Information processing, beliefs, and motivations can be coupled with the principle of causal attributions to provide a framework for assessing the causes to which individuals attribute their own behavior. For example, an elderly man who forgets to buy something at the store presents himself with an identity based on cultural stereotypes--in this case, that aged persons forget--because he attributes the causes of his behavior to internal states or dispositions and in turn believes his disposition to cause certain behaviors (forgetting). Coupling such self-attribution with altercasting (the casting of the other member of an interaction into particular identities or roles), it is posited that the aged engage in self-attributions based on cultural stereotypes or myths about themselves and cast others with whom they interact into roles that demand consensus of the attribution in order for the interaction to continue. If an elderly person perceives himself or herself as being forgetful, that person will accept having the characteristic of forgetfulness and will attempt to have others accept such an attribution as well. Research from this perspective can be used to account for why American society views the aged as it does and why cultural stereotypes about the aged persist. (RL)