2016 Volume 34 Pages 1-7
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of intimacy on interpersonal distance of womenʼs junior college students in the three majors. Participants were asked by the projective measures to indicate the most comfortable distance points in an interpersonal distance chart when talking to people of low level of intimacy （a strange same aged male, a strange same aged female） and of high level of intimacy （her sweetheart, her best friend, her father, her mother）. Results revealed that, in the second graders, interpersonal distance score （IPD）was significantly lower with her sweetheart≒her best friend ≪ her mother≒a strange same aged female ≪ her father≒a strange same aged male. Interpersonal distance between a student and a person of high intimacy was smaller than a person of low intimacy. Interpersonal distance between a student and her mother was smaller than her father. Interpersonal distance between a student and a strange same aged female was smaller than a strange same aged male. These results suggest that interpersonal distance is affected by intimacy and is also influenced by the developmental change in the psychological weaning, outgrowing her dependence on her parents to deepen association with her best friend or her sweetheart.
