non verbal communication: personal space Flashcards
what is personal space
The distance we keep between ourselves and others.
We feel uncomfortable when it is invaded and try to defend it by moving away.
what are some cultural differences in personal space
Sommer found that English people’s personal space is 1–1.5 metres whereas Arabs is much less.
Collett found that Englishmen who stood closer and gave more eye contact were better liked by Arabs.
what are some gender differences in personal space
Men prefer a larger social distance when interacting with men than women talking to other women.
Fisher and Byrne found that women felt more uncomfortable when a confederate invaded their personal space from the side whereas with men it was from the front.
what are some status differences in personal space
Status is someone’s rank within society or the workplace.
Zahn found that people with a similar status maintain a closer personal space than those with unequal status.
what is a strength of this study
A strength is that this research has proved useful in everyday life.
For example, doctors could use knowledge about cultural differences.
Therefore it has a positive impact on the real world.
what are 2 weaknesses of this study
A weakness is that research into personal space only looks at one factor at a time.
In reality, several factors may be affecting personal space distances at the same time such as culture, gender and status.
This makes research in this area too simplistic.
Another weakness is studies may use unrepresentative samples.
It is difficult to use a sample of people in a personal space experiment that reflects all people within a culture, or all males and all females.
This means we should be cautious in generalising the results to everyone.
