Invasions of personal space in demented and nondemented elderly persons

Personal space has been a research issue in both social psychology and nursing in the past 20 years. In the context of behavioral and psychological signs and symptoms in dementia (BPSSD), however, personal space and other basic paradigms of social psychology sparsely play a role. In order to assess personal space in demented (n = 10) and nondemented (n = 10) elderly participants, we replicated the original study addressing personal space by Felipe and Sommer (1966). The two groups differed in the overall number of participants showing a specific reaction, in the mean duration until specific reactions occurred, and in the percentage of participants within a group showing a specific reaction at a given point in time. The argument is being made that such findings might reflect situational as well as disease-specific changes in the perception of and reactions to invasions of personal space in demented patients. We suggest that further research in that field could bring about more information on the nature of dementia, and especially BPSSD. Implications for therapy and care of dementia patients are being discussed.