Department of Psychology, James Cook University, James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
Gerontologist. 2010 Feb;50(1):60-5. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnp094. Epub 2009 Jul 2.
Reluctance to reveal sensitive or socially undesirable attitudes has posed a problem for measurement of personal attributes such as attitudes toward older people. These have long been documented to be negative and likely arise both from fears of one's own aging and the modern societal emphasis on youth. In order to increase our knowledge about the measurement of attitudes toward older people, we compared the administration of attitude measures toward older people by computer and conventional paper-and-pencil methods.
We contrasted the responses of 60 university undergraduates (mean age 24.3 years, SD 8.51; 68% female) to five traditional paper-and-pencil format attitude questionnaires toward older people with responses to the same questionnaires made using an Internet delivery and response mode.
Results showed that more negative attitudes were revealed using the computer-based Internet response format for all scales. Only two scales did not show significant differences between formats.
Future research on attitudes toward older people should be aware that results are dependent not only on the particular scale that is used but also on the format of administration, with more negative attitudes revealed with computer administration.
不愿透露敏感或社会上不可接受的态度一直是衡量个人属性（如对老年人的态度）的一个问题。这些态度早已被证明是负面的，可能既源于对自己衰老的恐惧，也源于现代社会对年轻的重视。为了增加我们对老年人态度衡量的了解，我们比较了通过计算机和传统纸笔方法对老年人态度进行测量的效果。
我们对比了 60 名大学生（平均年龄 24.3 岁，标准差 8.51；女性占 68%）对五种传统纸笔格式的老年人态度问卷的反应，以及他们使用互联网投递和回复模式对相同问卷的反应。
结果表明，在所有量表中，基于计算机的互联网回复格式显示出更消极的态度。只有两个量表在两种格式之间没有显著差异。
未来对老年人态度的研究应该意识到，结果不仅取决于所使用的特定量表，还取决于管理格式，计算机管理会显示出更消极的态度。
