[Theories of nursing professionals about the elderly]

Our study emphasizes the implicit theories of nursing professionals about the elderly and their influence on nursing behavior styles. According to our central hypothesis we expected a correlation between the differentiation of attitudes towards the elderly and the quality of nursing interventions. By means of a new methodological approach based on Forgas' theory of "social episodes" we investigated attitudes towards the elderly and behavior intentions in specific nursing situations. The sample consists of 133 professionals working in nursing homes for the elderly or in home care services. In a first step the structure of attitudes towards the elderly was examined by employing multivariate techniques, e.g. factor analysis and multidimensional scaling. Three aspects of older patients' competence constitute the images which influence nursing personnel's interactions with the elderly. In the next step a significant correlation between the complexity of attitudes towards the elderly and the quality of nursing behavior could be demonstrated. In general, the findings in our sample support personalized rather than stereotyped perceptions of the elderly. In particular such qualities will be stressed by nursing professionals which facilitate or disturb the nursing process.