Age/work policies tending to exclude the elderly from the workforce include underlying social, cultural and psychological mechanisms. Four ideal-typical models are discussed: employer rationality; rivalry; time preference; and stereotyping. Policy-oriented research is relevant to legal and constitutional issues of age discrimination. (Author)

Presented 192 clinical psychologists with clinical vignettes in which client ages varied. Respondents rated older depressed and older agoraphobic clients as significantly less ideal than younger clients with identical symptoms and histories. Older depressed and manic clients also were given significantly poorer prognoses than younger clients.…