This two-part study extended the research on multiple stereotypes of elderly adults by examining the perceptions of young, middle-aged, and elderly adults. First, one set of participants engaged in a trait generation task which yielded a trait list for use in the second part of the study. Second, other participants sorted the set of traits into groups representing different types of elderly individuals. Trait groupings were analyzed with hierarchical cluster analysis. Results supported the hypothesis that older adults have more complex representations of aging than do middle-aged and young ones, and that middle-aged adults have more complex representations than do young ones. For example, middle-aged and elderly adults reported more stereotypes of the elderly than did young adults, and elderly adults reported more stereotypes than did middle-aged adults. Results also showed, as expected, that these differences in complexity exist against a background of general agreement about the nature of aging: Trait lists produced by those in the three age groups were significantly correlated, and the stereotype sets of the three age groups included seven shared stereotypes. Results are interpreted in terms of their support for two alternative explanations of the complexity differences: ingroup/outgroup and developmental.

Following Schmidt and Boland's (1986) method, college student informants sorted a trait set into 1 or more groups with reference to elderly or young adults. Analysis of these data confirmed the existence of multiple stereotypes of both age groups but showed little similarity between stereotypes of the elderly and the young. Other informants made attitude, age, and typicality judgments of persons representing either the elderly or young adult stereotypes. Results showed that attitudes varied with the stereotype activated and were similar for analogous elderly and young adult stereotypes. Results also suggested that young adults do not view negative stereotypes as more typical of the elderly than positive ones; however, they believe the negative stereotypes are more characteristic of the old-old than are the positive and see positive stereotypes as more typical of young adults than negative ones.

The authors examined the consequences of perceived age discrimination for well-being and group identification. The rejection-identification model suggests that perceived discrimination harms psychological well-being in low status groups but that group identification partially alleviates this effect. The authors hypothesized that this process model would be confirmed among older adults because their low status group membership is permanent but not confirmed among young adults whose low status is temporary. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found support for the hypothesized direct negative link between perceived age discrimination and well-being among older adults, with increased age group identification partially attenuating this effect. For young adults, these relationships were absent. Differences in responses to discrimination appear to be based on opportunities for leaving a low status group.

Two studies investigated the use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998) to study age differences in implicit social cognitions. Study I collected IAT (implicit) and explicit (self-report) measures of age attitudes, age identity, and self-esteem from young, young-old, and old-old participants. Study 2 collected IAT and explicit measures of attitudes toward flowers versus insects from young and old participants. Results show that the IAT provided theoretically meaningful insights into age differences in social cognitions that the explicit measures did not, supporting the value of the IAT in aging research. Results also illustrate that age-related slowing must be considered in analysis and interpretation of IAT measures.

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The study findings not only lend further support to the existing literature that has documented problem behaviors as strong predictors of burden but also emphasize the importance of communication problems in the caregiving process.

Forty young, 40 middle-aged, and 40 older adults rated their beliefi about the vocal style that they would use in addressing two older targets-onefitting a negative (Despondent) and one a positive (Golden Aged stereotype. Participants also gave oral messages to the two targets in either a hospital or community context. Supporting a stereotype-sensitive model of the communication and aging process, participants' beli#s and messages revealed a greater tendency to use patronizing talk with the Despondent target than with the Golden Ager. In addition, the extent and type of patronizing talk (overly nurturing or directive) to the targets was afected by the context in which the target was presentedand the age of the communicator. In particular, the number ofdirective/patronizing messages to Golden Ager targets increased sign+cantly in the hospital context. Finally, older participants were less likely to give patronizing messages to all targets than were youngw participants.erceptions of declining abilities with advancing age have been documented in beliefs about memory skills (Heckhausen,

Teaching CNAs to reduce elderspeak holds promise as an approach to improving the social environment in nursing homes.