Interpersonal Communication Com 110 personal Space

Dianne

October 12, 2010

Interpersonal Communication Com 110 Personal Space

I was at school all weekend taking a neuro muscular class. There were 3 males there and the rest females. The age range was from early 20's to 60's. They were all mainly white with a little Asian blends.

I observed with my classmates in front of the library on Monday. The age range there was predominantly from the late teens to early 20's. There were some who work at Phoenix College that were older. About half of the population that we watched were black. Bill Cosby's attitude on being called African American is that it is silly. Are all whites then called European American?

Observations this weekend. Men with Men: In my neuro muscular class, everyone there is a massage therapist so they are used to touching and being touched. In this class you pair up and practice with your partner. There was one male on male team. They observed the intimate body space of less than 18". The woman on woman also behaved similarly, as did the woman and men, of which there was one team. My conclusions on this is that the occupation made the difference, and age, race and culture didn't matter

then.

On Monday in front of the library. I observed Men with Men: There was a group of black males that sat very close together on the wall, touching all along the sides. Our impression was that they were comfortable with this because they played football together. There was another group of black men that sat with 2+ feet in between them. The males all seemed to communicate from the side without turning and looking at each other. Males that knew each other and walked and talked were about a foot apart. Males that didn't seem to know each other kept about 3-4 feet apart.

Women and Women: I observed woman sitting together on a bench, turning sideways on the bench so that they could look at each other as they talked. I saw women walking together and they all seemed to have 1 foot in between them, except the older women who were working janitorial and they didn't seem to mind being closer and sometimes touching. Woman who were walking by others they didn't seem to know kept 3-4 feet apart.

Women and Men: They talked face to face, often we saw the man sitting while the woman stood and talked. Men and Women who knew each other walked about a foot apart.

My conclusion is that women in this group seem to prefer eye to eye contact over men, who don't seem to need it. I would say that what they do and or do together makes a large difference in how comfortable they feel with being close space wise.

My surprise is on observing how many people