Voluntary and nonvoluntary retirees were compared to determine individual factors that led to a voluntary or nonvoluntary decision to retire and impact of that decision on retirement attitudes and satisfaction. Health status and preretirement feelings about retirement were more significant predictors of retirement attitudes and satisfaction than…

Hypotheses concerning clergymen's enjoyment of their pastoral contacts with older parishioners are examined. The hypotheses test the ideas that ministers do not enjoy pastoral contacts with the elderly and that these contacts reflect the clergymen's ageist preferences and concern with instrumental over expressive values. Results are discussed.…

Examines the relationship between the preretirement life-style of adult men, and both the degree of planning for the retirement years and the decision to retire early. Socioeconomic status, health, involvement in expressive-type organizations, job satisfaction, and degree of leisure orientation were associated with preretirement attitudes. (Author)

Utilizing a semantic differential measurement technique and a sample of college students (N=123), middle-aged adults (N=90), and elderly adults (N=108), this study investigated devaluation of old age in comparison to age in general. All age groups devalued old age. The most consistent predictor of devaluation was negative attitudes toward poor…

Data from a 20-year longitudinal study of persons over 60 were analyzed by step-wise multiple regression to test for declines in function with age, for terminal decline (linear relationship to time before death), and for terminal drop (curvilinear relationship to time before death). There were no substantial terminal drop effects. (Author)

Studies report contradictory finding on the hypothesis of an inverse relationship between work satisfaction and retirement attitude. Some suggest this inverse relationship occurs only where work acts as a key organizing factor for the workers. Data testing these hypotheses were analyzed from a study of employed males age 50 and older (N=1,922).…

Does mood vary as a function of age, sex, or situation? In four investigations, 6,452 persons aged 4 to 99 were interrupted at leisure, at home, at school, and at work and asked to assess their mood as being happy, neutral, or unhappy. (Author)

Participants (N=177) evaluated female job applicants on the basis of a transcript of a job interview. One-half of the participants were told that the applicant was 63, one-half that the applicant was 24. Regardless of age, people who were hired were rated more positively than those who were not. (Author/MFD)

Two groups of older (60+) respondents, matched on age but differing in educational level, and a group of young university undergraduates were compared for scale-checking styles on the Semantic Differential. Subjects rated six concepts pertaining to stages of life on 27 pairs of bipolar adjectives. (Author)

Belief in right to terminate medical care in case of irreversible terminal illness is analyzed by age, education, health, and attitudes to patient rights. Although age is related to supporting right to halt treatment, with those over 65 least supportive, relation to professional care in general has more explanatory power. (Author)

Survey and ethnographic data were used to explore attitudes toward death among members of varying social categories defined by race, age, social class, and sex. Analysis by age resulted in substantial differences, with middle-aged respondents (45-54 years) expressing greatest fears of death and the elderly (65-74) reflecting the least. (Author)

Two experiments were conducted in order to discover (a) the expressed attitudes of young adults about the intellectual abilities of seven target groups ranging in age from infant to elderly, and (b) if and in what manner young adults differentially explain the rules of a simple game to these same target groups. (Author)