不同年齡層民眾對高齡者印象之比較研究

The Comparative Study of the Image of Elders among the Different People

「老」是什麼呢？人們對於「老」存有著什麼樣的印象與想法呢？西方文獻指出，年齡歧視最早可以在年幼的3歲幼童身上發現，最晚則是連高齡長者本身，對「老」就存有著錯誤的認識。因此，「老」是什麼呢？「老」真的是如此負面地存在於人們的印象之中嗎？而且是不分老少嗎？換言之，所謂的年齡歧視和老年恐慌症，果真滲透到不同年齡層的人們之中嗎？有鑑於此，本研究採取質性研究的取向，訪談了18位不同年齡層（老、中、青、少）的民眾，以瞭解不同年齡層所持有的高齡者印象及其可能的成因；更者，進行跨年齡層的差異比較。研究結果發現，少、青年人由於「非我族類意識的作崇」、「祖父母輩形象的影響」及「生活互動上摩擦的影響」等因素，造成其對高齡者傾向於持有較為負面的印象；中、老年人則由於「非我族類意識的消逝」、「同理心情懷的影響」、「以偏概全現象的減少」等因素，造成其對高齡者傾向於持有較為正向持平的印象。

With the coming of aging society， the older population is gradually increasing， and people are living longer than ever before. However， despite their growing numbers， older people continue to face negative attitudes toward them， their way of thinking， and their abilities. These negative images result from the assumption that older people have diminished physical and mental abilities. Eighteen persons， aged from 14 to 79， were interviewed in this study， and these interviewees are located into four different ages (very-young， young， middle， old). The main purpose of this study is to examine and compare the images of elders among these four different ages. This study finds that the two younger generations hold much more negative images of elders. Conversely， the two older generations hold much more positive images of elders.