PersonalSpaceandtheImpactofEyeContact

Personal space always draws psychologists interests and attention， as personal space play a vital role in everyones daily life. Actually， personal space not only exist in the communication with classmates and teachers or parents， but also even exist with the stranger who may seat next to you on the bus （Hartnett， Bailey， & Hartley， 1974）. With the personal space has become an indispensable part in peoples day to day activities， personal space has generally influenced peoples communication skills and human behavior and so on. The inappropriate use of personal space will negative impact on someones mood， and directly cause the bad results to interpersonal relationships. For instance， when you trade with the businessman， but if you wouldnt keep the distance of personal space properly， this may let you lose the chance. Moreover， some variable factors will impact peoples different attitudes towards personal space， for example， culture differences will impact on peoples awareness of personal space （Robert Killburry， ja）. As a result， to get a better understanding personal space， also to provide a better strategy to have better life when get along with people， psychologists study about personal space to try to get a better understanding of personal space.

Personal space， by definition， means of a physical zone around a person （Buchanan， Goldman & Juhnke， 1977）. Respectively， from psychological perspective， personal space is one kind of nonverbal communication， which is relationship between people and people （Costanzo， 1992）. Personal space aims to places the properly distance between people to avoid threats to someones emotional well-being and feelings. As a result， the distance of personal space may be changed because of different conditions （Hughes& Goldman， 1978）.

In consideration of social aspects， some attitudinal barriers and stereotypes are the factors that have negatively impact on personal space. The disabled persons has a long history been discriminate against （Kilbury， Bordieri， & Wong， 1996）. And obviously it is shows people has the tendency of negative attitudes impact on personal space when people have interaction with the disabled. Kilbury et al.（1996） examine that people prefer to give more personal space to the disabled person than the healthy person in the social activities.

Actually， some variable factors determine personal space indirectly or directly. Bonvillian and Nowlin（1994） points out “Different cultures have varying rules on personal space and touching”， different culture values also have influences on personal space especially when communicating with a foreigner. For instance， Americans get used to start a conversation very near with people while the Arabs and Africans prefer to keep more distance. So that may cause misunderstandings. （Bonvillian & Nowlin， 1994）. Furthermore， culture differences usually decide how people perceive personal space. A survey by Juckett （2005） states that some Latinos prefer to have more personal space because they need have a relaxed personal relationship.

In terms of personal space， eye contact has not been frequently mentioned. However， in some cases， eye contact could be the most important factors in personal space violations. Previous study by Rotella and Bunker （1978） clearly proves that eye contact as a variable factor perform an important function to impact on personal space. Similarly， this was found true in the experiment to examined the relationship between personal space and eye contact （Buchanan et al.， 1977）. Furthermore， Hughes and Goldman （1978） divided the participants in male and female subjects， and proves that the eye contact could be influenced by gender factors. Females prefer to violate the personal space with females who keep gazing directly （one form of eye contact） while the males show an opposing result. In conclusion， eye contact significantly affect the violation of personal space.

So as to predict that people prefer to need more personal space with someone keeping an eye contact than someone who without the eye contact . In the hypothesis， independent variables are with or without eye contact， and the dependent variable is how eye contact affected personal space. And for the personal space experiment， the distance will be measured in centimeters.

Method

Materials

Tape measures， marks， masking tapes， data recording sheets， pens and pegs are used during the process of personal space experiment.

Participants

The participants are come from IES（the foundation year for University of Queensland） students who study Behavior Science in 2018. The participants are total 86 students with ages ranging from 16 to 22 years old （M=18.17， SD= 1.22 . The number of male participants is 24 and their ages ranging from 17 to 21 years（M=18.16， SD= 1.22）， the number of female students is 62 and their ages ranging from 16 to 22 years （M= 18.18， SD= 1.22） They come from the following countries： Burma（1）， China （79）， Japan （4）， Taiwan （2）， Vietnam（1）. All of the participants would not get any award for participate with the experiment.

Table 1

Details of Assistants， confederates， Rooms， Dates and Times for All Experiments.

Class Roles Age Gender Nationality （country of origin）

BS1 Assistant 1 17 female China

Assistant 2 20 female China

Confederate 19 male China

BS2 Assistant 1 20 female Italian

Assistant 2 18 female Chinese

Confederate 17 female Chinese

BS3 Assistant 1 17 female Chinese

Assistant 2 17 female Chinese

Confederate 17 male Chinese

BS4 Assistant 1 17 female Singapore

Assistant 2 17 female Hong Kong

Confederate 17 male China

BS5 Assistant 1 18 male Chinese

Assistant 2 17 male Malaysian

Confederate 19 male Chinese

BS6 Assistant 1 21 female Chinese

Assistant 2 19 male Chinese

Confederate 23 male Chinese

BS7 Assistant 1 18 female Chinese

Assistant 2 19 female Chinese

Confederate 18 male Japan

Procedure

The Behavior Science teacher explained the procedure at the beginning of the experiment. First of all， the teacher selected a male confederate to stand on one mark（3 meters away） and in the process of the experiment， every participant need to walk to the confederate（facing forward） one by one and stopped when they feel uncomfortable. Meanwhile， the teacher also chose two assistants to help teacher to record the participants information （gender， name， nationality age and the distance） carefully， all of them from the participants. Secondly， asked all participants leave room， then the teacher called one participant at one time to walk to the confederate， in addition， the order of participants is decided by the drawing of lots， just one at a time.

Results

The participants personal space in two different conditions has been measured and calculated. However， the BS.02 chose the male confederate while other classes chose male confederates， so the final results not including BS.02.

For all statistical tests， an alpha level of 0.05 was used. The t-test score of 6.31 was greater than the critical one-tailed t-test score of 1.66， hence the results are remarkable not by chance. As figure 1 shows that the mean for personal space with eye contact （M=71.30 cm， SD= 56.06 cm） is significantly larger than the mean for personal space without eye contact （M=46.51cm， SD= 45.12 cm）. Moreover， table 2 indicates that the mean distance for different ages group.

Table. 2

Comparison of personal space for 16 and 17 year old participants with participants 18 and older

Age with eye contact without eye contact

16 and 17 58.14 29.00

18 and over 78.00 57.00

Discussion

It is hypothesis that the people with an eye contact need more personal space than without an eye contact. The results point out that the mean of distance for participants have eye contact with the confederate （71.3 cm） is greater than without eye contact （46.51 cm） Thus the results support the hypothesis. In addition， the results provide the evidences to examines Hughes and Goldman s （1978） summary of eye contact effects on personal space. Because eye contact is an important factor on violation of personal space， eye contact could make people feel be threaten（Rotella and Bunker， 1978）. As mentioned before， some researches discuss the sex have influenced on eye contact （Hughes & Goldman， 1978 ）. It is supported as the table 3 shows， the experiment results also proves there is actually a relationship between eye contact and sex. Males need less obvious personal space than females whatever with or without eye contact.

Table 3 .A comparison of male and female personal space （not including BS2）

gender with eye contact without eye contact

male 39.50 24.00

female 83.61 62.00

A wide range of extraneous variables may affect the results of this experiment. First of all， all the participants comes from Asian countries （86 of 86）. According to Juckett （2005）， different cultures will have different cultural competency and may have influenced their perception of personal space. Whats more， Asian culture features has huge differences from western countries. Most of Asians have the same cultural values. Hence， culture variables may have influences on the final results. Also， because of the experiment happens in one class， and the people in their class have been familiar with each other. In consequence， the relationships （e g， classmates， friends） among them may mislead them to perceive the personal space.

There were some other methodological errors in this experiments. They participants are all the students who studying Behavior Science. The participants have learned a variety academic knowledge and information about personal space. This may induce students consciously take actions in the process of experiment. Admittedly， physical appearances factors have influenced on the final results. And some confederates factors （e.g.， height， appearance， weight） could not be exactly the same. The experiment by Cochran， Hale and Hissam （1984） states that the locations also impact the results. But the current experiment happens in different classrooms and floors. Therefore， these errors resulted in cognitive bias.

The experiment could be improved by changing the experimental tasks target groups. The hypothesis could focus on the Asian young students who studies abroad instead of focusing on wider population. Or if the experiment aims to investigate the personal space of people， this need to wider the sample population and try to balance the sex， ages and educational backgrounds. There are also some strengths of this experiment. The experiment method was similar to how the scientists did before， and it would help students get a better standing of personal space and experience the results by themselves. Additionally， pointing out the variables and errors could help students to improve experiment procedures better and control the variables to decrease errors.

Table.4.

Personal space for BS2 （This class had a female confederate）

gender with eye contact without eye contact

male 92.00 15.00

female 17.73 33.27

There remains many areas about personal space that worth discovering. The current experiment is designed to verify the previous studies. It would be learned a lot if compare other classes data （all male confederates） with BS.02 data （female confederates）， and explore how the confederates gender have influenced on the final results as table 4 shows. It would also be interesting to find a relationship that how the different countries （e. g， Italy， Australia， German）of the confederates would impact on personal space.

References：

[1]Bonvillian，G.，&Nowlin;，W.A.（1994，December）.Cultural awareness： an essential element of doing business abroad.Business Horizons， 44-60.Retrieved from：https：//ies.online-learning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

[2]Hartnett，J.J.，Bailey，K.G.，&Hartley;，C.S.（1974）.Body height， position，and sex as determinants of personal space.The Journal of Psychology，84，129-136.Retrieved from：https：//ies.online-learning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

[3]Hughes，J.，&Goldman;，M.（1978）.Eye contact，facial expression，sex and the violation of personal space.Perceptual and Motor skills.46， 579-584.

[4]Retrieved from：https：//ies.online-learning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

[5]Jcukett，G.（2005，December）.Cross-cultural medicine.American Family Physician，72（11），226-228.Retrieved from：https：//ies.online-learning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

[6]Kilbury，R.，Bordieri，J.，& Wong，H.（1996）Impact of physical disability on personal space，1-3.Retrieved from：https：//ies.onlinelearning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

[7]Rotella，R.J.，& Bunker，L.K.（1978）.Field dependence and reaction time in senior tennis players（65 and over）.Perceptual and Motor skills.46.585-586.Retrieved from：https：//ies.online-learning.net.au/mod/folder/view.php？id=2230.

【作者簡介】王辰辰，澳洲昆士蘭大學。