PERSONAL SPACE PRACTICAL
M.Sc. in Applied Psychology
Submitted By:
Arna Biswas
Semester 1
Student Id – 2222230002043
Registration No. 22020432936
Batch: 2022 - 2024
Submitted To:
Prof. Dr. Raj Sekhar Aich
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PERSONAL SPACE PRACTICAL
M.Sc. in Applied Psychology
Submitted By:
Arna Biswas
Semester 1
Student Id – 2222230002043
Registration No. 22020432936
Batch: 2022 - 2024
Submitted To:
Prof. Dr. Raj Sekhar Aich
ABSTRACT Personal space is the area with invisible boundaries surrounding a person’s body into which intruders may not come. The purpose of this experiment was to measure the perceived need for personal space among SNU students. Instead of the traditional pen and paper method, a personal space measuring platform based on Edward T. Hall’s (1966) personal space “reaction bubble” was created in a physical setting. With the subject at the center of the platform, two stimuli (one male and one female) were asked to approach the subject, to measure at what distance the subject is comfortable letting the stimuli invade their personal space. The results indicate that female students feel more comfortable with the female stimulus invading their personal space than the male stimulus. The difference in the perceived need for personal space for male and female stimuli might be because of some other factors other than the individual perception of gender. INTRODUCTION The notion of personal space was introduced in 1966 by anthropologist Edward T. Hall, who created the concept of proxemics. In his book, Hall, E. T. (1969). The hidden dimension. He describes the subjective dimensions that surround each person and the physical distances they try to keep from other people, according to subtle cultural rules. Personal space is the region surrounding a person which they regard as psychologically theirs. Most people value their personal space and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space encroaches. Permitting a person to enter personal space and entering somebody else's personal space are indicators of the perception of those people's relationships. An intimate zone is reserved for close friends, lovers, children, and close family members. The personal zone is used for conversations with friends, chatting with associates, and group discussions. The social zone is reserved for strangers, newly formed groups, and new acquaintances. The public zone is used for speeches, lectures, and theatre; essentially, public distance is that range reserved for larger audiences.
OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH Personal space refers to the boundaries which are created by individuals according to their comfort zone to maintain relationships with others. To measure the perceived need for personal space among SNU students on the basis of the male and female gender. LITERATURE REVIEW David Novelli et al. (2010) conducted two experiments investigating the impact of group relations on personal space. And as hypothesized, personal space was affected by the context of group relations. Taken together, the results from these two studies support their argument that, when defined in terms of group memberships and hence depersonalized, participants are more comfortable with less ‘personal space’ in relation to an in-group member than to an out-group (or non-group) member. H. Hecht et al. (2018) investigated the influence of gender on personal space by forming three gender groups (male-male, female-male, female-female) and by controlling for the body height of the subjects. As a result of the experiment, the distance of the personal space tended to be shorter in the female subjects than in the male counterpart. In the experiment conducted according to the partner’s gender, no difference was seen in the male subjects. However, the female subjects tended to have a shorter distance in the personal space with a same-gender partner than with an opposite- gender counterpart. Sarah Crowe (2011) conducted a study to measure the use of personal space among college students. The use of personal space was defined in this study as the preference or need for a specific amount of personal space. As a result, it was found that Differences in the use of personal space exist across gender, as women tend to share closer proximity than men. To be more specific in the use of personal space among gender differences, male students reported being more comfortable with greeting an acquaintance of the opposite gender with a hug or a kiss than did female students. However, female students reported being more comfortable with greeting an acquaintance of the same gender with a hug or a kiss than male students.
All the above research findings tentatively support our present experiment on personal space, and the results are quite relatable and reliable based on in-group relations and gender. METHOD Generally, in Personal space experiments, the personal space diagram is drawn & the participants are asked to assume a person coming towards them & to say stop till the point they want to allow that assumed person. Then the participants are asked to point to that distance on the diagram. But in this case, the experiment was conducted with the physical presence of the participant where 2 conditions were created, to see the bodily reactions and the effect of extraneous variables on the participants. Here, a personal space measuring platform was created and the participant was asked to stand at the center of the circular platform, and two conditions were created: Condition 1 and Condition 2. Both the stimuli male and female individuals were requested to approach the participant individually. The participant was asked to say ‘Stop’ till the point she wanted to allow them to come close to her. The points were marked and measured in a straight line from where the participant stood. The distance between the participant & the starting point from where the stimuli were instructed to walk toward the participant was 72 inches or 6 ft. TOOLS
- Colorful chalk
- Scale
- Paper
- Pen
- Measuring Tape
- Pencil Colours
FINDINGS For condition 1, the distance between the participant and condition 1 was 2.6 inches, which belongs to the public space. When condition 2 was presented, the distance between participants and condition 2 was 3.2 inches, which belongs to the public space as well. DISCUSSION The purpose of the present experiment was to measure the perceived need for personal space among SNU psychology students on the basis of the male and female gender. The results show that the participant allows condition 1 (female) in her public space and there was some tentative physical reaction of uncomfortableness. It can be caused, as the candidate of condition 1 was unknown to each other, i.e., both were females, there was a social status effect that female subjects tend to have this distance of the personal space with a same-gender partner, as found by H. Hecht et al. (2018) in their investigation of the influence of gender on personal space. Besides that, though the candidate was unknown to each other they are classmates so, there can also be the in-group effect that participants are more comfortable with less personal space in relation to an in-group member, as found by Novelli et al. (2010) in their investigation of the impact of group relation on personal space. On the other hand, the participants allow the candidate of condition 2 (male) in her public space as well and there was some tentative physical reaction of uncomfortableness like she flinched, and her eyes moved up and down. So, we can say that there was a tentative gender effect on the personal space of the participant, the candidate of condition 2 was of the opposite gender, i.e., male and at the same time, the candidate was not an in-group member of the subject but was partially known to her. It can be caused that she may be feeling uncomfortable towards the opposite gender. The result of this experiment was similar to the results of past research in regard to the gender difference in the use of personal space. However, in this experiment, gender effect is found in condition 2, due to the uncomfortableness and anxiety of the participant towards condition 2.
REFERENCES Crowe, Sarah (2011) "Get Back! The Use of Personal Space Among College Students," Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research: Vol. 3, Article 2. David Novelli, John Drury(University of Sussex, Brighton, UK) and Steve Reicher (University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK), Come together: Two studies concerning the impact of group relations on ‘personal space’, British Journal of Social Psychology (2010), 49, 223–236. Demian, Lisa, "Invasions of personal space: a field experiment" (1978). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2808, Portland State University. Hechta, Robin Welscha, Jana Viehoffa (Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg- Universität Mainz, Germany) and Matthew R. Longob(Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), The shape of personal space, Acta Psychologica 193 (2019) 113–122. Social Psychology: Theories, Research, and Applications First Edition Robert S. Feldman