Invasions of personal space : a field experiment

The present study examined the relationship between invasions of personal space and measures of glancing, blocking, leaning, head-shoulder orientation, movement away from the invader, and flight latency. These behaviors have been described in previous studies as occurring in response to spatial inva...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Demian, Lisa
Format: Others
Published: PDXScholar 1978
Subjects:
Online Access:https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2808
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3812&context=open_access_etds
Description
Summary:The present study examined the relationship between invasions of personal space and measures of glancing, blocking, leaning, head-shoulder orientation, movement away from the invader, and flight latency. These behaviors have been described in previous studies as occurring in response to spatial invasions, and the equilibrium model proposed to account for their occurrence. Hypotheses consistent with this model were tested in a 2 x 2 x 3 design which varied sex of invader, sex of subject and distance of subject from invader (1 foot, 2 feet, or 5 feet). None of the predicted relationships obtained, although females blocked more frequently than males, and also exhibited a greater variety of the target behaviors than did males. A significant difference was found for variety of behaviors emitted and distance, with Ss in the 1 foot condition exhibiting more of the target behaviors than those in the 5 foot condition. No other significant results were found. An alternate model to account for these discrepancies as well as previous discrepancies was discussed and suggestions for future research were made.