Personal space

• Personal space

  • An invisible bubble that surround each individual
  • Size of the bubble depends on Gender, culture and status
  • If our bubble is invaded, we can feel uncomfortable
• Gender differences

  • Men prefer large distance with other men
  • Women prefer short distance with other women
  • Men prefer to sit opposite, Women prefer to sit side by side
  • Fisher and Byrne found that men feel stressed if personal space is invaded from front, Women feel stressed from the side
• Culture differences

  • Different culture norms for personal space
  • Sommer found that English people prefer a personal space of 1-1.5m whereas Arab people prefer to be closer
• Status differences

  • Two teachers have a similar status, a student and a head teacher have a different status
  • Zahn found that people with similar status stand closer than those with different status
• Evaluation of personal space (1)

  • Personal space rules make it unclear about what to do in some situations
  • E.g, if a woman talks to another woman who is of a higher status, should they stand close or further away?
• Evaluation of personal space (2)

  • Research makes generalisations about how much distance we prefer
  • Research doesn't represent everybody
  • Some English people could prefer to stand further away