1. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Gerontological Work Preferences among Students of Religion.
- Author
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Monk, Abraham and Kaye, Lenard W.
- Abstract
Attitudes toward aging among 142 full-time students and 216 graduates at three urban campuses of a religious college were assessed. Respondent subgroups included rabbis, educators, cantors, and communal service workers. Social attitudes were measured by the Aging Semantic Differential (Rosencranz and McNevin, 1969). Respondents rated 32 dimensions for two categories of people: young people between 15 and 25 years old and old people between 65 and 75 years old. Both respondent groups perceived older people to be more autonomous or independent than young people, while they were more positive in their attitudes toward the young than the old on the issue of capacity for goal achievement or effectiveness. Additionally, when all attitudinal measures are aggregated, younger people were given more positive ratings than the elderly by both students and graduates. The Facts on Aging Quiz (Palmore, 1977) also was administered to determine knowledge about aging. Students were least knowledgeable about the demography of aging, psychological stress and aging, boredom and old age, poverty, and religiosity in old age. Recent graduates displayed similar misconceptions. Students and graduates in the area of communal services obtained the highest scores, while those in the area of education obtained the lowest scores. It is recommended that more attention be given to learning about the human life cycle, age-related stresses, and societal changes. Additional recommendations are offered, and topical areas are suggested for the study of education, cantorial, rabbinical, and communal service students. A bibliography is appended. (SW)
- Published
- 1981