This experiment sought to determine whether young people ascribe different sick-role expectations to the elderly than to the middle-aged. The study also examined whether such expectations are a function of age per se or of work status. The experiment was a two X two factorial design employing two levels of age and two levels of work status. Sick-role expectations were elicited by the use of vignettes in which illness characteristics and background information were identical, but age and work status were varied. Results partially support the contention that the young ascribe an elderly sick role. Respondents were more likely to expect an old, rather than a middle-aged man, not to recover. However, respondents were also more likely to expect reduction in role obligations when the man was retired than when he was employed, regardless of age.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Uneasiness among laboratory technicians.

Four aspects of animal experimentation cause uneasiness among many animal laboratory technicians. First, if technicians form strong attachments to lab animals, they feel conflict between their nurturing and the experimental manipulations they perform. Most technicians learn to curtail these attachments. Second, the "sacrifice" of lab animals becomes routinized and stripped of special meaning for many technicians, making killing uncomfortably rote. Third, technicians sometimes encounter outsiders who are critical of animal experimentation and ridicule the technicians for doing this work. Most technicians avoid telling outsiders about their work or take an educational approach to deal with these awkward encounters. Finally, most technicians report some ethical uneasiness about certain types of experiments and their clinical value, as well as about the use of certain animals, and they feel they cannot turn to investigators or fellow technicians to pursue such issues.

Animal Technicians↗