The central theme of the master's thesis is focused on stereotypes towards the old people. We were particularly interested in what stereotypes the younger generation expresses towards the old and what factors influence this. We first defined concepts such as stereotypes, age stereotyping, ageism, a model of competencies and warmth, and suggestions for overcoming stereotypes about the old. In the research part we used the integration of methods. We chose an explanatory research model that runs in two successive phases. Data from the European Social Science Survey for Slovenia from 2008, which focused on the relationship between generations, was analyzed according to the variable gender and age group, and it was concluded that younger generations express paternalistic stereotypes towards the old. The old are thus understood as a friendly group with a low level of competencies and a high level of warmth. We found that members of the mature age group have the most positive attitude towards the old people, while the young age group participants have the most negative attitude towards them. The obtained data was explained in the qualitative part of the analysis, where we included the aforementioned age groups with the help of interviews in order to shed additional light on the factors influencing the diversity of attitudes. We found that the decisive factors influencing the stereotypical attitude towards the old are the amount and frequency of contact with the old people both in childhood and adulthood, parental upbringing, negative images of the old people in the media, poor economic status of the old people, growing elderly population and low social status. All this affects the stereotypical attitude towards the old people and negative expectations of one's own aging in a young age group. In contrast, mature age group has much more frequent and diverse contacts with the old people, which makes them perceive the important fact that the elderly age group is very heterogeneous.
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