Germany end the United States: Benglton and Smith, (1968), on six societies: as well as Burgess, (1980), a collection on Western societies; and Shanas, (1968), on three indus trial societies. There are other studies which are related although less explicit about altitudes of others. Approaches—These studies employ several different opproaches ta the study of parcaptians of old people. Some studies (Arth, 19680: Cow- gill, 1968: Shelton, 1985; Streib, 19686) involve essentially on-site, participant observation occa- sionally supplemented by the use of records and questionnaires given to available subjects. Cross- cultural inferview studies of selected. samples have been used as well (Bengison & Smith 1968, Bringmann & Rieder, 1948; Shanas, 1968) Analysis of ethnographic records, most notebly the Murdock ethnographic sample, has been con Winter 1971 Part I 9 ducted by Simmons (1945) ond Maxwell (1971) Simmons investigated some 100 cultural charac: teristics and Maxwell dovised a Gutman scale of 6 items on informational control by the aged and a set of 24 items related to positive or nege- five attitudes and treatment of the elderly. Content analysis procedures have also been fre quently used.” Chandler (1949), Duncan (1963), and Haynes (1962, 1963) examined literary mo- terials for evidence of attitudes toward tho el- derly. Martel (1968) used an extensive content analysis instrument on somples of 40 to 85 short lected from coveral ample years be tween 1890 and 1985 in issues of four popular ‘American magazines. Seltzer and Atchley (1971) studied carefully selected samples of children’s books from the US published between 1870 and the present. They used three rating techniques fon fext passages: a more traditional content analysis classification by judges, semantic differ. ential scales in terms of which coders scored passages, and a frequency count of words re fering 40 old people or things. Finally, Palmoce (1971) reports on an interesting approach in which he Used 264 jokes and sayings about old people which are classified into content cate- gories on four scales: by subject, activity/dis engagement, positive/negative evaluations, end sex references. Studies dealing with attitudes of individuals toward older people also yield aggregate est mates of societal senjiment. The euthor, for example, included a sub-set of six attitude to- ward old people items in a 1965 national sar ple survey of adults ond 0 variety of studies have been made on student populations (Bekker & Taylor, 1966: Golde & Kogan, 1959: Kogen, 19616; Tuckman & Lorge, 1953a}. Findings—Most investigators report findings which support the view that altitudes toward the elderly are most favorable in primitive so- cieties and decrease with increasing modernize fion 40 the point of generally negative views in industrialized, Western notions (Burgess, 1960: Chandler, 1949: Cowgill, 1968: Parsons. 1942: Shelton, 1965: Streib, 1968b: and Harlen, 1968, cites others}. This contention has been seriously questioned by a number of investigators, how. ever. Haynes (1962, 1963), for example, sug- gests that ancient Rome end Greece were not generally as favorable toward the aged as popu: larly imagined. Arth (19686) found that the Ibo expressed embivalence about their status and that the elderly were subjected to some of the characleristic, modern stresses of age. He sug-Table 1. The General Level of Acceptance and "Rejection of Old People as Roported in Several Investigations. notes & eta Ka ‘ey ence i toad in Sta Sm Tose fewer ee x cists isa ‘he wenbeos be abion 3 Menino pm me 3 “a lv uo mah pin bad ii meet a z ‘Ter we tron ih 3 aie Cow eaee a : 3 "ing he et aoa (ph a ° eee toate 3 2 Sey page 3 Be tap cnt when lem) Ft a q hr we eo chinn a Seti i as aa str tts gt Hs ct a ‘ene seston i Es pr amen in Mira pen ni Erearresenan B sallever diy ie on, Ci rp sine i Ti : = austen Be ti Bd ate Me eo ha to ie py fie ee nN oo os Ctr we ana ea ince & peep i ate Po 10 orate int haf ti ih relent ee oo ae at Thy ir gests that it is important to distinguish between Komi) ea yxy cultural ideals and actual behavior toward the Boon NE NE elderly. ee Harlan (1968) reports that the elderly occupy xits_wts cia precerious position in the three Indian villoges te bare enh prin he studied. Bengtion and Smith (1968) report een ts 28 34 34 that they found no evidence supporting the hy- ay ag pothesized negative association of status of the Matt pone maie ee bllstewe 2.43.00 elderly and the exlent of modernization, in their Mato lowe ery ning otewih 40 LA -43—_ interview study of some 5500 18- #0 32-year-old {a gop re ne, et men in samples from Chile, Argentina, India eget estriol a an aa an Pakistan, Israel, and Nigeria. In fact, they re. ae port a slight positive relationship between these ‘linn wy 445553 two variables. Duncan (1963) feels that the Ins asi ir social regard for the elderly in the US has ac- COSMET ear ng teolly improved over time ‘anaconda Seltzer and Atchley's (1971) study of hil ahi ew siete” ||| “dren's books from the 1870s to the present in ee the US indicated a consistently lower evaluation saan “23 a4 a7 of old people and things but the difference was Met i pale heal erm, statistically significant only for the 1870 sample. sn io enor eee ce ae y mI There was a decrease in reference to old people 2 The Gerontologistand things, and they did not find on expocted linear relationship between increasing percent- age of aged in the population end negative att tudes toward the elderly. They suggest that the extent of negative views of the elderly in the US may have been over-emphasized by geron- tologists. Palmore's (1971) study of humor indi cated thet 56% of the jokes about the aged were negative (27% positive and 17% neutral} Men were mentioned somewhat more frequently (35% versus 25%, for women and 40% both or vunspecified). Most frequently mentioned sub: jects wore: age or longevity (229%), physical bility oF oppeerance (17%). old-timer or old- fashioned (17%), sex ability or interest (12%). and age concealment (11%) Mertel’s (1968) data on magazine fiction in the US indicate 9 declining status of mature middle-aged and older people. He reports a decline in social distance between childron and parents from 1890 to 1955 and more but un- reciprocated effection toward children. The prime of life is increasingly characterized as young adulthood rather than more mature years Prestigeful meenings of age (experience, wisdom, seasoning] shift to meanings suggesting that old people ore seen as past their prime and “out of it." Martel noted thet the aged ere symbolically mhandoned as indicated in these data descriptions represent the aged as having close friends among the young edulis in stories and this is omitted by the 1950s. Martel’s cautions about the screening effects of publication apply to other studies based on recorded material Table | summarizes some of the responses to questions in attitude scoles given in the US which bear on the general reactions toward older people. These data suggest that between a fifth and a third of adults are willing to agree to relatively negative statements about older peo ple in general Explarotions of society-level otfitudes toward the aged.—Simmons (1945] found that the aged ‘are rare in primitive societies and becaure of 4his, their experience and contiqued functions are generally accorded high prestige, Cowgill (1968) summarized these findings in three propo: sitions, that the status of the aged tends to be higher in societies: a} thet ore stoi B) whore the aged ate «small pores population (ie, 3% aged 60 or over in Tolland, Which’ Cowgil charactarzes as on the’ vorge of ‘henge im ths rexpect. Heron {1954], however, doer not find this to be the rection of a, com mrity to inereesed numbers of old people] Eselior Winter 1971 Part I 2 } where the older indvidvel con and doos perform {ecillyvlued functions. Family organization and economic base are cited as relevant factors by Simmons (1946). He finds that old men are more highly reger patriarchal and herding or agricultural soci ‘while aged women tend to have higher respect in matriarchal and. in collecting-hunting-fshing societies, although aged men fare well here too. Palmore (1971). also comments on something of 2 “double-standard" in US views of old men end ‘women, Streib (19686) finds thet late marriage, manner of rurel properly transfer, closeness of mother-son relationships, migration of rural young to the cities, and, perhaps, the power held by fhe old as factors enhancing the status of the elderly. He expects a decline in status with increased emphasis on education in Ireland. Horlan (1968) suggests that personal factors such as illness, death of spouse, intra-family conflict, demands of youth, and economic ad- versity account for the status of the elderly rather then processes of urbanization and indus- frialization. Linton (1942) comments that age alone probobly does not increase individual pres- fige. "A number of studies discuss attitudes about tho elderly in terms of @ subculture or quasi- minority group standing of the aged (Rose, 1965b; Barron, 1953). Barron, for example, does not consider the aged a functioning minority ‘group but sees essentially a “class war” between ‘old and young. Prejudice toward the elderly is suggested asa majority rationalization of dis- crimination against the elderly in oreas such as employment. Streib (1968a) feels this conceptual approach does not help to clarify the role of the aged in the United States. Bultena (1968) finds support for some of the implications of minority-group conceptions but not for others. Maxwell and Silverman (1971) hypothesize that the fector governing old people's respect in so- cioly is the amount of useful information the elderly possess. In a study of 26 societies they report a gamma of -+.68 between a é-ilem Guit- man scale of informational control and a 24-item indicator of ettitudes and treatment of the aged. Research needs—Clearly this review suggests that further research is needed on society-wide Views of the elderly and linkages between this ond other levels of inquiry (Clark, 1967). Current descriptions of attitudes toward the aged do not permit consistent comparisons across cultures or even across age groups within In pert this may reflect 0 confusion cultures,of cultural ideals and actual behavior (Arth, 1968b). The field lacks instruments of researched adequacy appropriate for different cultural con texts end age groups. Refinements in what is intended by “old” and what constitutes 0 so ictal oltitude toward the elderly are needed. Simmons (1745) poinis to a need for careful ex- amination of the positive or negative meaning of behaviors. This became apparent in coding student statements about old people where the ‘author found considerable disagreement between coders and subject self-ratings 0s to the posi five. neutral. or negative sense of subject state- ments. There is need for adequate, representative sampling (Harlan, 1968} and studies designe io explore explanatory variables and consequences of differing views of the aged. Emphasis on theoretically connected explanations is greatly needed. Some helpful leads in terms of age stratification (Riley, 1971), information held (Maxwell, 1971), modernity, ete., exist, but the adequacy of these explanations. remains nce solved. Studies should be undertaken which per- mit @ longitudinal assessment of changes in atti tudes toward the elderly, correlated with other social change processes and taking into account sex and role relationships of those who hold attitudes and the aged these altitudes ere about ‘An increased emphasis upon sub-cultural con: texts is also likely io be useful (Harper & Garzo, 1968) Individual-Level Studi Studies of this type gather data from individ- uals and examine it either in terms of individual- level explanations or contrast subgroup verie- fions in views of the elderly. They fend to em- phasize instrument development more than is true of society-level investigations, yot explans- tions for differences in views ere conceptually less consistent and largely unresearched Approaches —A variety of approaches to the assessment of attitudes toward the elderly have been developed including coveral.likort type scales of altitudes toward old people or old workers (Axelrod & Eisdorfer, 1961; Drake, 1957: Eisdorfer, 1966, Hickey & Kalish, 1968; Kirch- ner, Lindbom, & Paterson, 1952: Kogan, 19616, McTavish, 1970; Silverman, 196; Tuckman & Lorge, 1952e: 1953a). The semantic diferential has been used (Eisdorfer & Alirocchi, 1961: Ko- gen & Wallach, 1961a: Knapp & Moss, 1963 Roseneranz & MeNevin, 1989) as well as content canolysis approaches (Britton & Britton, 1970; Cabot, 1961: Coe, 1967: Eisdorfer & Wilkie 1967; Golde & Kogan, 1959: Hickey, Hickey & Kalish, 1968: Kahana & Coe, 1969: McTovish, 1970; Neugorten & Gutmann, 1958). A number of other procedures have been proposed and used: Q-sort (Newfield, 1971), Gough Adjective Rating Scale (Aaronson, 1964), Age Constraint Score (Neugarten et al, 1985: Troll & Schloss- berg, 1970], Occupotion/Retiree Rotings (Cutler 1971) Generotion Rating Seales (Cameron, 1971) and "Age-Appropriate Atitudes" (Kastenbaum & Durkeo, 1964a.b). Selected examples of these measurement approaches will be briefly intro- duced below. Representative instruments—Although Din- kel's (1944) study of eifitudes of children to ward supporting aged parents included a 20- statement "opinion-aire" about a child's respon- sibility toward aged parents ond parent expecta ions, it was the work of Tuckmen and Lorge {1952e, 19532) which initiated measurement interest on attitudes toward old people. They developed two scales. One included 51 short statements of erroneous views about older work crs (defined as 45+) the other 137 statements ‘expressing erroneous Views ebout old people in general (age not specified). Subjects circled "Yes" or "No," indicating agreement or dis- ‘agreement with the statements. Scores one scale consisted of the total number of responses. Scores were examined by sub-cate- gory (9 for the old-worker scale and 13 for the old:person scala), by percentage agreement with individual items ‘and by total scale score. In- dices of the validity or reliability of the scale ‘are not reported, although problems of establish ing that "stereotype" statements are in fact er- roneous were mentioned, and they report that continuous response scales (in terms of percent. age of old people to which the subject feels the stereotype statement applies) rather then a "Yes"-"No" dichotomy makes litle substantive difference (Tuckman & Lorge, 1953b, 1954b). Statements were derived from the authors’ ex eriences, interviews with various public service Egents, employers, and. clinical practioner, rather thon a specific theoretical perspective The scale has been applied to a number of groups of college students (Persil 1963; Tuckmen & Lorge. 19532), old people in various commun- ity and inslitutionel settings (Merrill. 1969; ire con, en ced core rd a oct arated eoreni sd oa Ne iar Pa ve ota! SE hr teat! tit Sue Be uae, ince BS 4 The GerontologistTuckmen & Lorge, 19526.d, 19586, college sophomores and both of their parents (Tuck man, Lorge, & Spooner, 1953), people experi- fenced ond unexperienced with the aged (Tuck. mon & Lorge, 19580), junior and senior high school students (Lorge, Tuckman, & Abrams, 1954), and four groups of differing ages (Tuck- man & Lorge, 1953c). The older worker scale has been used with @ conference group of vari fous employment specialists (Tuekman & Lorge, 1952¢}.. Differences in average stereotype scores by various partitions of subject populations are not great, but large observed differences in per centage of agreement with diferent scale iiems con both scales lead the investigators to conclude thot subjects are reluctant 4o agree with nega- five items about older people. By contrast, Kirchner’s et al. (1952) scale of attitudes toward the old person in the labor market was fairly carefully exemined in terms of reliability and validity, although on small sem- ples. Starting with 53 likert items developed from the literature and cther sources, the final 2titem scale resulted from 0 series of item analyses using samples of college students end workers and managers from a laundry and metal work plant. Scored on the sum of weighted (5 point agreement scale) responses, Kirchner re- porte oven odd reliability coefficient: of .90 and management-employee average score differences in tho direction of less favorable views of old workers held by supervisors and managers. Neither old-worker scale soems -to have at- trocted further interest, at least in the geron- tological literature. Other investigators have modified and used the Tuckman-Lorge old person scale, however. Axelrod and Eisdorfer (1961), for exemple, gave the scale to five groups of studonis. Each group received different instruc- tions on the age-referent of the questions (35, 45, 55, 65, end 7S-year-olds), and the original 137- item Tuckmen-Lorge scale was reduced to 96 items, which included cheracteristics not often attributed to other than old people. Eisdorfer (1966) also reports 2 re-analysis item in which he questions context differences in response, He suggests that all 137 original items be given but that the analysis be limited to 79 items found to consistently diferentiate between young and old. This revised scale was used by Beller & Taylor (1966). Lane (1964), and Pihiblad, Rosen crenz, & McNevin, (1967). Kogen {1961b) developed o scale of 17 pairs of essentially identical positive and negatively stated items taken from the ethnic prejudice Winter 1971 Part I 5 literature and covering areas such as residence tension, homogeneity, intergenerational relations dependence, cognitive style, personal oppecr. ‘ance, and power. The scale is designed to reflect positive and negative altitudes (prejudices) rather than stereotypes, as in the Tuckman-Lorge scales. Separate positive and negative scale scores were derived by summing weighted (6- point agreement scale) responses and reliability co-eficients of .66 to 83 are reported—higher for the negative scale. Silverman (1966) further examined the scale findings some negative corre: lation with o social desirability seale (=. for men and —.1 for women} and with a follow-up test asking for the subject's preference for ‘in terviewing retired people compared to other groups (r=4] from which he concludes. that response-set bias may account for some of Ko: gan's (196Ib} observed correlations and that the scale is capable of predicting disposition to associate with the aged. Further use of the scale was made by Kogan and Shelton (19820) and most recently by House end Gaitz (1970). The writer developed e series of 40 likert items on aHitudes toword old people developed from open-ended responses by college students fo a modification of the Twenty Statements Test [the Old Person Twenty Statement Test—OPTST atked for 20 datomente in rocponco to the query, “old people are . .."). This was given to students in 1962 and on the besis of item analysis, reduced to 15 agres-disagree items. Subjects were also asked fo judge whether items were positive, negative, or neutral regarding old peo- ple. Six of these scale items were selected 0 be administered in a 1965 NORC survey of 9 na tional sample of 1449 adults. Analysis of these responses clearly indicates more than ene dimer: sion in the adult sample but not in the student samples, as well as a difference in response 40 positive end negative items. Responses to these six items are shown in Tables | and 2. Rosencranz and McNevin (1969) developed 32-item semantic differential scale in which they ated subjects to rate each af three age cate. gories (20-30, 40-55, and 70-85). Factor analy. sis of data from 287 undergraduate students re sulted in three factors: (a) Instrumental-Ineffec tive, (b) Autonomous-Dependent, and (c} Per- sonal Acceptability-Unacceptability. Factor scores on these three dimensions were used in their analysis 10 characterize the subject's atti tude toward old people. In a 1964 study of 423 college students. the writer selected 110 semantic differential itemsto reflect analytic dimensions of perception of the aged suggested by various sociological theories. Sixty-two items were used to rate old people by each half of the sample (I4 items were identical for both forms of the fest), and respondents were asked to go back and rate their ‘own responses in terms of positive, negative, or neutral feelings about old people. A factor analysis of the 14 scales answered by both halves of the somple indicated five factors: (a) Individ- uality, (b) Submissiveness, (e] Constriction, (4) Feminism, and (Ff) Worthiness. A oumber of different content analysis op- proaches have been used in the assessment of attitudes toward the elderly. Golde and Kogan (1959) developed « sentence completion proce- dure contsting of 25 matched sentence stems about “old people” and "people in general.” These reflect meny characteristic: such as emo- tions, physical attributes, interpersonal qualities, and values. Responses 40 each statement stem were coded into content categories and sum morized in terms of percentages. This proce- dure or a voriont of it is used by House and Goitz (1970) and Traxler (1971). Responses io pictures of people of different apparent ages has been used with success by Britton and Britton (1969, 1970) and Neugarten and Suliman (1958). Hickey wt al. (1968) ort alyzed essays grade school children were asked to write on "An old person like your grandparents, where perceived physical and social characters tics were used as the content analytic. dimen sions. Coe (1967) tape-recorded hospital staff discussions about elderly patients and classified the statements by several criteria including atti- tudes toward the aged. Other investigators have asked for open-ended responses to general sen- tence stoms. Kehane and Coe (196%). for ex- ample, asked staff ond embulatory residents in a home for the aged to provide @ number of re- sponses to the TST ("Who am I. . .") and to the statement "Who is this resident ..." Coders then classified these statements on five dimen sivin, Present-Past Orivntation, Family Refer ence, Professional Perspectives, Favorebl tive views, and 9 General dimension which in cluded role, affective, personality, physical, ond other responses. Cabot [1961] used the stem, "When I'am with an older person, |...” to investigate attitudes toward the elderly The writer's “Old Person Twenty Statement Test (OPTST] asks a respondent for 20 stote- ments in response fo the stem, "I think old peo: % ple ore simply, 20 statements which characterize old people). These statements are content analyzed using a computer procedure developed by Cleveland and McTavish (1970), which yields a similarity score between peirs of respondents in terms of their verbage ebout ‘older people. Similarity scores are then analyzed by cluster ond smallest space procedures in studying the complexity and homogeneity of the conceptual or linguistic orientation toward old people. Preliminary results (McTavish, 1970) suggest 9 three dimensional attitudinal space within which there seem to be three more or less. homogeneous views of older people . ‘Aaronson (1966) used a version of the Gough Adjective Rating Scale which included % of the 300 words that were more clearly associated with fone of the decade intervels between ages 5 and 85. Responses of students were used to segre- gaie words by age, and age-category ratings wore factor analyzed, yielding three factors for the more frequent words (energetic outgoingness, anergic constriction, and socialized control), and three for the less frequent words (mature re- straint, youthful exuberance, and asocial inet ciency}. Neugarfen et al. (1965) and Troll and Schlossberg (1970) used an "age constreint” score which is relevent here, indicating the ex tent 40 which @ subject feels o varied list of 39 ‘adult behaviors are appropriate only for those in o more restricted range of age cotegories rather then eppropriate for adults without re- gerd fo their age. In e somewhat diferent pro- cedure, Cutler (1971) asked subjects to rate nine general occupational titles on general standing, using the familiar North-Hatt occupa- tion rating procedure. Respondents were also asked to rate the same titles with the prefix “retived,” and discrepancy scores between these two sets of ratings were examined. Findings—An assessment of findings from studies of individual perceptions of older people is hampered by the nature of the somples used (generally collage students). the nature of man surement instruments (lacking comparability cross studies), end reporting prectices (often brief and low on technical detail). As in the case of society-level studies, however, the em- phasis fends to be on aspects of studies which suggest a higher level of negative attitudes about old people. Populations studied include college students (Aaronson, 1966: Axelrod & Eisdorfer, 1961: Bok er & Taylor, 1966; Brockman, 1969: Britton & The Gerontologist