Ron Pnina
School of Social Work, Faculty of Health and Welfare Studies, University of Haifa, Israel.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2007 Jul;22(7):656-62. doi: 10.1002/gps.1726.
The aim of the research was to examine if and, how the attitudes and perceptions were changing during the aging process. The research sample included three hundred and eighty-eight elderly people between the ages of 65-92 who were sampled for the purpose of analyzing and comparing their attitudes and perceptions of old age and aging, in the present, to their attitudes and perceptions of these two concepts in the past.
The research tool was composed of two parts: (A) a short demographic questionnaire which examined the following variables: gender, age, origin, family status and subjective health definition. (B) the second part was essentially qualitative in which subjects were asked via an 'interviewer' to reply to an identical question relating to two different periods in their lives: in their youth (when you were a young man/woman) and today. The data received from the questionnaires was processed in two main methods: quantitatively-statistically and qualitatively-content analysis.
The subjects' attitudes were categorized into six different typologies which were identified on a continuum: elderly people whose attitude towards old age and aging was negative both in the present and in the past were positioned at one end of the continuum. Subjects with a positive attitude towards old age, both in their youth and in the present were positioned at the opposite end of the continuum. Negative attitudes were more prominently described by powerful adjectives than positive attitudes were described by the subjects. For instance: 'Fear', 'Disgust'. In the description of the positive attitude only one powerful adjective was used 'Splendor and glory'.
A significant correlation was found between subjects whose attitudes towards old age in the present were negative and those who subjectively defined their health as bad.
本研究旨在探讨在衰老过程中态度和认知是否以及如何发生变化。研究样本包括388名年龄在65至92岁之间的老年人，选取这些样本是为了分析和比较他们目前对老年和衰老的态度与认知，以及过去对这两个概念的态度与认知。
研究工具由两部分组成：（A）一份简短的人口统计学调查问卷，用于调查以下变量：性别、年龄、出身、家庭状况和主观健康定义。（B）第二部分本质上是定性的，通过“访谈者”让受试者回答与他们生命中两个不同时期相关的同一个问题：年轻时（当你是年轻男性/女性时）和现在。从问卷中获得的数据主要通过两种方法进行处理：定量统计和定性内容分析。
受试者的态度被分为六种不同的类型，这些类型在一个连续体上被识别出来：对老年和衰老的态度在现在和过去都为负面的老年人位于连续体的一端。在年轻时和现在对老年都持积极态度的受试者位于连续体的另一端。与积极态度相比，消极态度更多地用强烈的形容词来描述。例如：“恐惧”“厌恶”。在对积极态度的描述中，只使用了一个强烈的形容词“辉煌与荣耀”。
发现目前对老年持消极态度的受试者与主观将自己的健康定义为不佳的受试者之间存在显著相关性。
