Ist blog entry-personal space

Sociologists, anthropologists and social psychologists have been interested in how people from different cultures use space. People in the U.S. from a European background tend to stand about 18 inches from someone they are talking with. Eighteen inches is a comfortable 'personal space' when they are talking with an acquaintance in friendly informal conversation.  For people from other backgrounds or cultures, 'personal space' or the polite comfortable distance for a conversation may be much less or much greater. There are misunderstandings and potential problems between people from different cultures when individuals don't know about cultural differences in 'personal space'. Then, differences in personal space may be misinterpreted as expressions of motivation or personality. Someone from a different culture may stand close and be seen as 'coming on' or threatening ('in our face'), when they are simply at, what is for them, a comfortable distance. Similarly, someone from a culture with a large personal space may be thought of as snobbish or uninvolved when they are standing at, what is for them, a friendly, comfortable distance.

Assignment:

You will need to make some careful observations, which is often the first step in doing research. First, look at a yardstick or rule and try to fix in your mind what 18in looks like. Then, go up to a man and woman of your own cultural background and start a conversation noticing how close you stand to them ( closer or farther away than 18in ?). Does this distance vary depending on whether you talk to a person of the same or opposite sex? This will tell you your personal space. Then observe people in school or in other social contexts, standing and talking to one another. The people you observe should be standing and not sitting. You will need to observe a wide variety of people.Read the following article to learn more about personal space:

In Certain Circles, Two's a Crowd

After you have made your observations and read the article, create a blog entry commenting on the results of your observations and the reading. What did you learn? Can you draw any conclusions from your observations? Consider some of the following issues in making your comments:

 Age

Race

Gender

location/setting

Relationship between parties

Were there differences when the two people involved in the interaction shared characteristics or when the characteristics were different from each other? What did you notice about the variety of personal space needs? How far do people stand (estimate distances) with intimate relationships?  friendships?  social relationships? General public? In addition, give examples of how you have observed people marking their personal space in places like school, class, bathrooms, lunch, etc. What do people do when others invade their personal space.  Are there times that someone might intentionally invade the personal space of another? Why? How do you feel when people invade your personal space? What if someone moved your 'marker' while you were gone?  Why do you think you feel this way?How do you know what someone's personal space is?  How did you learn this?