1. Categorization of the words associated with 'death'
- Author
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TANGE, Chikako
- Subjects
death ,thanatology ,KJ method ,development ,word associations - Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to study the structure of the concept of "death". Two hundred and seventy-six early adolescents (mean age 13.28 yrs), 219 middle adolescents (mean age 16.08 yrs), 96 late adolescents and young adults (mean age 35.17 yrs), and 265 middle and aged adults (mean age 45.47 yrs) were requested to list up to ten words associated with the word "death". Four thousand five hundred and two words in total were collected and were categorized using the KJ method. The main categories were : (1) Actual kinds of death (e.g. internal and external causes of death), (2) Cultural aspects of death (e.g. religion, rituals, and art), (3) Attitude toward death (e.g. affection, and evaluation), (4) Death in relation with others (e.g. the dead, the bereaved, and precious ones), (5) Image of death (e.g. figurative expressions), (6) Objective nature of death (e.g. inevitability), (7) Life (e.g. lives, QOL, and organ donation), (8) Questions about life and death (e.g. 'When should I die?', and 'Why do we live though we must die someday?'). Significantly less early adolescents responded in the categories of "Death in relations with others", "Image of death", and "Life", while significantly more middle and aged adults responded in the categories of "Death in relations with others", "Image of death", "Objective nature of death", and "Life"., 国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。
- Published
- 2002