The present study explored open-ended attributions for the success and failure of relatively younger and older men in social and academic situations using a between-subjects design. Attributions were collected from 109 college students and were coded using the Elig and Frieze scheme. Results showed that respondents were more likely to make attributions that combined age with other attributional categories (age-related attributions) than attributions solely to target's age. And, they made more ability-task interaction than ability attributions. Moreover, both attributions were as likely to be made for the elderly adult's success as his failure. Finally, differences also emerged in results from the stability dimension and those for age-related and ability-task attributions indicating that these parameters should be assessed independently in future research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrewerM. B. and LuiL., Categorization of the Elderly by the Elderly, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, pp. 585–595, 1984.
2.
HummertM. L., Multiple Stereotypes of Elderly and Young Adults: A Comparison of Structure and Evaluations, Psychology and Aging, 5:2, pp. 182–193, 1990.
3.
BanzigerG. and DrevenstedtJ., Achievement Attributions by Young and Old Judges as a Function of Perceived Age of Stimulus Person, Journal of Gerontology, 37:4, pp. 468–474, 1982.
4.
BlankT. O., A Social Psychology of Developing Adults, Wiley, New York, 1982.
5.
BrewerM. B.DullV., and LuiL., Perceptions of the Elderly: Stereotypes and Prototypes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, pp. 656–670, 1981.
6.
CarverC. S. and de la GarzaN. H., Schema-guided Information Search in Stereotyping of the Elderly, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, pp. 69–81, 1984.
7.
CrockettW. H. and HummertM. L., Perceptions of Aging and the Elderly, in Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, SchaieK. W. (ed.), pp. 217–241, Springer, New York, 1987.
8.
KoganN., Beliefs, Attitudes, and Stereotypes about Old People: A New Look at Some Old Issues, Research on Aging, 1, pp. 11–36, 1979.
9.
LutskyN. S., Attitudes toward Old Age and Elderly Persons, in The Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics (vol. 1), EisdorferC. (ed.), pp. 287–336, Springer, New York, 1980.
10.
GreenS. K., Senility versus Wisdom: The Meaning of Old Age as a Cause for Behavior, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 5:2, pp. 105–110, 1984.
11.
ShaverK. G., Attributional Error and Attitudes toward Aging: A View of the NCOA National Attitude Survey, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 9:2, pp. 101–113, 1978–79.
12.
ErberJ. T. and RothbergS. T., Here's Looking at You: The Relative Effect of Age and Attractiveness on Judgments about Memory Failure, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 46, pp. 116–123, 1991.
13.
ErberJ. T.RothbergS. T., and SzuchmanL. T., Appraisal of Everyday Memory Failures by Middle-aged Adults, Educational Gerontology, 17, pp. 63–72, 1991.
14.
ErberJ. T.SzuchmanL. T., and RothbergS. T., Age, Gender, and Individual Differences in Memory Failure Appraisal, Psychology and Aging, 5, pp. 600–603, 1990.
15.
FerrisG. R.YatesV. L.GilmoreD. C., and RowlandK. M., The Influence of Subordinate Age on Performance Ratings and Causal Attributions, Personnel Psychology, 38, pp. 545–557, 1985.
16.
Locke-ConnorD. and WalshR. P., Attitudes toward the Older Job Applicant: Just as Competent, but More Likely to Fail, Journal of Gerontology, 35:6, pp. 920–927, 1980.
17.
RenoR., Attribution for Success and Failure as a Function of Perceived Age, Journal of Gerontology, 34:5, pp. 709–715, 1979.
18.
LachmanM. E. and McArthurL. Z., Adulthood Age Differences in Causal Attributions for Cognitive, Physical, and Social Performance, Psychology and Aging, 1, pp. 127–132, 1986.
19.
ShermanN. C.GoldJ. A., and ShermanM. F., Attribution Theory and Evaluations of Older Men among College Students, Their Parents, and Grandparents, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4:3, pp. 440–442, 1978.
20.
JacksonL. A. and SullivanL. A., Age Stereotype Disconfirming Information and Evaluations of Old People, The Journal of Social Psychology, 128:6, pp. 721–729, 1987.
21.
FriezeI. H., Causal Attributions for the Performances of the Elderly: Comments from an Attributional Theorist, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 5:2, pp. 127–130, 1984.
22.
EligT. W. and FriezeI. H., A Multi-dimensional Scheme for Coding and Interpreting Perceived Causality for Success and Failure Events: The Coding Scheme of Perceived Causality (CSPC), JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 5, p. 313, 1975.
23.
WeinerB.FriezeI.KuklaA.ReedL.RestS., and RosenbaumF. M., Perceiving the Causes of Success and Failure, in Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior, JonesE. E.KanouseD. D.KelleyH. H.NisbettR. E.ValinsS., and WeinerB. (eds.), General Learning Press, New Jersey, 1971.
24.
BanzigerG. and DrevenstedtJ., Age as a Variable in Achievement Attributions: The Weiner Model and Beyond, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 5:2, pp. 97–104, 1984.
25.
KoganN. and MillsM., Gender Influences on Age Cognitions and Preferences: Sociocultural or Sociobiological?Psychology and Aging, 7:1, pp. 98–106, 1992.
26.
BishopY.FienbergS. F., and HollandP., Discrete Multivariate Analysis, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1975.
27.
KirkR. E., Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences, Brooks/Cole, Belmont, California, 1968.
28.
SchmidtD. F. and BolandS. M., Structure of Perceptions of Older Adults: Evidence for Multiple Stereotypes, Psychology and Aging, 1, pp. 255–260, 1986.
