Beliefs, Attitudes, and Stereotypes about Old People

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Abstract
The study of beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about the old is impeded by a number of conceptual and methodological difficulties. These are discussed, and possible future alternative directions are outlined. Some of the major sources of difficulty include confusion between attitudes and beliefs, the neglect of attitude-behavior relations, the discrepant outcomes generated by within-Ss and between-Ss designs in the person-perception paradigm, and the inherent defects in generalized attitude scales. There is good reason to believe that investigators in the present domain are unaware of the degree to which their empirical outcomes reflect the specific methods employed rather than the construct under study. Greater methodological awareness and a more theoretical orientation are deemed essential to future progress in the field.

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