Purpose: Negative stereotypes regarding older individuals; i.e., ageism, are pervasive in our society. It can be seen in media portrayals, on the job, in jokes we tell, and especially in birthday cards. However, ageist attitudes can be difficult to see because of social desirability and “political correctness.” This subtle yet powerful negative attitude can greatly influence developmental outcomes for those in late adulthood. This exercise is designed to help you discover whether or not society, or rather the ones you survey, does in fact hold negative beliefs about those in late adulthood. You are going to administer a survey that includes myths about aging. Each item is based on a common myth about those in late adulthood.
Task: To complete the assignment, first make a hypothesis as to whether or not you will find negative stereotypes toward older individuals. Then have ten adults of different ages (from young adulthood to late adulthood) complete the attached questionnaire. You must get adults of different ages and from both genders so that you can make age and gender comparisons. Not having enough people of one gender or age is not a valid explanation for lack of gender or age differences. Also, you must get adults that are not in our class.
After the participants have completed the questionnaire, analyze the results. First, score each survey. For each person, add the value given to each item to calculate a total score. (Higher scores indicate more agreement with myths about aging.) Then calculate the mean score for all of the total scores (everyone who participated). Next, divide your data by gender, and calculate the mean total score for males and the mean score females. Then divide your data by age, and calculate the mean total score for young adults, middle aged adults, and older adults. (Make your own decision about how to define early, middle, and late adulthood.)
With your data in hand, answer the following questions in an essay/research report format which might be read by a colleague in developmental psychology. In a research report you will describe how and why you collected the data, the results of your data collection, the interpretation of your data, and how this information might be used. The well written research report has a professional style, no slang or colloquial language, and is written in third person. The questions to be answered in this assignment mimic the type of information that would be found in an APA style research report. You are not required to do so, but if you would like to write your paper in APA style using the appropriate headings and formatting, I will offer 5 points of extra credit to be added to your exercise grade.
- Start your paper with a good introductory paragraph.
- A good introductory paragraph includes a thesis sentence or problem statement.
- An introduction must also include a hypothesis as to the results of your study. Your hypothesis is going to be related to the presence or absence of ageism.
- Normally, a research report would include an abstract which is a summary of your entire paper. You do not need to have an abstract for this assignment. Be aware that the abstract is not the introduction to the paper.
- Provide some background information about stereotypes against older people.
- What stereotypes exist?
- Why do they exist? You must discuss at least one of the two theories as to why these stereotypes exist.
** Provide information from a credible source; i.e., your textbook or scholarly websites. (Information on ageism can be found in your book on pages 29 – 31. Be sure to provide a citation for this information.
** This information belongs in the introduction section of an APA style paper, but is not labeled as such.
- In the methods section you should describe your respondents and the procedure for collecting the data.
- Provide the mean (average) age of all of your respondents.
- Provide the range of ages. The range is calculated by subtracting the value of the youngest person from the value of the oldest person. The answer will be one number which will represent the number of years between the oldest person and the youngest person.
- Provide the number of males and females.
- How did you recruit your participants?
- What questions did you ask? (Do not just say those provided in the assignment.) This answer should be brief.
- In the results section you need to discuss the findings with regard all of the data combined together and then gender and age differences.
- What was the overall opinion of older adults as given by your respondents?
- Do your participants believe the myths associated with aging (high mean score) or not (low mean score)? Did you find evidence that ageism exists?
- Provide evidence to support your view. For example, provide the overall mean score based on everyone’s responses or use the words reported in response to question #15.
- What was the overall opinion of older adults as given by your respondents?
- Were there any age differences in the types of responses given? Be sure to only look at age differences here. Do not report on gender differences here.
- Make a specific statement about the presence/absence of age differences. Use your own judgement to indicate if there was a significant difference between the mean score for each age group. Normally, you would use statistical techniques to make this determination, but for this assignment, we are going to use our best judgement.
- Provide evidence to support your answer. What was the mean score for young adults, middle aged adults, and older adults?
- Were there any gender differences in the types of responses given? Report only gender differences here. Do not report age differences.
- Make a specific statement about the presence/absence of gender differences. Use your own judgement to indicate if there was a significant difference between the mean score for each age group. Normally, you would use statistical techniques to make this determination, but for this assignment, we are going to use our best judgement.
- Provide evidence to support your answer. What was the mean score for males? For females?
- In the discussion, you will provide an explanation for your findings regarding the presence of ageism and gender and age differences in ageism.
- Presence of ageism:
- State your findings
- Do your results match the information provided in the textbook regarding ageism? Be sure to provide a citation for this information.
- Why do you think people have positive/negative views of older individuals? If you found that ageism exists, why do you think it exists? If you found that ageism does not exist, why is this the case?
- Presence of ageism:
**Make sure this information is consistent with the results section. For example, do not say that you found a neutral opinion toward older adults and then provide an explanation as why ageism exists.
- Age differences:
- State your findings.
- What is the best explanation for why you did or did not find age differences?
- Gender differences:
- State your findings.
- What is the best explanation for why you did or did not find gender differences?
- Discuss the limitations of your study.
- Provide a well-written conclusion.
- Summarize the results of the “study.”
- Suggest the next step in future projects or discuss how this information adds to the existing knowledge about ageism.
Grading: Exercises are worth 100 points each and are graded based on content, mechanics and grammar, and APA formatting for the in-text citations and reference list. See the rubric on the last page of this assignment for specific points awarded to each item.
* Papers containing more than three direct quotes will receive a grade of 0. This means that your entire paper may have no more than three sentences that are copied from a source. You may have an unlimited number of citations for paraphrased information.
Characteristics of Older People
Age: _______ Gender: ________ Other info:_______________________________
Rate the degree to which you agree with each of the following statements using the following scale:
1 = stongly disagree 5 = somewhat agree
2 = disagree 6 = agree
3 = somewhat disagree 7 = strongly agree
4 = neither disagree nor agree
- Older people have little desire for sexual activity. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people are bad drivers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people are bad at making complex decisions. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people move slowly. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Most older people are depressed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Memory ability declines significantly with age. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people are less creative. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Most older people prefer to be alone. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Aging results in attending religious services more frequently. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people have a hard time adapting to new situations. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people have a hard time learning new technologies. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people are less productive. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Older people are not very interesting. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Physical attractiveness decreases with age. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- List three words that come to mind when you hear the term “old person”
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