Lesson 8

• What is personal space?

  Personal space is the distance we keep between ourselves and others in everyday life
• What are the main three factors that affect personal space?

  Culture, gender and status
• What did Edward Hall suggest?

  Personal space can be divided into four zones. These varied depending on who we are with and where we are
• What are the four zones of personal space?

  The intimate zone (0-0.5 meters), the personal zone (0.5 – 1.5 meters), the social zone opal (1.5 – four meters), the public zone (4 plus meters)
• What are some other factors that affect personal space?

  Age, personality type, relationship / familiarity, climate e.g temperature, disorders
• What is the generalization about Mediterranean and Latin American cultures in relation to personal space or touch?

  They tend to be more comfortable with touch and casual social situations
• What has the research found about Asian and North American cultures in relation to personal space or touch?

  They tend to avoid touch and casual social situations
• How do you describe cultures that are comfortable with Touch?

  Contact cultures
• What do contact cultures tend to prefer in reference to personal space?

  Smaller amount of personal space than non-contact cultures
• What has research found that the comfortable conversation distance for White English people is?

  1- 1.5 m
• How is this different from people from Arab cultures?

  The preferable distance is much less
• What has research found about people from Saudi Arabia?

  They need more personal space than English people
• What is the general difference between men and women in reference to personal space?

  Men are more likely to prefer more distance when it comes to the same sex interactions
• What May preferences for personal space be as a result of?

  Social conditioning, i.e., women are more encouraged to form close bonds with friends and to focus on feelings and relationships than men are
• In which situations does each gender respond more negatively to invasions of personal space?

  Females respond more negatively when the Invasion comes from the side whereas males was formal negatively when the Invasion comes from the front
• In which scenario do women prefer to maintain a greater distance?

  When interacting with strangers
• How does personal space change between an interaction with two females than with a female and a male?

  Two female standing together will have a smaller distance between them than a male and a female
• What is status?

  A person's social or professional rank or position
• How can status effects personal space?

  People of lower status stand closer to people who are of equal status to them and further away from people who are of a highest status
• How can these studies be realistically applied?

  Understanding cultural and gender differences in personal space can help us avoid offending people
• Why can we ensure these studies are reliable?

  We can easily measure distance, making the research easy to replicate
• Why movies studies be too simple?

  The only focus on one aspect of personal space, but in reality several factors may affect personal space distances
• Why may these studies not have a representative sample?

  It does not possible to use samples which represent all people within a culture or gender therefore the conclusion may not be generalizable to everyone
• How many age affect personal space?

  Children's personal space increases as they get older and older adults tend to prefer to have a great amount of personal space
• How many relationship or familiarity affect personal space?

  Research generally supports that liking the other person leads to smaller amount of personal space and people who are more familiar with one another will stand closer together