Fr: Joyce Neu (814) 865-7365" To: Multiple recipients of list XCULT-L@PSUVM.BITNET *********************************** * Intercultural Newsletter #7: * * * * Nonverbal Communication, Emphasis * * on Personal Space * * * * Spcom 497A - Dr. Joyce Neu * *********************************** Hello again from the MCBIMDAVIG's. The many aspects of nonverbal communication include eye gaze, gestures, posture, touching, paralinguistics, and personal space. Personal space will be the focus of our second and final newsletter*. During communication, many cultures have certain distances that are considered to be acceptable and polite which vary depending on the nature of the communication. Why should one be interested in this topic? Why is it so important? In his research, Dr. Edward Hall writes that culture plays a definitive role in determining how individuals use personal space. When people of different cultures come into contact, they may understand each other just fine on a verbal level, however the distance that is maintained between them may relay a totally different message that the speaker has not intended. As a result, serious offense may occur. Throughout this newsletter we will be discussing the topic in greater detail. One area in which personal distances has been studied are seating arrangements. Researchers have examined seating arrangements from the perspectives of distance and orientation. They have found that a shorter distance implies greater intimacy while orientation or the position of those seated had no relation to intimacy. One may think this study to be trival, but who can recall the Paris Peace Conference of years back, where hostilities among those involved in the Vietnam War continued, while leaders argued how they should be seated in relation to one another. ************************************************************************* THE CONCEPT OF PROXEMICS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION In face to face communication each individual has a certain amount of desired "personal space." If a person is talking with another person from his or her own culture, personal space is usually taken for granted and is not a problem. However, when talking with someone from a different culture, personal space becomes very important. Different cultures have different views on what is a comfortable amount of personal space. If a person's space is violated that person tends to try and find a way to reach a comfortable distance. This is often done unconsciously and the person who is being violated will move around to reach his or her desired space. For example, if you are used to talking face to face from about four feet away you will try and keep this four foot relationship throughout the conversation. If the other individual is used to a two foot distance, he or she will try and maintain that. That peron will unknowingly keep moving closer to you while you keep backing up to your desired four foot distance. Studies have shown that a person who has their personal space violated tends to be more aggressive and have a higher level of arousal. It is important to know the concepts of personal space of the other cultures that you may encounter because different cultures react differently to the constant violation of personal space. One culture may think nothing of it, while others consider it rude and may avoid communicating with you until you realize the problem. The idea of personal space and proxemics is often over- looked when dealing with intercultural communication. Proxemics is usually not noticed until someone's space has been violated and a problem has arisen. It is better to consider personal space prior to an interaction with another cultrure in order to avoid any unnecessary problems and make the communication that much easier and enjoyable. ************************************************************************* PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF CROSS-CULTURAL SPATIAL DIFFERENCES: SWEDEN My own personal experience with violation of personal space occurred when I was in Sweden. Swedes usually get just a little bit closer than Americans when talking face to face. Although this was not a major problem for me, it was one that took a little while to get used too. While I was there I spent a lot of time with a family from Saudi Arabia. This family was used to a distance that was much closer than the one I was used too. The distance they found comfortable, about two feet, was what I would consider an intimate distance, not a casual one. In this case, I could live with it and talk about it because it was under casual circumstances. However, in a business deal or more formal setting the problem may become a major factor in the outcome of the situation. ************************************************************************* IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL SPACE, AN INTERCULTURAL FOCUS In her paper, "Beyond Hall," Colleen Dolphin states "there is a serious gap in the study of 'intercultural' proxemics; there appears to be very little work with a truly intercultural focus." It's true that most of the experiments that have been made are based on intracultural or, at the most, cross-cultural interaction. However, we found that although people from different cultures have different perceptions about personal space differences, they tend to react similarly in certain situations, i.e. when someone gets too close, they back up, and they feel that the person is being pushy, or aggressive or whatever, and it leaves a bad impression of that person in their mind. We talked to people from various cultures, and all of them said they would react negatively when someone invades their personal space; however, each of them had different definitions about what constituted "personal space." One study conducted on this subject, by Colleen Dolphin herself, explores other factors that affect the determining of personal space, such as age, sex, relationship, environment, and ethnic co-cultures, which she feels "play equally important roles in determining use of personal space." She found that they definitely did affect it, and "particularly in the cases of age and relationship, supercede any cultural aspects of the transaction." The type of culture a person is from, regarding contact and noncontact cultures, also seems to affect people's perception of personal space. Researchers have found that people from contact cultures choose closer distances, have and keep more direct eye contact, touch each other more frequently, and speak louder than people from noncontact cultures. Other studies that have been done, although not intercultural in nature, have the potential to be helpful in an intercultural situation, because they tend to make us aware of how we react, and that not all people react the same. There was an interesting study done on white males that examined how they adjust their personal space differences, based on certain circumstances. The first study showed that men who had been socially isolated previous to the encounter chose greater distances than those who had not. When the men believed that the interaction would be observed by others, rather than private, they also chose greater distances, as shown in the second study. The third study pointed out a correlation between the topic of the conversation and the expected length of it, with the greatest distance being chosen when the topic was personal in nature, and the conversation was expected to be long. The fourth study examined how room size and shape affect personal distance. The research concluded that only in rectangular rooms did the size affect personal distancing. Although many interesting studies have been done on this subject, I will only cover one more. This study reveale that people with low self-esteem decreased their expressions drastically when they were interacting with people at close distances, whereas people with high self- esteems reacted the basically the same regardless of the distance. ********************************************************************** PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF CROSS-CULTURAL SPATIAL DIFFERENCES: JAPAN I spent a semester abroad in Japan, and while I was there I noticed that the Japanese have a *very* different perception of personal space. Not that it's different in regards to ours, but that within their culture, it's different. Compared to our personal space, the Japanese choose to stand further apart. Showing respect is very important in Japan, and the amount of distance between people is often a way to express respect. With this in mind, it is very difficult to comprehend the way people tolerate the tremendous crowding that happens every day on the trains. Furthermore, they do not express their irritation with the situation, at least not while they are on the train. I don't know if it bothers them, and they've just accepted it, and learned to live with it, or they since they've always had to deal with it, they just think that's the way it is, and do not feel the anger that we feel when we're experiencing it. I'm not sure if it's a result of their different socialization, or different perception of the situation. But it seems odd, because we're used to closer personal distances, and are not as offended if people come "a little close," and yet it really bothers us when we have to share a seat with someone on a crowded bus, whereas they don't seem to mind sharing their lap with several people. I have a feeling this has to do with more than just personal distance differences. ****************************************************************************** EMPIRICAL RESEARCH IN PROXEMICS In their study, "Personal Space Among Botswana and American Students," Drs. Jeffrey Sanders, Wayne McKim, and Ann McKim, employ the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance (CID) scale to determine differences in comfortable distances between these two cultures. Developed in 1972 by M.P. Duke and S. Nowicki, the CID measures personal space. This instrument allows research- ers to compare cultural variations quantitatively in order to reveal spacial variation in interpersonal communication between cultures. Quantitative analysis helps eliminate errors in research due to a researcher's own cultural biases. The Sanders, McKim, McKim study provides a sophisticated statistical analysis the perceptions of comfortable space between groups comprising of 37 male and 37 female students from Towson State University in Maryland and Botswana University. The analysis measured spatial differences between friends, starangers, the same sex, and the opposite sex. They reported, Regardless of nationality, strangers were kept farther away than friends, F(1,44) = 437.7,p < .001, and both sexes kept male strangers farther away than female strangers, F(1,144) = 7.55, p < .01. This statistical notation may be confusing to readers not familiar with the CID scale, however, the above quote demonstrates how imperical data is recorded and used to determine cultural differences in spatial perceptions. This particular study found that Botswana University students maintained greater distances for approaching strangers than Americans. They reported no other significant differences between cultures. Similar studies have found that native Puerto Ricans living in New York use less distance than native New Yorkers, Pagan and Aiello (1982). A study by Sanders, Hakky, and Brizzolara (1985) reveal that the use of personal space between Americans and Egyptians differs significantly. Egyptians maintain what Americans would consider intimate distance with their friends. However, Egyptian females keep male friends at the same distance they keep strangers. The researchers concluded that this, "probably reflects social norms restricting male-female interaction." From this we can see, personal space as a part of language reflects cross-cultural differences. **************************************************************************** In this newsletter, we have explained how perceptions of comfortable personal space differs between cultures, given some examples of research being conducted in the field of proxemics, and shown how different perceptions of comfortable distance can pose a stumbling block to successful inter- cultural communication. We hope that acknowledging the fact that these differences exist will help us all understand that people we talk to from other cultures may stand closer or farther than we consider normal. Empathizing with this situation will help alleviate problems in inter- cultural communication. Thank you, Laurie D'Auria (LAD103) Dimitri Vomvouras (DVX109) Matt Baggett (MMB104) Lauren McCain (LAM105) ************************************************************************* ============================================================= = XCULT-L (INTERNATIONAL INTERCULTURAL NEWSLETTER) = = = = is written by students in Speech Communication 497A = = PENN STATE UNIVERSITY = = and distributed by Professor Joyce Neu = = = = XCULT-L is an unmoderated list open to all = = To subscribe: TELL LISTSERV@PSUVM SUB XCULT-L YOUR NAME = ============================================================= X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X