Perry et al.'s social study on personal space Flashcards
Assumptions of the learning approach and how they relate to this core study
People have preferred interpersonal distances for different types of people, meaning that behavior is influenced by the presence of others.
The psychology that is being investigated
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
The background
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
The aims
Whether oxytocin affects interpersonal distance in people who have stronger empathic skill.
Procedure
- 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)
Type of question in IRI
likert scale
“occansionaly i am not very symaththic to my friends when they are depressed”
The procedures in experiment one
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
In CID how many trials did each figure have
8 enterences at 3 different occasions so 24
The procedures in experiment two
- 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
What were the ps in choosing rooms calcualted for
- perfered distance between chairs
- distance between table and plant
- prefered angle for each furnitute pairing
Describe the rooms
- 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’
how many pairs of rooms were shown to the ps
84 in the first so 168 total pairs
what was the purpose of the misinforming ps
to induce anxiety and assess its impact on interpersonal behaviour
Describe the questionnaires used in the study
- 28 iteam
- online
- questionniare consisited of 4 7- iteam subscales
- each measures a diffrent aspect of empathy
The research method used
lab experiment
The number of participants and where they are from
- 54 male undergraduates
- ages 19-32
- 5 left handed
- had normal vision
The controls used
had the same IRI questionair and procedure prior to experiment were all the same
data collection method used
Quanitaitve data from the CID and choosing rooms
Independent and dependent variables used
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
Ethical issues
- 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
Results
Quantitative/qualitative data & how it is represented and interpeted
- 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.
Conclusions drawn
people with high empathy tend to have smaller zones of personal space paticulary when oxytocin levels are increased
What was the amount of time alloed to stop the figure approaching in experiement 1
three second
Strengths
Methodological issues:
Reserach method, reliabilty,validty,generalibily,& control of variables
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.
Weakness
Methodological Issues
Reserach method, reliabilty,validty,generalibily,& control of variables
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
Everyday life
The issues of application of psychology and how it realtes to the study
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.
Individual and Situational explanations debate
How it relates to the study
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.
Nature vs. Nurture Debate
how it relates to the study
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
