Discriminating adults' genuine,imagined, and deceptive accounts of positive and negative childhood events

We examined the qualitative characteristics of genuine, imagined, and deceptive accounts of positive and negative childhood events. We investigated whether trained raters could discriminate between these accounts using the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (MCQ; Johnson, Foley, Suengas, & Raye, 1988) and the Aberdeen Report Judgment Scales (ARJS; S. L. Sporer, paper presented at the biennial meeting of the American Psychology‐Law Society in Redondo Beach, California, March 1988 ). Participants generated three accounts. The first account was of an event that participants genuinely experienced in childhood. The second account was of an event that participants did not experience, but merely imagined happened in childhood. The third account was of an event that participants did not experience, but wrote a deceptive account to convince someone else that the event really happened in childhood. Half our participants wrote about positive events and half wrote about negative events. Ratings made by two trained judges indicated that genuine, imagined, and deceptive accounts were qualitatively different on both the MCQ and ARJS. Moreover, based on the MCQ and ARJS scores raters could discriminate whether the events had been genuinely experienced. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changing Attitudes Toward Older Adults Through a Simulated Aging Exercise: Implications for Family Therapy

Past research suggests that many young people hold negative attitudes toward the elderly. Simulated aging is one method to reduce aging that had been successfully applied with those individuals working in the helping professions. However, it has not yet been applied to ordinary young adults. The current study examined whether a simulated aging activity would cause more positive attitudes toward the aged, an increased desire to help, and higher satisfaction with life. Seventy-eight college students participated; half were randomly assigned to complete three tasks with sensory deficits designed to simulate aging (i.e., wearing non-magnified glasses covered with petroleum jelly, wearing foam earplugs, and wearing cloth gloves), and half served as the control. Three questionnaires were completed that measured attitudes toward older adults, prosocial desires, and satisfaction with life. Results showed that young adults who experienced simulated aging had more favorable attitudes toward older adults than did individuals in the control condition. These results suggest that simulated aging activities may be an effective method to reduce ageism. This has potential implications for multigenerational family therapy, such as to assist younger people to understand what their grandparents may be experiencing.