PROXEMICS - SPACE

Activity:  have two people walk toward each other

Balance of affiliative and privacy needs

Boundary management theory (Petronio) -- who is inside the boundary (e.g., family privacy). Factors:

• Social factors (attraction, similarities)
• Situation factors (room size, formality)
• Personal factors (age, gender, culture, status)

Special spaces

Territory

Fixed space that is claimed and defended (room, chair in class)

Innate need for territory

Behavioral sink experiments with rats
Overcrowding leads to physical and mental health problems
Difference between crowding and density
Crowding is psychological/perceptual
Density is objective (people/space)
Pictures reduce crowding with same density

Types of territory

• Public
• Interactional
• Home
• body/personal space

Markers

Personal Space -- not fixed, bubble around you, changes with situation

People influences

men occupy more space, mixed-sex dyads closest for heterosexuals
age -- closer to peers
status -- further from higher status people (homes -- distance from street)
attraction -- closest to people you like

Interaction influences

(Activity:  seating exercise)

• the more formal, the further the distance

•  Intimate (0-1.5 feet)
• personal (1.5-4)
• social (4-12)
• public (12- )
  
  
• familiarity with setting
• purpose
  
  
• cooperation  -- close/next to
• conversation – cross corner or across
• coaction – at opposite corners of table
• competition -- across

• leaders -- more central

Environmental influences

• amount of space -- people tend to get closer in larger spaces
• increased density reduces space
• furniture arrangements (next week)