ABSTRACT
The devaluation of self which an old person is likely to experience in social encounters with the non-aged highlights the social — and sociological — significance of relationships which the age-stigmatised maintain ‘among their own’. Interaction on the basis of age is not, of course, confined to the later years. People of all ages experience institutionalised age-grading at various stages in their life and, in informal contexts, demonstrate age homophily in their choice of friends (Hess, 1972).
