Ageism (unfair stereotyping of older adults), deeply embedded in the culture of 20th-century America, is reinforced by television and newspapers. The media depict old people as rigid, meddlesome, sexless, conservative, unhealthy, and forgetful. Most pernicious of all old age stereotypes is that of second childhood. Popular culture portrays…

Children today do not have sufficient association with the elderly to form accurate impressions of them. Much children's information is provided through television and books which present stereotyped images of the elderly as inactive, lonely, nonproductive, crabby, and physically decrepit. To determine whether intermediate grade students respond…

Previous research suggests that one basis for age discrimination involves stereotypes about older people. Situational variables, however, may influence the extent to which these stereotypes affect decisions in employment. One situational variable, the age composition of the applicant pool, was varied to determine the degree to which age bias in…

This study addresses concern about bias in educational materials for elementary school pupils. Children's storybooks were examined for the appearance of biases across the cultural categories of race, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic level, religion, and environmental background. These biases included stereotyping, invisibility (omission of…

Although social gerontologists recognize the heterogeneous nature of elderly populations, they have relied on the use of aggregate data and chronological age rather than sociological variables in their research. The notion of stigma, as developed by Goffman (1963), applied to the elderly focuses on social relationships rather than individual…

Students from grades one through five participated in a study to investigate whether elementary school children stereotype older people and, more specifically, whether they stereotype older people by sex. Photographs of a young woman, a young man, an old woman, and an old man were shown to the subjects, who were then asked to select from each of…

A study examined the visual presentation of characters on five prime time network dramas, popular with the elderly, which star elderly actors. The title sequences of each show ("Murder, She Wrote,""The Golden Girls,""Matlock,""Jake and the Fatman," and "In the Heat of the Night") were analyzed. Results indicated seven significant interrelated…

The relationship of older Americans to the new media culture of society is the focus of this Technical Committee Report. The work of two committee-appointed subcommittees on stereotypes and new media technology are explained with a special emphasis on the influence of television. Age stereotyping is examined in prime time television, daytime…

A study was conducted to determine the meanings people give to certain words that describe different groups of people. Participants indicated the chronological age they have in mind when using 15 age terms, including baby, senior citizen, adolescent, infant, mature, elderly, youth, and old. The 150 replies to the questionnaire came from college…

Faculty attitudes toward older learners were studied using an adaptation of Kogan's (1951) attitude scale and methodology. Forty-nine faculty members from various colleges and universities in Ohio and Indiana were subdivided into two groups: those who had taught in a structured higher education experience aimed at people over 60 years of age and…

Thirteen lessons on aging in America, appropriate for the secondary school level, are presented. Each lesson is designed to take approximately one day and includes the goal, objectives, background information, reproducible student handouts, materials and equipment needed, procedures, and evaluation forms. In the first lesson students examine their…

Issues of social discrimination of all kinds and in all forms in teaching are discussed. Sexism, racism, ageism, bias by commission versus omission, other objectionable stereotypes, and the difference between accurate portrayal and the ideal are defined. Sixteen suggestions are given for choosing or developing language arts instructional materials…