Unit 4 - Section 1 - Personal Space

Question 0

What is a personal, portable territory?

Answer 0

• Place where entry is controlled
• Wherever you stand or sit, you are surrounded on all sides by personal space
• Unauthorized intrusion into this personal territory either is an accident (someone bumps into you) or intentional (your Mum hugs you)

Question 1

Define personal space

Answer 1

• Spatial component of interpersonal realtions
• Changing distance between individuals
• Angle of orientation (side by side, or face to face)

Question 2

What is a spacing mechanism?

Answer 2

• Some birds and animals keep characteristic distances between themselves
• These distances have biological value - they regulate fundamental processes like food gathering and mating

Question 3

What is a communication channel?

Answer 3

• Personal space is a way of sending messages
• Each distance tells something different about the relationship between the people engaged
• There are 8 distances … 4 near and 4 far

Question 4

Intimate distance - Near and Far

Answer 4

• The near phase of intimate distance is 0 to 6”
• For comforting, protecting, lovemaking, wrestling, and other full-contact activities
• The far phase of intimate distance is 6 to 18”
• Used by individuals who are on very close terms
• Typical behaviour at this distance is whispering - generally, the participants are good friends

Question 5

Personal Distance - Near and Far

Answer 5

Near phase of personal distance is 18 to 30”

• Zone for those who are familiar with one another and on good terms
• Good friends or couples talking use this distance

Far phase of personal distance is 2.5 to 4’

• Used for social interactions between friends and acquaintances
• Classmates who know each other, but aren’t really friends often stand at this distance

Question 6

Social distance - Near and Far

Answer 6

Near phase of social distance is 4 to 7’
- Used for interactions between unacquainted individuals or those transacting business

Far phase of social distance is 7 to 12’

• Typical of formal business transactions - could be called business distance
• There is little sense of friendship or interest in being friends

Question 7

Public Distance - Near and Far

Answer 7

Near phase of public distance is 12 - 25’

• Used less often by two interacting individuals than my speakers and their audiences
• Would be used by lecturer - when speaking to 30+ people

Far phase of public distance is 25’+

• Used when you meed important public figures
• If you were introduced to a head of state, you would likely stop at this point
• The important person must beckon you to approach as conversation at this distance is uncomfortable

Question 8

Alpha personal space

Answer 8

Objective, externally measurable distance and angle between interacting individuals

Question 9

Beta personal space

Answer 9

The subjective experience of the distancing process

• Like all experiences, it must be measured indirectly
• The individual’s sense of distance and angular orientation in social encounters

Question 10

Asymmetry effect

Answer 10

• Seen in beta personal space
• We generally perceive another person to be closer to us than he or she actually is
• We typically think that others are taking up more of our personal space and that we are taking up less of their personal space

Question 11

3 ways to measure personal space

Answer 11

1. Simulation and questionnaire methods
2. Stop-distance method
3. Naturalistic method

Question 12

Personal influences on personal space

Answer 12

Personal influences

1. Gender
2. Age
3. Personality
4. Self-construal
5. Psychological disturbance and violence
6. Disabilities

Question 13

Social influences on personal space

Answer 13

1. Attraction
2. Fear-security
3. Co-operation-competition
4. Power and status

Question 14

Physical influences on personal space

Answer 14

• Close distances are more uncomfortable when lighting is dimmer
• Smaller distances seem to be preferred in wide or narrow rooms
• People use more space in corners of rooms than in the centre
• Males need more space when the ceiling is lower
• People choose larger distances indoors than outdoors
• We prefer more space between us when the overall supply of physical space is low
• Children spread out when they go outside to play compared to their interpersonal distances while playing indoors

Question 15

Gender influence on personal space

Answer 15

• Male-male pairs keep the largest distances, then female-female, and then last of all, male-female
• Girls stay closer to adults when boys and girls play together than when all the children in the play group are girls
• Male-female pairs may use much more space when the couple are strangers than when they are lovers

Question 16

Age influence on personal space

Answer 16

• Personal space increases with age, at least until early adulthood
• By the age of 18 months, however, children do choose different interpersonal distances depending on the person and the situation
• By age 12, children use personal space in almost the same way as adults

Question 17

Personality influences on personal space

Answer 17

1. Extroverted or interpersonally warm? Smaller personal spaces
2. Those who are “field dependent” (rely on external cues to make judgments) tend to be warmer and friendly
3. Trait anxiety (as opposed to short-term or state anxiety) linked to larger personal spaces
   - Type A personalities claim greater personal space
   - Those who worry about how their views are received by others keep larger distances

Question 18

Self-construal influence on personal space

Answer 18

Those who think of themselves as social and interdependent choose closer distances than those who think of themselves as personal and independent

Question 19

Cultural differences in distance

Answer 19

• Arab and American males have similar personal space, but Arab and American females do not - Arab females keep larger distances from their female friends too
• American students feel more comfortable when a brother and sister sit close together versus two brother sitting close together
• Saudi students feel the other way around - two brothers can sit very close together, but brother and sister should sit further apart
• Japanese use more distance in conversations than Americans do, and Americans use more space than Venezuelans
• When Japanese and Venezuelans speak English instead of their native tonge, their conversational distance moves toward that of Americans
• Personal space between members of different religions was larger than that between members of the same religion
• Pairs of Muslims used smaller interpersonal distances than pairs of Christians

Question 20

What was Edward Hall’s explanation for clashes between cultures?

Answer 20

The problem is connected to not understanding each other’s space and distance requirements

Question 21

Legally enforcing distance

Answer 21

• In cases where ex-partners are ordered to stay a certain distance away from each other
• Pro-life demonstrators ordered to keep a certain distance from patients to an abortion clinic

Question 22

Robert Somer’s work on distance with mental patients

Answer 22

• Experimented with sitting very close to male mental patients
• By 1 minute, 30% of the patients had moved away
• By 10 minutes, 55% of the patients had moved away
• When seated again with other men who were not invading their space, after 1 minute, no one had moved and after 10 minutes, only 25% had moved

Question 23

Making people move

Answer 23

• Sit close to them … the closer you sit, the faster they’ll move. They will leave faster than they originally intended to
• Less than 2% of people will ask you to back away
• If the intruder was dressed as a faculty member, the student whose space had been invaded left even faster
• In malls, women will move if a low status male sits beside them, but men won’t move
• Men who are very masculine looking and androgynous females dislike frontal invasions of their space more than androgynous males and traditionally feminine looking women
• Women move if a strange male sits too close to them - negative feelings are aroused

Question 24

Personal Space - Attraction

Answer 24

• Appropriate use of space leads to attraction, whereas inappropriate use of space leads to dislike
• Female students are more attracted to males who sit across from them while male students prefer females who sit beside them
• Males prefer when female nurses touch them more than female patients like being touched - the nurses preferred touching the female patients
• In restaurants, 82% of couples sit across from one another, but 70% of couples sit beside each other in bars

Question 25

How do we feel when someone invades our personal space?

Answer 25

• Neutral or negative feelings in response to personal space depend on the invader’s apparent motives
• There is a difference between intentional invitations and invasions one is forced into - such as in an elevator where one is forced into intimate contact with people that one would rather avoid
• When the invasion is experienced as intentional, participants evaluated the invader negatively, but when the invasion was experienced as unavoidable, they did not

Question 26

Personal Space - Arousal

Answer 26

• Study done on how long it takes men to urinate when they are in a bathroom by themselves, with another man some stalls away, and when that man stands right beside them.
• Urination takes the longest time when a stranger stood right beside the man, despite the fact that there were other stalls available.

Question 27

Personal Space - Social Influence

Answer 27

• People who use less interpersonal distances and less-direct orientations were judge to be more persuasive
• This doesn’t mean that they actually were more persuasive, just that they were thought to be more persuasive
• Study assessing listener’s attitudes when a speaker voiced an opinion close, medium, and far distances … the person speaking from the furthest distance had the most influence, perhaps because the listeners are less guarded when the persuader is further away

Question 28

Personal Space - Helping Behaviours

Answer 28

• The personal space of pedestrians was invaded and then the invader dropped something
• Even when the object dropped was important, the person whose space had been invaded didn’t stop to help as often as the person whose space had not been invaded- When the invader pleaded a great need for help and stood near, pedestrians offered the most help
• When the invader stood near, but did not stress a need for help, pedestrians offered the least assistance
• At a far distance, invaders who pled low need for assistance received more offers of assistance than those who pled high need

Question 29

Personal Space - Working in Small Groups

Answer 29

• Cooperation occurs more and leads to better performance when group members are made very aware of each other, either because they are face-to-face or because they are very close
• Competition occurs more and is associated with higher productivity when the competitors are less-directly orients or a simply farther apart

Question 30

Theories of Personal Space - Social Learning Theory

Answer 30

• Personal space is generally culturally acquired
• The only theory about the acquisition of personal space comes from social learning theory
• It says that personal space is a gradually learned behaviour from reinforcement
• By the age of 2, children stay closer to Mum in more stressful and structured situations and roam further away in free-play situations
• By age 3, children already stay further away from boys than they do from girls

Question 31

The 4 Personal Space Rules of 4 Year Olds

Answer 31

1. Boys keep greater distances from boys than girls do from girls
2. Children stay closer to acquaintances than to strangers
3. Children stay closer in a formal setting (such as a teacher’s office) than in an informal setting (a playroom)
4. If another child is a stranger and the setting is formal, children keep a larger distance than they would from the same stranger in an informal settingd

Question 32

Theories of Personal Space - Affiliative-Conflict Theory

Answer 32

• Argyle and Dean
• This theory functions to balance our social needs
• We have conflicting social motives - a desire to draw closer to others and a desire to move away from others, all at the same time
• We are attracted to others and want information from them, but we wish to retain our individuality and freedom, and do not always want to reveal information about ourselves
• Nonverbal channels (interpersonal distance, eye contact, smiling) are involved as individuals seek an equilbrium between their approach and avoidance tendencies

Question 33

Example of Affiliative-Conflict Theory

Answer 33

• You and an acquaintance are walking to the cafeteria together
• When you get there the line ups are long, but you squeeze in
• Now you are too close to each other for the level of relationship you have, but you can’t avoid it
• The resulting disequilibrium in the interpersonal channel will be compensated for in other channels - you might reduce eye contact, or stick to less intimate topics

Question 34

What are the 4 models of affiliative theory?

Answer 34

1. Social penetration
2. Limits of compensation
3. Arousal-cognition
4. Approach-avoidance

Question 35

What is a sociopetal arrangement?

Answer 35

• A setting that facilitates social interaction

- An example would be the family dining room table where everyone faces inwards

Question 36

What is a sociofugal setting?

Answer 36

• A setting that discourages social interaction

- An example would be a hospital waiting room where the chairs are bolted to the floor, facing outward

Question 37

Think of personal situations where you would use each of Hall’s 8 interpersonal distances?

Answer 37

Intimate Near - comforting, protecting, lovemaking, wrestling
Intimate Far - close to each other, distance for whispering
Personal Near - Couples, close friends
Personal Far - classmates, acquaintances
Social Near - Social and familiar business transactions
Social Far - Formal business transaction - no interest in being friends
Public Near - Speakers and their audiences
Public Far - 25’ for dignitaries

Question 38

Reasons why the “bubble” analogy is misleading

Answer 38

1. The idea of a bubble implies that everyone’s personal space is the same size in all situations, which is not the case
2. This analogy emphasizes the protective function of personal space more than the communicative function
3. Distance is not the only important fact in understanding spatial behaviour. Other behaviours, such as body orientation and eye contact, are also important
4. Personal space has meaning only in relation to an object. A term such as interpersonal distance may be better
5. Some research indicates that the size of the personal space is different for different parts of the body. The space around the body is an irregular cylindrical shape not a spherical bubble

Question 39

Outline three general ways of measuring personal space. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each method?

Answer 39

1. Simulation methods
2. Stop-distance method
3. Naturalistic observation

• Simulation and stop-distance techniques are used more often in research than are naturalistic methods *

List the benefits and drawbacks of each method

Question 40

Summarize the three types of factors that influence the size of our personal space

Answer 40

1. Personal factors
2. Social factors
3. Physical factors

Question 41

How is personal space related to attraction?

Answer 41

• Appropriate use of space leads to attraction, whereas inappropriate use of space leads to dislike
• Female students are more attracted to males who sit across from them while male students prefer females who sit beside them
• Males prefer when female nurses touch them more than female patients like being touched - the nurses preferred touching the female patients
• In restaurants, 82% of couples sit across from one another, but 70% of couples sit beside each other in bars

Question 42

How is personal space related to arousal?

Answer 42

• Study done on how long it takes men to urinate when they are in a bathroom by themselves, with another man some stalls away, and when that man stands right beside them.
• Urination takes the longest time when a stranger stood right beside the man, despite the fact that there were other stalls available.

Question 43

What is personal space

Answer 43

• Basic definition
• 3 Elaborations
  
  • Personal, portable territory
  • Spacing mechanism
  • Communication channel
    
    • Intimate distance
    • Personal distance
    • Social distance
    • Public distance