Stereotypes of young and old: does age outweigh gender?

Stereotypes of age and gender are examined with 35-year-old and 65-year-old men and women as target persons. Age stereotypes were more pronounced than gender stereotypes; respondents offered more elaborate free-response descriptions of older targets than of younger targets and described same-age targets more similarly than same-sex targets. On the rating scales, older people were judged less likely to possess masculine characteristics, but ratings of feminine characteristics were largely unaffected by age. Older people were not uniformly devalued on the age-stereotypic characteristics, but when negative evaluations occurred they were of the older targets. These results attest to the importance of a multidimensional conception of age and gender stereotypes.

Complexity, extremity, and affect in male and female judgments.

Two studies were conducted to elucidate aspects of the interpersonal judement process as it is applied to and by males and females. Measurement of judgments by means of the Role Construct Repertory Test allowed consideration of cognitive complexity scores, as well as the use of extreme ratings and a total affective rating. Consistent findings from both studies suggest that males and females differ in their use of extreme scores and total affective ratings, but not in complexity. Characteristics of the stimulus person affect each of the three dependent measures. Interrelationships among the three judgmental measures provide information about the methodological and conceptual interplay of various factors in interpersonal judgment.