Perry et al.'s social study on personal space

Question 1

Assumptions of the learning approach and how they relate to this core study

Answer 1

People have preferred interpersonal distances for different types of people, meaning that behavior is influenced by the presence of others.

Question 2

The psychology that is being investigated

Answer 2

Interpersonal distance - physical space between people during interactions is social behaviour, signalling comfort
Role of Oxytocin - how OT alter perceptual salience of social cues impacting how indivuduals process these cues on empathic abilites

Question 3

The background

Answer 3

Interpersonal distance is a cue signalling comfort and responsiveness in social settings . Suggestion that OT can influence how indivduals perceive and respon to social interactions. As well as OT having differnce effects depending on individuals difference in empathy levels

Question 4

The aims

Answer 4

Whether oxytocin affects interpersonal distance in people who have stronger empathic skill.

Question 5

Procedure

Answer 5

• ps attended twice one week apart
• randomly assigned to OT or placebo group (neither ps or experimeter knew who was in what group)
• Ps completed a IRI questionair
• waited 45 mins for OT to reach plataeu (in quite room little socail interactions)

Question 6

Type of question in IRI

Answer 6

likert scale
“occansionaly i am not very symaththic to my friends when they are depressed”

Question 7

The procedures in experiment one

Answer 7

Comfrotable Interpersonal Distance Paradigm
* computerized version of the CID
* show a name of apporaching figure (stranger, friend etc.)
* a circular room was shown with a person in the center
* told to click the spacebar when they would like figure to stop apporaching them

Question 8

In CID how many trials did each figure have

Answer 8

8 enterences at 3 different occasions so 24

Question 9

The procedures in experiment two

Answer 9

• ps told they would be in another room with someone else
• had 2 room options and choose which one they perfered
• this was a decived and told the truth 2 week post
• 2 rooms on the screen for 2 sec and asked to choose left or right room

Question 10

What were the ps in choosing rooms calcualted for

Answer 10

• perfered distance between chairs
• distance between table and plant
• prefered angle for each furnitute pairing

Question 11

Describe the rooms

Answer 11

• each was colored, had 2 chairs, one table, clock etc
• the angles of the chairs changes 45’ or 90’
• angle of the table to the plant 0’ 45’ 90’

Question 12

how many pairs of rooms were shown to the ps

Answer 12

84 in the first so 168 total pairs

Question 13

what was the purpose of the misinforming ps

Answer 13

to induce anxiety and assess its impact on interpersonal behaviour

Question 14

Describe the questionnaires used in the study

Answer 14

• 28 iteam
• online
• questionniare consisited of 4 7- iteam subscales
• each measures a diffrent aspect of empathy

Question 15

The research method used

Answer 15

lab experiment

Question 16

The number of participants and where they are from

Answer 16

• 54 male undergraduates
• ages 19-32
• 5 left handed
• had normal vision

Question 17

The controls used

Answer 17

had the same IRI questionair and procedure prior to experiment were all the same

Question 18

data collection method used

Answer 18

Quanitaitve data from the CID and choosing rooms

Question 19

Independent and dependent variables used

Answer 19

IV
high or low empathy
Ot vs placebo
EX 1: object (friend, stranger)
EX 2: distance between chairs and angles
DV
EX 1: ps perfered space from diff object/ people
EX 2: Ps perfereed choice of picture in chair distance

Question 20

Ethical issues

Answer 20

• particpants gave written consent and 2 week discussion reveled in debreifing
• The measurment of invaion of personal space could be psychologcaly stressfull along with 2 weeks of thinking you are going to have a discussion

Question 21

Results

Quantitative/qualitative data & how it is represented and interpeted

Answer 21

• People with high empathy let and OT friend distance be around 8 while low empay and OT result was around 13. this shows that OT cause people with lower empathy to have higher zones of personal space
• participants in high empaty groups chose clower chair distane with xytocin compared to those in low empthy group with oxytocin.

Question 22

Conclusions drawn

Answer 22

people with high empathy tend to have smaller zones of personal space paticulary when oxytocin levels are increased

Question 23

What was the amount of time alloed to stop the figure approaching in experiement 1

Answer 23

three second

Question 24

Strengths
Methodological issues:

Reserach method, reliabilty,validty,generalibily,& control of variables

Answer 24

Reliabily - experiments have high levels of standerisation and can be replicated to test for reliabily. Standerdized procedure the allowed time to dtop the figure in experiment 1 and the forced choice pictures in experiment 2

Internal validty since has high levels of controls can insure the IV is directly affecting the DV. controls were splitting the sample into high and low empathy group s and ensuring ALL particapants had the OT and placebo. confedient the combo of empathy and OT was affecting interpersonal distance.

Question 25

Weakness
Methodological Issues

Reserach method, reliabilty,validty,generalibily,& control of variables

Answer 25

Low validy because with questionaire particapnt may give socailly dsered answers to look good. In completion of the IRI before and after the study particapants may have wanted to look more empathitic rather then a valid reflection

Generlisazbilty- the sample of only males makes the result hard to generlized to different populations specificaly male. females are known to be naturaly more empathic so there is no way to see how oxytocin affects high empathic males

Question 26

Everyday life

The issues of application of psychology and how it realtes to the study

Answer 26

A real-life application is that Perry et al. ‘s findings counter previous research and oxytocin may not be a suitable treatment for those with social disorders.

Question 27

Individual and Situational explanations debate

How it relates to the study

Answer 27

Individual: Oxytocin decreased preferred interpersonal distance in those with high empathy traits, yet increased it for those low in empathy, supporting individual explanations for behavior.

Question 28

Nature vs. Nurture Debate

how it relates to the study

Answer 28

The nature argument suppots the influence of genetics and innate characteristics, while urture is about envirmental factos and how they influence behaviour. Perry supports the nautre debare because interpersonal distance preferences are affected