Investigating Attitudes Toward Age Groups
For this assignment, you are going to gather some data and discuss your results. Interview or survey 10 people and ask each person the first three terms or words that come to mind when they think of each of these age groups (so each interviewee will give you 12 words):
Children
Teenagers
Middle-Aged Adults
Senior Citizens
After completing your survey, you should then have 30 words for each age group (some will be repeats). Look at each word and determine what kind of connotation it has: Is it positive (P), negative (N), or neutral (O)? Mark each word. Look at the frequency of the most used terms and also the distribution of P, N, & O.
Discuss the results of your survey. Include answers to the following questions:
Which words were mentioned most frequently for each age group? Were they mostly P, N, or O?
Do the words get more negative as you move from children to senior citizens, or more positive? Or is there no change as you move up each age group?
Many of these words will be stereotypes to describe each age group. Where do these stereotypes come from? Cite from your readings and/or outside sources (include APA-formatted in-text citations) to support your statements.
How do negative stereotypes affect individuals in each stage of life? Provide an example and cite your source(s) with APA-formatted in-text citations.
Your assignment should consist of one page with your survey results and another 2 pages in which you discuss your results, for a total of 3 pages, double-spaced. You also need to include an APA-formatted reference page.
Solution Preview
Attitudes
PART I
Responses by the Interviewees
Interviewee 1:
Children. Children are incredible (P)
Teenagers. Teenagers love fun (P).
Middle-Aged Adults. Strict (O), controlling (N), hardworking (P).
Senior Citizens. Boring and sad people (N).
Interviewee 2:
Children. Stressful (N) and nuisance creatures (N).
Teenagers. Daring (P) and innovative (P).
Middle-Aged Adults. Backbone of a nation (P).
Senior Citizens. Loving (P), warm (P), and thoughtful (P).
(1,017 words)