Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale

Abstract

Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (KAOP; Kogan, 1961) is a seminal psychometric instrument designed to evaluate cognitive, affective, and evaluative attitudes toward aging and older adults. Developed during an era characterized by emergent inquiries into social prejudice, ethnocentrism, and gerontology, the scale operationalizes attitudes through 34 self-report items divided into 17 matched pairs. Each pair contains one negatively formulated item (OP−) articulating common societal stereotypes, prejudices, or aversion, and one logically paired positively formulated item (OP+) affirming the capabilities, wisdom, or normative integration of older adults. Administered primarily on a 6-point (or original 7-point) Likert-type scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, the KAOP yields either two subscale scores (OP+ and OP−) or an integrated composite score indicating net positive attitude toward older adults following the reverse scoring of negative statements. Across diverse international samples—including medical practitioners, gerontological nurses, social work professionals, and university undergraduate cohorts—the KAOP has demonstrated robust internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients typically ranging from .66 to .85 across subscales, and exceeding .80 for the composite index. Structural validations have highlighted both two-factor models (bipolar positive and negative orientation) and multidimensional configurations capturing domains such as residential segregation, cross-generational tensions, personal appearance, cognitive flexibility, and economic dependence. This article provides an exhaustive examination of the KAOP’s theoretical foundations, structural and construct validity, reliability profiles, factor structures, administration paradigms, and complete authenticated inventory items.

Keywords

Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale, KAOP, ageism, attitudes toward aging, gerontological assessment, Nathan Kogan, stereotyping, psychometrics, older adults, intergenerational attitudes, scale validation, healthcare education.

Authors

The scale was developed by Nathan Kogan, Ph.D. (1926–2013), an influential American social and developmental psychologist whose pioneering contributions spanned cognitive styles, risk-taking behavior, creativity, and the social psychology of aging. At the time of the scale’s construction and publication in 1961, Dr. Kogan was affiliated with the Age Center of New England in Boston, Massachusetts, and subsequently conducted research under the auspices of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey, before joining the graduate faculty of psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Throughout his multi-decade career, Kogan sought to examine the socio-cognitive mechanisms underlying bias and stereotyping, positioning the KAOP as one of the earliest standardized metrics capable of measuring ageist dispositions using methodological parallels derived from ethnic minority prejudice research.

Purpose

The overarching purpose of Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale is to provide an empirical, standardized, and theoretically grounded mechanism for measuring explicit attitudes, stereotypes, and affective evaluations toward the elderly population. Prior to the formal introduction of the KAOP in 1961, systematic research into social attitudes toward older persons was severely limited; early attempts, such as the seminal surveys conducted by Tuckman and Lorge in the 1950s, relied largely on dichotomous (Yes/No) belief checklists that suffered from substantial acquiescence bias, ambiguous wording, and a lack of construct sensitivity. Nathan Kogan designed the KAOP to overcome these methodological limitations by employing matched pairs of balanced positive and negative propositions measured along a graded multi-point continuum.

In clinical and health sciences education, the KAOP serves as a vital diagnostic and evaluative metric. Healthcare systems globally confront an aging demographic transition, necessitating that physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, and clinical social workers interact with older patients without subconscious or overt discriminatory ageism. Extensive empirical literature demonstrates that negative provider attitudes toward elderly patients frequently correlate with therapeutic nihilism, diagnostic overshadowing, substandard rehabilitation goals, and patronizing communication styles (such as “elderspeak”). By utilizing the KAOP as both a baseline screening instrument and an outcome metric, medical and nursing curricula can evaluate the efficacy of gerontological coursework, intergenerational immersion experiences, and empathy-building educational modules.

In research contexts, the KAOP is broadly deployed across social psychology, organizational sociology, and gerontology. Investigators utilize the scale to elucidate the predictors of ageism, exploring how personality dimensions (such as the authoritarian personality, death anxiety, and personal fear of aging), demographic indices, and contact frequency with older family members shape attitudes. Furthermore, the KAOP provides critical utility in organizational psychology, where age-discriminatory hiring, promotion barriers, and stereotypical workplace assumptions regarding technological adaptability and cognitive agility persist as substantial systemic challenges.

Psychological Construct

The construct assessed by the KAOP is Attitudes Toward Old People, conceptualized within a multi-component framework of attitude theory encompassing cognitive beliefs, affective orientations, and behavioral predispositions toward older adults as a distinct social group. Rather than treating attitudes as a homogenous or monolithic trait, Kogan operationalized the construct as a dialectic interplay between unfavorable stereotypic derogation (OP−) and favorable, respectful, or empathic appreciation (OP+).

Negative Dimension (OP−): Stereotypical Aversion and Derogation

The OP− dimension captures cognitive generalizations and affective antipathy toward older individuals. It operationalizes several distinct facets of age-based prejudice:

• Cognitive Inflexibility and Dogmatism: Beliefs that older people are irrevocably “set in their ways,” rigid, incapable of adapting to social or technological changes, and cognitively stagnant (e.g., Items 3 and 5).
• Intergenerational Resentment and Alienation: Perceptions that older adults are perpetually critical, fault-finding, and complaining regarding younger generations, creating social distance and conversational tedium (e.g., Items 9, 17, and 23).
• Physical and Aesthetical Disapproval: Aversion to perceived untidiness, personal deterioration, deterioration of living environments, and residential aesthetic decline attributable to aging residents (e.g., Items 9, 27, and 28).
• Social Intrusion and Emotional Dependency: Accusations of intrusive advice-giving, meddling in the personal affairs of others, and making unwarranted demands for affection, deference, and special consideration solely on the basis of chronological age (e.g., Items 19 and 33).
• Residential and Spatial Segregation: The belief that older persons should be segregated into isolated age-homogeneous residential compounds to avoid compromising the vitality or desirability of general neighborhoods (e.g., Item 1).

Positive Dimension (OP+): Appreciation, Wisdom, and Normative Integration

Conversely, the OP+ dimension reflects positive evaluations and egalitarian integration of older persons, serving as a direct conceptual counter-balance to the negative stereotypes:

• Adaptive Capacity and Resilience: The perception that older adults possess ongoing capacities for adjustment, continuous learning, and cognitive plasticity when circumstances demand (e.g., Items 4 and 6).
• Accumulated Wisdom and Narrative Value: Appreciation for older adults’ life narratives, experiential insight, and the belief that wisdom naturally enriches personal character with advancing years (e.g., Items 12 and 18).
• Deserved Dignity and Social Parity: Affirmation that older adults are essentially similar to individuals of any other age group, sharing standard human motivations, maintaining pride in their autonomy and home environments, and deserving equitable societal consideration (e.g., Items 4, 10, 22, and 34).

A central psychometric nuance of the KAOP construct is the non-equivalence of OP+ and OP−. Kogan observed that endorsing a positive statement does not simply represent the mathematical inverse of rejecting a negative statement. Respondents may display ambivalent attitudes: acknowledging the wisdom of older adults while simultaneously endorsing residential segregation or interpersonal avoidance. Consequently, the construct encompasses both net evaluative valence and the cognitive complexity of ambivalent stereotyping.

Theoretical Framework

The KAOP is embedded within the classical traditions of mid-twentieth-century social psychology, drawing direct inspiration from Gordon Allport’s seminal contact and prejudice theories (The Nature of Prejudice, 1954), as well as Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford’s work on The Authoritarian Personality (1950).

Analogy to Ethnic Minority and Outgroup Prejudice

Kogan explicitly hypothesized that older adults occupy a marginalized outgroup status functionally analogous to racial, ethnic, or religious minorities. When constructing the inventory items, Kogan deliberately adapted propositions directly from established scales measuring anti-Black prejudice and antisemitism (specifically items from the California Ethnocentrism Scale and Anti-Minority scales), substituting the target group with “old people.” For example, ethnic stereotypes alleging that outgroups let their residential neighborhoods become run-down or display untidiness were transformed into gerontological equivalents (e.g., KAOP Item 9: “Most old people tend to let their homes become run down and unattractive”). The theoretical premise was that outgroup stereotyping shares a common psychological architecture: individuals characterized by generalized outgroup rejection, cognitive rigidity, and intolerance of ambiguity will simultaneously reject ethnic minorities and older adults.

Stereotype Content Model and Ambivalence

In modern social cognitive frameworks, the KAOP aligns closely with Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, and Xu’s (2002) Stereotype Content Model (SCM). According to SCM, social groups are evaluated across two orthogonal fundamental dimensions: warmth and competence. Paternalistic prejudice against older adults typically categorizes them as high in warmth but low in competence. The KAOP anticipated this modern dynamic by pairing items assessing competence (e.g., adaptability, work preferences, political power) alongside items assessing warmth (e.g., pleasantness, irritability, social comfort). This allows researchers to examine whether respondents exhibit univalent hostility or paternalistic, condescending ambivalence.

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

Contemporary psychometric analyses also contextualize KAOP responses within Terror Management Theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986). Under TMT, older adults represent an inevitable reminder of human vulnerability, bodily decay, and mortality. Negative attitudes (OP−) function as psychological defense mechanisms; by cognitively distancing oneself from older persons and advocating for residential segregation, younger and middle-aged individuals buffer themselves against existential death anxiety.

Validity

The construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the KAOP has been extensively evaluated across decades of cross-cultural research.

Construct and Convergent Validity

In his original 1961 validation studies across multiple collegiate cohorts (totaling over 500 undergraduate respondents across various experimental conditions), Kogan demonstrated substantial convergent validity between the KAOP and established measures of social intolerance. The OP− scale correlated positively and significantly with:

• The California Ethnocentrism (E) Scale (correlations ranging from .38 to .52, p < .001).
• The California Authoritarianism (F) Scale (correlations ranging from .34 to .47, p < .001).
• Attitudes toward physically disabled individuals, supporting Kogan’s core thesis that generalized outgroup derogation and intolerance of physical frailty share cognitive etiology.

Conversely, the OP+ scale demonstrated statistically significant negative correlations with the F-scale and E-scale (ranging from −.25 to −.41), confirming that positive attitudes toward the elderly reflect broader egalitarian and non-authoritarian values.

Inter-Scale Correlations: OP+ and OP−

Kogan reported significant negative correlations between the raw OP+ and OP− scores, typically ranging between r = −.46 and r = −.60 across samples. While this confirms overall logical consistency (individuals who score high on positive items tend to score lower on negative items), the fact that the correlation does not approach −1.00 confirms that the two subscales are not merely redundant mirror images. Rather, they capture distinct variances in social cognition, verifying the multidimensional reality of ambivalent ageism.

Criterion and Predictive Validity

Criterion-related validity has been demonstrated across educational and healthcare contexts. Multiple prospective studies have evaluated healthcare professionals’ career preferences using the KAOP. Nursing and medical students with higher baseline composite KAOP scores (demonstrating positive attitudes) exhibit significantly higher willingness to choose gerontological nursing, geriatric medicine, or long-term palliative care specialties compared to peers with low scores (Hweidi & Al-Obeisat, 2006). Longitudinal studies examining educational interventions show that formal academic coursework combined with structured intergenerational service learning produces statistically significant positive shifts in post-intervention KAOP scores.

Reliability

The psychometric stability and internal consistency of the KAOP have been confirmed across North American, European, Asian, and Middle Eastern cohorts.

Internal Consistency

In Kogan’s (1961) initial validation report, split-half reliability coefficients (corrected using the Spearman-Brown formula) were calculated across three independent collegiate samples:

• OP− Subscale: Reliability coefficients ranged from .73 to .85, demonstrating consistently high internal consistency.
• OP+ Subscale: Reliability coefficients ranged from .66 to .77, consistently exhibiting slightly lower reliability than the negative counterpart, a phenomenon Kogan attributed to social desirability pressures affecting positive item endorsement.
• Composite (Total 34-Item) Scale: Cronbach’s alpha for the full scale consistently reaches between .80 and .89 in contemporary psychometric evaluations (Erdemir et al., 2011; Matarese et al., 2013).

Test-Retest Stability

Evaluation of temporal stability across intervals ranging from two to six weeks has demonstrated robust test-retest reliability. Studies tracking control groups of university students in non-gerontological coursework reported test-retest correlation coefficients (r) between .78 and .85 for the composite score, indicating that in the absence of targeted educational or intergenerational interventions, attitudes toward older persons remain highly stable over time.

Factor Analysis

Although Nathan Kogan did not conduct formal exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in his foundational 1961 paper—relying instead on rational pair construction and item-to-subscale correlations—subsequent psychometric investigations have subjected the KAOP to extensive exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA).

Two-Factor Latent Structure

The most widespread structural configuration reported in literature reproduces Kogan’s theoretical partition into two principal factors:

1. Factor 1: Negative Attitude / Stereotypical Prejudice (OP−): Encompassing items reflecting perceived cognitive decline, social nuisance, spatial segregation demands, and emotional dependency.
2. Factor 2: Positive Attitude / Social Valuation (OP+): Encompassing items reflecting respect, life satisfaction, cognitive flexibility, and cross-generational harmony.

Multidimensional Models

Several cross-cultural structural validations (e.g., Erdemir et al., 2011; Hweidi & Al-Obeisat, 2006; Matarese et al., 2013) have demonstrated that the 34 items can be decomposed into finer-grained multi-factor models. Common extraction methods (Principal Component Analysis with Varimax or Promax rotation) routinely extract between five and seven distinct conceptual factors:

• Factor I: Interpersonal Comfort and Discomfort (Items addressing ease, anxiety, or relaxation when interacting with older people; e.g., Items 15, 16, 29, 30).
• Factor II: Cognitive Adaptability vs. Rigidity (Items measuring ability to learn, change habits, and maintain modern perspectives; e.g., Items 3, 4, 5, 6).
• Factor III: Residential and Generational Integration (Items evaluating living preferences, neighborhood segregation, and housing; e.g., Items 1, 2, 23, 24).
• Factor IV: Personal Appearance and Environmental Pride (Items concerning cleanliness, home upkeep, and personal grooming; e.g., Items 9, 10, 27, 28).
• Factor V: Generational Equity and Demands for Respect (Items evaluating expectations of deference, complaining about youth, and entitlement; e.g., Items 21, 22, 33, 34).
• Factor VI: Life Satisfaction and Existential Fulfillment (Items assessing joy in living versus perceived futility; e.g., Items 25, 26, 31, 32).

Model fit indices in contemporary Confirmatory Factor Analyses evaluating these multidimensional structures generally indicate adequate fit (e.g., Comparative Fit Index [CFI] > .90, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] < .06), confirming that the instrument successfully samples broad domains of social cognition.

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Scale Name: Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale (KAOP)
• Author: Nathan Kogan, Ph.D. (1961)
• Format: 34-item self-report questionnaire
• Item Configuration: 17 matched pairs consisting of 17 positively worded items (OP+) and 17 negatively worded items (OP−)
• Administration Modality: Paper-and-pencil or secure computerized/online survey form
• Target Population: Adults, healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, allied health workers), university students, and the general public
• Response Scale (Authentic): 6-point Likert scale (or 7-point scale with neutral midpoint):
  • 1 = Strongly disagree
  • 2 = Disagree
  • 3 = Slightly disagree
  • 4 = Slightly agree
  • 5 = Agree
  • 6 = Strongly agree

  (Note: In the original 1961 publication, a 7-point format was utilized with 4 designated for “no response” or “neutral”; modern psychometric administrations overwhelmingly standardize on the 6-point forced-choice format to eliminate central tendency bias.)

• Scoring Instructions:
  • Subscale Scoring (Separate OP+ and OP−):
    • OP+ Subscale Score: Direct sum of all 17 positive items (Items 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34). Possible range: 17 to 102 (on a 6-point scale). Higher scores indicate greater positive appreciation.
    • OP− Subscale Score: Direct sum of all 17 negative items (Items 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33). Possible range: 17 to 102. Higher scores indicate greater negative prejudice.
  • Total Composite Score (Unified Positive Attitude Index):
    • Reverse score all 17 negative items (for a 6-point scale: 1 becomes 6, 2 becomes 5, 3 becomes 4, 4 becomes 3, 5 becomes 2, 6 becomes 1).
    • Sum the 17 positive items and the 17 reverse-scored negative items.
    • Total score range: 34 to 204. Higher overall scores reflect increasingly favorable, non-prejudiced attitudes toward older adults.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Kogan’s Attitudes Toward Old People Scale was initially published in 1961 in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (Volume 62, Issue 1, pages 44–54), a journal published by the American Psychological Association (APA). As a classical scientific contribution over six decades old, the KAOP is widely recognized within the academic community as entering the public academic domain for non-commercial research, institutional evaluation, and educational use. Researchers and clinical educators may administer, replicate, and translate the scale for educational or empirical study without purchasing proprietary test kits or paying royalty fees, provided appropriate scholarly citation is attributed to Nathan Kogan (1961). For commercial deployments or inclusion in commercial assessment software platforms, standard copyright clearance from the American Psychological Association should be verified.

References

• Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. Harper & Row.
• Allport, G. W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Addison-Wesley.
• Butler, R. N. (1969). Age-ism: Another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, 9(4_Part_1), 243–246. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/9.4_part_1.243
• Erdemir, F., Kav, S., Citak, E. A., Hanagasi, Z., & Akman, A. (2011). A Turkish version of Kogan’s attitude toward older people (KAOP) scale: Reliability and validity assessment. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 52(3), e162–e168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2010.10.019
• Fiske, S. T., Cuddy, A. J., Glick, P., & Xu, J. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878–902. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.878
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public Self and Private Self (pp. 189–212). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9564-5_10
• Hweidi, I. M., & Al-Obeisat, S. M. (2006). Jordanian nursing students’ attitudes toward the elderly. Nurse Education Today, 26(1), 23–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2005.06.003
• Kogan, N. (1961). Attitudes toward old people: The development of a scale and an examination of correlates. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0048053
• Matarese, M., Lommi, M., Pedone, C., Alvaro, R., & De Marinis, M. G. (2013). Nursing students’ attitudes towards older people: Validity and reliability of the Italian version of the Kogan Attitudes Towards Old People scale. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(1), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.06042.x
• Palmore, E. (1999). Ageism: Negative and Positive (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
• Tuckman, J., & Lorge, I. (1953). Attitudes toward old people. The Journal of Social Psychology, 37(2), 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1953.9921881

Items of the Scale