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The Effect of Judgment Context on Assessments of Age Groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

V. J. Knox  and
W.L. Gekoski
V. J. Knox
Affiliation:
Queen's University
W.L. Gekoski
Affiliation:
Queen's University
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Abstract

It has been suggested that an exaggeration of the target age effect is obtained when the same respondents judge multiple age groups rather than only one age group. In the present study each of 1200 undergraduates rated a young, middle-aged, or old target on the 32 bipolar adjective pairs of the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD; Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969). An additional 200 undergraduates rated all three target age groups on the ASD. The ASD was scored in terms of the three dimensions reported by its authors. In the isolated judgment condition young targets were rated highest on the Instrumental-Ineffective and Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability dimensions followed, in both cases, by middle-aged and then by old targets; on the Autonomous-Dependent dimension, middle-aged targets were rated higher than both young and old targets. The hypothesized exaggeration of the target age effect in the comparative judgment condition was obtained for the descriptive dimensions (Instrumental-Ineffective and Autonomous-Dependent) but not for the evaluative dimension (Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability) of the ASD. Possible explanations for why judgment context might affect descriptive but not evaluative assessments of target age groups are discussed.

Résumé

On a suggéré qu'une exagération de l'effet âge cible résulte d'une situation où les mêmes participants jugent plusieurs groupes d'âge plutôt que d'en juger seulement un. Dans la présente enquête, 1200 sous-gradués évaluent ou une cible jeune, ou une d'âge moyen, ou une d'âge avancé, sur les 32 paires d'adjectifs bipolaires contenues dans l'Aging Semantic Differential (ASD; Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969). En plus, 200 autres sous-gradués soumettent tous les trois groupes d'âge cible à une même évaluation. Les résultats du ASD sont compilés en fonction des trou dimensions formulées par ses auteurs. Lorsque le jugement est rendu séparément, les résultats indiquent que les jeunes cibles se classent en tête pour la dimension Instrumental-Ineffective and Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability, suivies dans les deux cas des cibles d'âge moyen puis celles d'âge avancé; au niveau de la dimension Autonomous-Dependent, ce sont les cibles d'âge moyen qui se classent en tête, suivies des jeunes et des cibles d'âge avancé. L'hypothèse voulant qu'une exagération de l'effet âge cible se produise sous condition de jugement comparatif est vérifiée au niveau des dimensions descriptives (Instrumental-Ineffective and Autonomous-Dependent), mais non au niveau des dimensions évaluatives (Personal Acceptability-Unacceptability) du ASD. Les auteurs concluent en avançant des raisons qui pourraient expliquer pourquoi le contexte du jugement peut affecter les évaluations descriptives et non évaluatives des groupes d'âge cible.

Keywords

Attitudesagedcontext effectsresearch design
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , Fall/automne 1989 , pp. 244 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1989

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