Personality Stereotypes of Aging

Abstract

A N IMPORTANT determiner of human behavior-^"- is the existence of socially created norms which define the behaviors "which may be elicited by any given situation. These norms, or stereotypes, arise both from cultural pre-scriptions of how people are supposed to be-have and from observations of how they do behave. They enable an individual to deter-mine when certain responses are appropriate and to adjust his behavior accordingly. If such norms exist with regard to personality change as a function of aging, they might be expected at least to modify the course of per-sonality change by stipulating the range and extent of permissible behaviors during the life process. This study is an attempt to identify, from the responses elicited from a sample of young adults, some existing stereotypes of per-sonality changes that occur with aging. Previ-ous studies (Aaronson, 1958; 1960; 1964) have shown a consistent pattern of change in per-sonality as a function of the aging process. The present study is an attempt to delineate how these changes may be reflected in the nor-mative expectations of what people are like at different age levels.