CAREGIVERS REACTIONS TO THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF A PERSON IN THE FINAL STAGE OF DEMENTIA AS MEASURED BY SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIALS

The semantic differential (SeD) technique was applied to 158 caregiver s from a nursing home in the northern part of Sweden. The questionnair e contained fifty-eight bipolar scales of adjective pairs and the inte rviewees indicated their reactions to a described picture of a severel y demented person: A factor analysis revealed three dimensions; an eth ical one, an esthetical one, and one about the person's own feelings. The fifty-eight scales were mostly rated toward the negative poles. Th e severely demented person was rated as painful, apathetic, suffering, weak, afraid, sad, cold, dark, rough, and ugly. Four years later a co mparable group of caregivers (n = 93) answered a revised questionnaire containing the 26 SeD scales with factor loadings > .50 for the pictu re of the severely demented person. The result was nearly identical an d alternative interpretations are discussed.