Proxemics

Personal Space

The most important research on proxemic behavior deals with personal space, an invisible bubble or comfort zone that follows us wherever we go. In North America, personal space is an egg-shaped zone extending about 3 feet away from the body. In organizational or sales relationships, we expand our space zones so we are most likely to interact at the business-professional zone of 4 to 8 feet. In professional settings, interactions that occur at the interpersonal distance of less than 3 feet are perceived as uncomfortable and inappropriate. Public figures interact in what is called public space of interaction at over 8 feet. Public space zones encompass both a dimension of respect that communicates status and a safety zone since political figures, movie stars, and rock stars can be mobbed and even injured at closer distances. Though greater space confers status on a public figure, it can also produce loneliness and isolation for the powerful and the famous.

In our closest relationships in the United States, we stand and sit in an even closer zone, called intimate space, which extends from tactile contact to about one-and-a-half feet from the body. Sex differences in personal space exist. Women stand closer than men, normally communicating at less than an arm's length. Men maintain more than an arm's length during interactions with men, but adopt women's interaction distance when communicating with women.

When individuals inappropriately invade our personal or intimate space zones, we engage in defensive behaviors. One of the most common is withdrawal to a more normative and comfortable distance. People may also react to spatial invasions with decreases in intimacy such as turning away and reducing or eliminating eye contact. The use of body buffers or barriers may also occur by placing objects such as purses or backpacks between oneself and the invader or by folding one's arms.

Young children have no real understanding of personal space. In any culture, proxemic norms are learned through imitation and instruction by family and peer group regarding what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate spatial behaviors. The result is that each culture adopts its own proxemic norms. Cultures with origins near the equator and from the Mediterranean regions maintain the closest distances; as a result, they are often referred to as contact cultures. Regardless of culture, toddlers are exempt from cultural personal space rules, school-age children are expected to show some understanding of proxemic norms, and teens are expected to adhere to adult interpersonal space rules.

Territoriality

Territoriality is a home space that is maintained by virtually every animal and all mammals. Humans have extended territoriality to the occupation of dwellings and vehicles and ownership of property and objects. Fixed territory is a zone that always belongs to a person or to a family such as an automobile, apartment, or house. Semifixed territory is typically or temporarily occupied territory such as a public picnic table, a seat in a classroom, or a blanket on the beach.

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