Space and Gender - Personal Statement Example

Running head: Personal Space and Gender Personal Space In APA style A large number of people deal with the of personal space, and many a researcher tried to determine the relation between gender and personal space. Researchers try to determine without a doubt whether the gender factor has influence on the personal space people give or want. As different studies show different results, researchers dont have a conclusion yet, and for those who want to know the answer, there needs to be reliance on further investigation to truly discover the answer. Research tells us that people value their personal space and tend to protect it and try and keep it from being penetrated. Many factors determine whether people perceive invasion of their personal space, for example the person standing next to them (a friend or a stranger) and how close does the stand next to them. Factors like the gender of the person and those of the people around him also have importance. Generally, as research suggests, most people perceive themselves as "surrounded by a three-foot oblong bubble of personal space" (Arliss, 2000, as cited in Naidoo, 2000). Based up Naidoos (2000) observances and previous research, men demand and claim more personal space than women. This matches what we found by our research. We also wanted to see how personal space and comfort relate or depend on gender. We therefore used two groups, the control group and the experiment group, each containing 15 people. We asked to sit near a computer in a room with many other computers one by one, and told them they could leave any time they wanted. Then, one of the three of us (all males) would go and sit right next to the person of the experiment group, despite the existence of more free computers; in the control group, one of us would go and sit someplace else. We wanted to see how long it would take them to leave after having their personal space invaded, and whether or not gender has significance in this respect. We could also see the differences between the control group and the experiment group. The results that our experiment yielded showed, as expected, that the people of the control group, whose personal space wasnt invaded, stayed seated much longer, with an average of 8.333 for the men and one of 9.778 for the women. In the experiment group, however, these results dropped significantly as both men and women would leave the room sooner. The average time for the men stood on 3.667, whereas that of women stood on 6.333. The womens average time in the experiment group dropped from that of the control group by 3.444 minutes, while the mens time dropped by 4.667 minutes. Also, apparent differences could be seen between the time the men remained and that of the women. The women remained 2.667 minutes longer than the men in the experiment group, when in the control group they remained only 1.444 minutes longer. These numbers clearly suggest that men tend to feel their personal space invaded more, or that they take it more seriously than women, who maybe care less about it. These results consist with those of previous researches about the subject, and reinforce it. We need to ask ourselves one question: why do men perceive more invasion of their personal space than women? Cheyne & Efran (1972) claimed that it may be true that "males defend their interpersonal space least effectively because of social issues related to male interaction and associations made concerning male conversations" (as cited in Geraci, n.d). If so, it makes sense that "having felt that their personal space had been invaded, men would leave sooner". Another reason for this can be based on animal behavior and a projection of that onto humans. Male animals behave more territorially than female ones, and therefore defend their space more (Cheyne & Efran, 1972, as cited in Geraci, n.d). Given the fact that others invade their personal space but dont pose a threat to them, males will probably leave sooner, just like in our research. But the invasion of personal space also holds another dimension- invading someone elses personal space. Researches studied the subject in order to examine whether in this case too gender has significance. Once again, Cheyne & Efran (1972) based their hypothesis on animals territorial behavior, claiming that a mixed couple (man and woman) would be least likely to have their space penetrated, followed by two men and finally two women (as cited in Geraci, n.d). This means that womens space would be the most probably invaded. However, the researchers discovered the exact opposite- people penetrated mens space more than they did that of women. This clearly supports the idea that people penetrate mens personal space more than that of women. This can be explained by a number of reasons. One of which relies on the social stigma associated with men that interact on a very personal level. Previous research shows that men feel less comfortable with same-sex touching than women (Crawford, 1994, as cited in Geraci, n.d). This indicates the stigma. Due to the fact that in these cases there less comfort exists between the members (the two men), it implies that the personal space of the two men can be more penetrable than the equivalent of two women. One other reason why men dyads seem more penetrable relies on the assumption that two males tend to have a less important conversation than women do. In a study done by Martin (1997), researchers examined the content of conversation of same-sex and cross-sex people, and found that male conversations tended to be associated with "sports, women, fighting, bars and drinking" (as cited in Geraci, n.d). If people perceive conversations between men to be less important, then they wouldnt feel as bad interrupting their personal space (Geraci, n.d). Geraci wanted to further test peoples penetration to others personal space. He therefore performed a scenario design survey, which unlike observations, controls uncontrollable factors like personal appearance and race. 51 college students at C.W Post, Long Island University, participated in it. 29 males (who represented 57% of the participants) and 22 females (representing the other 43% of the participants) participated. The participants ages moved between 18 and 34, and their mean age was 20.18. Researchers approached in the university and asked them to volunteer for the study. The first question described two figures standing and having a conversation in a narrow hallway. Half of the surveys described the figures to be men; the other half described them as women. This consisted of the independent variable of the study, seeing as how participants the researchers randomly assigned participants to complete the survey describing either a male or female dyad. In the question, they described the figures as facing each other with their backs close to the walls behind them, as they stand in a narrow corridor. The researchers asked the participants whether they would somewhat awkwardly go through between the two figures or somewhat awkwardly go between one of the figures and the wall. They did it to measure the dependent variable- the likelihood to invade personal space. Contrarily to the hypothesis, the results showed that participants "did not penetrate the male-gender dyad more" (Geraci, n.d). Basically, this proves that the gender of the dyad described in the scenario had effect on the participants choice to either pass between the two figures, penetrating their personal space, or to go around. Also, this research showed that people walked through the dyad much more, though previous research suggests the opposite- that they went around more. Due to the inconclusiveness of the results, a clear deduction cant be made in this regard. Further research exists on personal space and gender in more specific cases, for instance: regarding a particular age group like children or people with a special condition like a certain physical disability. One of those studies tested 101 preschoolers who volunteered and recruited from two middle-class day-care centers which resembled in classroom structures and activities. Their ages varied between 25 and 62 months old. The researchers measured the children following way: one child would be taken out of the classroom and placed in an empty classroom, seated in a table on which they previously placed papers and a stack of crayons. Then, a series of other children, each one in turn, would be entered to the room and asked to draw something. The researchers told the children to sit anywhere they would like on the bench (either next to the first child or far away from him on the other side of the bench). The results were mixed and showed no significance in either direction- gender did not influence on the childrens place of seating. Meaning, the gender factor didnt affect the penetration of personal space (Sarafino & Helmuth, 1981). In the second study, relating to people with physical disabilities, researchers conducted an experiment of 97 undergraduate students. The students interviewed a person with a certain physical disability, and could sit anywhere they wanted, when one chair stood closer to the person and one stood farther. The researchers, familiar with previous studies on the subject, knew that "gender differences in attitudinal research were previously reported with men demonstrating more negative attitudes than women toward persons with physical disabilities" (Kilbury & Bordieri, 1996). This means that people would be less likely to invade the personal space of someone with physical disabilities. But they also wanted to test whether gender will play a part in it. The analysis of the studys results "revealed a significant main effect for the gender of the participant indicating that men gave the confederate [the person with the physical disability] more personal space than women did" (Kilbury & Bordieri, 1996). Of course, this could relate to the fact men sometimes feel uncomfortable when they stand close together and therefore maintain some distance. In conclusion, different researches and studies tell us different things about the relation between gender and personal space. Some claim that gender factor holds great importance relating to the amount of personal space people give and receive (whether they penetrate others personal space or feel invasion of their personal space). Others conclude that gender does not affect personal space whatsoever. Generally speaking, the findings about this topic seem inconclusive and inconsistent and therefore, no real conclusions can be made in this regard. The only thing that can be done is to continue researching the subject, enhancing the studies and their scope, in order to find out the truth- if gender really affects personal space or not. References Geraci, D. (n.d). Interpersonal Space and Gender. C.W Post Campus, Long Island University. Retrieved April 18, 2007, from the website LIU: http://myweb.liu.edu/~nfrye/expaper.pdf Kilbuty, R. & Bordieri, J. (1996). Impact of Physical Disability and Gender on Personal Space. Journal of Rehabilitation, 62(2), 59. Naidoo, S. (2000). Gender, Ethnicity, Intimacy & Proxemics. Male and Female Communications. Retrieved April 18, 2007, from the website SAS: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/communication/shivana.htm Sarafino, E.P, Helmuth, H. (1981). Development of Personal Space in Preschool Children as a Function of Age and Day-care Experience. Journal of Social Psychology, 115(1), 59. Read More