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Beliefs about Language Performance

Adults' Perceptions About Self and Elderly Targets

Teri A. Garstka

Jaye L. Shaner

University of Kansas

Stereotypes of the elderly may lead to beliefs about their communication competence. Yb test this hypothesis, the Language in Adulthood Questionnaire (LIA) (Ryan, Kwong See, Meneer, & Trovato, 1992) was used to assess beliefs of young, middle-aged, and elderly adults about their own language skills and those of four elderly targets. Targets represented two positive (Golden Ager, John Wayne Conservative) and two negative (Despondent, Shrew/Curmudgeon) stereotypes of older adults. As expected, elderly respondents reported more language problems than did the middle-aged and young. However, contrary to expectations, middle-aged respondents reported no more problems than the young, and elderly respondents showed no advantage in skills shown to improve with age. Assessments of the targets supported the hypothesis that beliefs about language skills vary with the characteristics of older individuals and do not derive solely from their categorization as elderly.

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