Final Summary/ Reaction

After seeing the results of my research, I found that most people have been discriminated against because of their age at one time or another. As I had predicted teenager and elderly adults were the most discriminated against. The middle aged adults weren't as affected. Many of the teenagers who took the survey also discriminated against other age groups. After this semester I have become more aware of the negative effects of ageism. I have learned a lot about the different aspects of ageism.

Plan Update

After posting my survey for the young adults group on my Facebook, I received many responses. I was surprised by the incite that many of the people had. Most of the people are meeting my hypothesis. I will hopefully get my results for the middle-aged adults soon, and after that the elderly group. I think the teenage group met my hypothesis because I had a minor bias that turned out to be correct. I have experienced the negative effects of  ageism and I know many friends my age who have also. I am curious to see how the middle-aged adults will answer the survey.

Strategy/Plan for Research

For my final research project, I plan on giving a survey to about 30 people. I will split the results into two groups, 10 people from the ages of 14-25, 10 people aged 26-64, and 10 people aged 65+. I will be asking about 20 questions using a Google doc and a printed copy, whichever would be easiest for the person. I will be asking everyone the same questions so I will try to make it possible for every age group to relate to the question. The survey will consist of a broad array of questions about ageism. I will try to find out how people in each age group are personally affected by ageism and how many are actually a little ageist themselves. My hypothesis is that teenagers and elderly adults will be more affected by ageism than middle-aged adults. I also think that all three groups will be somewhat equally ageist towards each other. (For example, teens will stereotype the elderly, the elderly will stereotype teens, and middle-aged adults will stereotype both teens and the elderly.)

Suggested Research Method/Why

For my semester 2 project, I am going to hand out a questionnaire to a group of teenagers, middle-aged adults, and adults over the age of 65. I am going to ask them a number of true/false question, multiple choice, and free response questions. Some of the questions I have thought of so far are: "Do you feel like you have ever been treated wrongly because of your age, how?" "What do you think the best age is?" "How do you feel about the age you are now?"