The perceived distance on 12 different family-member concepts were measured on the "closedistant" dimension of the Osgood-type Semantic Differential Subjects are 50 males and 50 females, ranging from the age of 61 to 82. All family-member concepts are...
The perceived distance on 12 different family-member concepts were measured on the "closedistant" dimension of the Osgood-type Semantic Differential Subjects are 50 males and 50 females, ranging from the age of 61 to 82. All family-member concepts are perceived as close, and grandson is the closest concept,atd grandfather atd son-in-law are the farthest ones. Comparing with the Kim' s (1974) study with the younger respondents, daughter is moving toward the farther distance. Even though both grandson and granddaughter are the third generation, while grandson is as close as son, granddaughter is much farther than daughter. Therefore, the importance of family continuation and the inheritance system proved to be very strong. One caution should be mentioned that this result can only be applied to the healthy and urban elderly with the middle range of socio-economic status.