Postawy utajone wobec osób starszych, przejawiane w trzech grupach wiekowych: wczesnej, średniej i późnej dorosłości

Implicit attitudes toward elderly persons espoused by three age groups: young, middle-aged, and old adultsThe purpose of this paper was to describe the implicit attitudes toward elderly in general, and its typical patterns in three age groups: young, middle and old adults. The research is grounded in a sample of 90 subjects divided into three sub-groups homogeneous in terms of sex. They reflect criteria of early adulthood (n = 30), middle adulthood (n = 30), and late adulthood (n = 30). To measure implicit attitudes affective and semantic priming procedure was used. The activation of ageism and aging stereotypes was investigated by manipulating both the valence and the stereotypicality of trait stimuli. Research findings show that implicit attitudes toward old persons are in general neither negative nor positive, but in age groups of middle and old adults they are stereotypical. In these groups implicit ageing stereotypes are complex: both negative and positive. These findings suggest that implicit attitudes toward elderly persons are ambivalent.