Personal Space

Personal Space

Introduction

In our daily lives, we encounter different kinds of people; some who makes us happy and some who makes our day uncomfortable. These changes in behaviours are caused by the fact that we all need to have a certain amount of personal space. Personal space, in this case, is the area that surrounds a person and which they regard as theirs, and everyone needs this space to feel comfortable. Personal space can as well be demonstrated by different zones categorized in four zones; intimate, private, social, and public zones. However, the extent to which a person may tend to maintain personal space is highly influenced by cultural differences. In this case, therefore, various cultures’ standards are compared differently to the zones in regards to their area. This essay, therefore, will assist the learner in understanding how culture’s standards of personal space compared to various zones.

According to the study by Hall et al. (1968), personal space is influenced by cultural background. For instance, in a country like Argentina, the amount of space acceptable among strangers is approximately 75.1cm, in Romanians is approximates to 140.2cm, while in the U.S. is approximately 94.4cm (Beaulieu, 2004). However, since comfort levels concerning physical space are entrenched in our cultural standards, people do not realize them until someone crosses the entire personal boundaries.

In my own culture which is the United States or the American culture, when one comes close to less than two feet, you are entering to that person’s zone in a cozy state, and then you are likely to trigger a fight or a freeze zone. In America, the average preferred space is 2-3 feet away from a stranger (Beaulieu, 2004). The cultural norms about personal spacing do not allow any forms of touch apart from the professional interactions where handshakes are expected as greetings. However, there are different circumstances, such as in professional context; hugs are not considered as norms unless friendship has become personal (Hall et al., 1968). Also, in an instance where one is comforting another, then own space norms may not apply.

Conclusion

From the above, the leaner can attest to the notion that personal space varies according to individuals cultural standards based on the four zones determining their scope in a given culture.

References

Beaulieu, C. (2004). Intercultural study of personal space: A case study. Journal of applied social psychology, 34(4), 794-805.

Hall, E. T., Birdwhistell, R. L., Bock, B., Bohannan, P., Diebold Jr, A. R., Durbin, M., … & La Barre, W. (1968). Proxemics [and comments and replies]. Current Anthropology, 9(2/3), 83-108.