A secondary territory would include your room desk or office

Proxemics: Spatial Factors

Proxemics is the study of how people unconsciously structure the space around them. This structuring varies with every culture. North Americans, for example, maintain a protective “body bubble” of space about 2 feet in diameter around them when they interact with strangers or casual acquaintances. Violators of that space are considered intruders and cause the person to become defensive (Figure 13-13). In the Middle East, no such bubble exists, and it is proper to invade this area. In fact, not to do so may be interpreted as unfriendly and aloof. Arabs prefer to stand close enough to touch and smell the other person. Americans, however, if forced to stand close together, as on a crowded subway, will use their eyes (i.e., distant gaze) to maintain a more proper distance. An arm's length is a good measure of the appropriate personal distance for most people. A wife can stand inside her husband's bubble, but she will be unhappy if another woman invades this sphere of privacy, and vice versa.

Robert Frost said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” In suburbs and small towns, people are more likely to talk to each other while in their backyards if a fence indicates the boundary than if there is a communal yard (McCaskey, 1979). Marking the boundary helps maintain territoriality and actually brings the neighbors closer together than when there is no fence.

Intimate space has been classified as that ranging from close physical contact to 18 inches,personal space from 18 inches to 4 feet,social space from 4 feet to 12 feet, andpublic space from 12 feet and beyond (Lambert, 2008). Placing a desk between two people shifts personal space to social space. The office desk also can be a barrier to communication when it is placed between the physician and patient, thereby emphasizing the illusion of the physician's importance and power. There may be occasions when this is desired, but it usually is not necessary in a family physician's office. Office furniture should be arranged so that a minimum number of obstacles lie between physician and patient.

Automobiles magnify the size of one's personal space up to 10 times. Compare the relationship of two people having a conversation with that of “road rage” when one invades the other's space by cutting in front of them.

Proxemics: Spatial Factors

Proxemics is the study of how people unconsciously structure the space around them. This structuring varies with every culture. North Americans, for example, maintain a protective “body bubble” of space about 2 feet in diameter around them when they interact with strangers or casual acquaintances. Violators of that space are considered intruders and cause the person to become defensive (Figure 12-12). In the Middle East, no such bubble exists, and it is proper to invade this area. In fact, not to do so may be interpreted as unfriendly and aloof. Arabs prefer to stand close enough to touch and smell the other person. Americans, however, if forced to stand close together, as on a crowded subway, will use their eyes (i.e., distant gaze) to maintain a more proper distance. An arm’s length is a good measure of the appropriate personal distance for most people. A wife can stand inside her husband’s bubble, but she will be unhappy if another woman invades this sphere of privacy, and vice versa.

Robert Frost said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” In suburbs and small towns, people are more likely to talk to each other while in their backyards if a fence indicates the boundary than if there is a communal yard (McCaskey, 1979). Marking the boundary helps maintain territoriality and actually brings the neighbors closer together than when there is no fence.

Intimate space has been classified as that ranging from close physical contact to 18 inches, personal space from 18 inches to 4 feet, social space from 4 feet to 12 feet, and public space from 12 feet and beyond. Placing a desk between two people shifts personal space to social space. The office desk also can be a barrier to communication when it is placed between the physician and patient, thereby emphasizing the illusion of the physician’s importance and power. There may be occasions when this is desired, but it usually is not necessary in a family physician’s office. Office furniture should be arranged so that a minimum number of obstacles lie between physician and patient.

Automobiles magnify the size of one’s personal space up to 10 times. Compare the relationship of two people having a conversation with that of “road rage” when one invades the other’s space by cutting in front of them.

Seating Arrangement and Proxemics

One of the exercises undertaken in our interviewing class concerns the use of seating arrangement. Two of the trainees sit in the middle of the room on easily rolled chairs. They are given a simple task, to situate themselves so that they feel the most comfortable with regard to conversing with one another. In about 90% of the cases, the participants choose a similar position. They sit roughly 4 to 5 feet apart. They are turned towards each other but do not quite directly face one another. Instead, they are turned about a 5- to 10-degree angle off the line directly between them, both in the same direction, as shown inFigure 8.1A. Only about 10% choose to face each other directly.

If the participants are asked to turn directly towards each other, they complain of feeling significantly less comfortable. Some will even push their chairs back a bit. The discomfort is related as feeling “too close,” the sensation of nonverbal immediacy is too intense. Many of the trainees complain that the head-on position forces eye contact, making it difficult to break eye contact without undertaking a significant head movement. This head-on position fosters a sensation of confrontation.

On the other hand, the preferred position readily allows for good eye contact but also makes it easy to break contact without awkwardness. In my own practice, I have certainly found this position to be the most comfortable and the most flexible interviewing position for me. The last part of this statement is important, because it emphasizes that the most comfortable position may be different for each interviewer and indeed for each interviewing dyad. Each clinician needs to discover a comfortable position, keeping in mind that the clinician must also be willing to alter this position depending on the needs of the patient.

In addition to the non-confrontational feeling provided by the position described above, another phenomenon may be enhancing its comfortableness. From the perspective of person-centered interviewing, one of the key processes that enhances blending is the ability of the clinician to convey a sense of seeing the world through a shared perspective.

If one looks at the actual fields of vision available to each participant in the interview, an important relationship readily becomes apparent. When two people are directly facing each other, the fields of vision overlap very little. What overlap does exist lies directly between the two participants. This situation tends to foster the sensation that “You are over there, and I am here.” It seems to work against the sensation of “We are here together.” On the other hand, when the two participants are turned slightly away from each other, so that they are subtly facing the same direction, then the feeling that “We are here, and the rest of the world is out there” naturally emerges.

Thus, in a phenomenological sense, the feeling of confrontation is decreased, while the sense of blending is given a gentle boost, as illustrated inFigure 8.1B. It should be noted that the directly oppositional arrangement may be preferred by some people. Indeed, some interviewing experts recommend it,76 but I myself do not, for the reasons provided above.

Proxemics

Proxemics is the study of how space is used in human interactions. For example, authority can be communicated by the height from which one person interacts with another. If one stands while the other sits or lies down, the person standing has placed himself or herself in a position of authority (Fig. 10.4).

Height is sometimes an unwitting message to a patient when the person is confined to a bed, a treatment table, or a wheelchair. In many instances, the relationship would be improved if the health professional would move down to the patient’s level. An important rule for respectful interaction whenever you are talking to a patient is to sit down. This signals to the patient your willingness to listen and gives the impression, even if this is not true, that you are not going to rush through your time together.

Another aspect of proxemics is the distance maintained between people when they are communicating. In his now classic The Hidden Dimension, an intriguing book that explains the difference in distance awareness among many different cultural groups, anthropologist Edward T. Hall defines four distance zones maintained by healthy, adult, middle-class Americans.33 In examining these zones, you may also be better able to understand how they differ from those of other cultural and socioeconomic groups. Dr. Hall stresses that “how people are feeling toward each other at the time is a decisive factor in the distance used.” The four distance zones are as follows:

Intimate distance, involving direct contact, such as that of lovemaking, comforting, protecting, and playing football or wrestling.

Personal distance, ranging from 1 to 4 feet. At arm’s length, subjects of personal interest can be discussed while physical contact, such as holding hands or hitting the other person in the nose, is still possible.

Social distance, ranging from 4 to 12 feet. At this distance, more formal business and social discourse takes place.

Public distance, ranging from 12 to 25 feet or more. No physical contact and very little direct eye contact are possible. Shopping centers, airports, and city sidewalks are designed to maintain this type of distance.34

Health professionals perform many diagnostic or treatment procedures within the personal and intimate distance zones. You may have to invade the patient’s culturally derived boundaries of interaction, sometimes with little warning. Consider, for instance, the weak or debilitated patient who comes for treatment and must be helped to a treatment table. To get the patient on the treatment table, you might have to “embrace” the patient and, in some cases, lift the patient to the table, deeply invading his or her intimate zone.

When you work with an ethnic or cultural subgroup outside of your own experience or travel to other parts of the world, culturally defined uses of space are clear. In addition, you may become aware of some things that you did not expect to be part of the interaction. For instance, body odors become more apparent when you are working at close range. In mainstream American society in which a man or woman is supposed to smell like a deodorant, a mouthwash, a hair spray, or a cologne, but not a body, it is not surprising that some health professionals find the patient’s body odor offensive, sometimes nauseous; some admit that it so repulses them that they try to hurry through the test or treatment.

Patients will respond to the health professional’s odors, too. An x-ray technologist confided to one of the authors that one of her biggest shocks while working in a mission hospital in India came when her assistant reluctantly admitted that patients were failing to keep their appointments because she “smelled funny,” making them sick. The “funny” smell turned out to be that of the popular American soap she was using for her bath.

Bad breath is a problem. What constitutes “bad breath”? It is not necessarily the smell of garlic, onion, tobacco, or alcohol. Its definition depends on who is asked the question. The health professional who is unwilling to try to go beyond his or her own culturally derived bias will have difficulty in communicating with many patients. While working at close range, your reaction to body and breath odors will affect interaction. Most patients are far too ill or preoccupied with their problems to have sweet-smelling breath, and others are not aware that they are being hustled out quickly because of the garlic salami sandwich they had at noon.

Adhering to a patient’s need to maintain an appropriate distance reinforces the patient’s ability to feel secure in the strange new environment of health care institutions. By handling distance needs respectfully, you are helping patients to feel more secure in the sometimes-frightening vastness of the unknown health care setting into which they have been cast.

Body Language

A broad interest in body language has evolved. Body language, technically known askinesics, is a significant aspect of modern communications and relationships. This type of nonverbal communication, in association with spoken language, can provide a more comprehensive picture of the patient's behavior. Your own body language reveals your feelings and meanings to others. Your patient's body language reveals his or her feelings and meanings to you. The sending and receiving of body language signals happens on both conscious and unconscious levels.

It is well known that the interviewer may learn more about the patient from the way the patient tells the story than from the story itself. A patient who moves about in a chair and looks embarrassed is uncomfortable. A frown indicates annoyance or disapproval. Lack of comprehension is indicated by knitted brows. Body language experts generally agree that hands send more signals than any part of the body except for the face. A patient who strikes a fist on a table while talking is dramatically emphasizing what he or she is saying. A patient who slips a wedding band on and off may be ambivalent about his or her marriage. A palm placed over the heart asserts sincerity or credibility. Many people rub or cover their eyes when they refuse to accept something that is pointed out. When patients disapprove of a statement made by the interviewer but restrain themselves from speaking, they may start to remove dust or lint from their clothing. Seehttps://www.businessballs.com/self-awareness/body-language/, which is a wonderful reference about body language.

Six universal emotional facial expressions are recognized around the world. The use and recognition of these expressions is genetically inherited rather than socially conditioned or learned. Although minor variations and differences are found among isolated people, the following basic human emotions are generally used, recognized, and part of humankind's genetic character:

Happiness

Sadness

Fear

Disgust

Surprise

Anger

Figure 1.1 shows some typical emotions. Of interest, Charles Darwin was first to make these claims in his bookThe Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872.

Smiling is an important part of body language. Generally, a genuine smile is symmetrical and produces creases around the eyes and mouth, whereas a fake smile tends to be a mouth-only gesture.

Arms act as defensive barriers when across the body, and conversely indicate feelings of openness and security when in open positions, especially combined with open palms. Arms are quite reliable indicators of mood and feeling, especially when interpreted with other body language. For example:

Crossed arms may indicate defensiveness.

Crossed arms and crossed legs probably indicate defensiveness.

Crossed arms, crossed legs, frowning, and clenched fists definitely indicate defensiveness, and probably hostility.

3.2 The Psychological, Moral, and Religious Significance of Space

Through phenomenology and proxemics, space started to be conceived as a necessary component of communication systems: hence the contribution of linguistics and semiotics to spatial thinking. Landscapes ceased to be analyzed in a functional perspective. They were conceived as supports for messages. People experience different forms of connivance with them.

A difference exists between analytical and symbolic communication: in the first case, the problem is to transfer complex sets of information from individuals to individuals; in the second one, it is to stir simultaneously many persons through a unique and short message. Symbolism appears in this way as a way of mastering distance. Hence, the interest of geographers for this form of communication.

Space has other social meanings. Normative thinking relies on perspectives from the outside: people have to imagine Beyonds, either within beings or things (when the way of immanence is chosen) or outside them, generally in another World (when the way of transcendance is selected). These choices are important since they introduce a qualitative differenciation of space: places where the Beyonds touch the surface of our World are loaded with sacrality, in contrast to the surrounding profane areas. The building of Utopias, the belief in the Golden Age, or in a Land without Evil are ways to use history or terrestrial space to build other types of Beyonds. The dreams they nurture are important in the shaping of rural or urban areas.

The new approaches to geography developed since the 1970s incorporate this interest in the human experience of space.

10.04.3.4.1 Proxemics

Hall (1959) initiated the study of proxemics. He demonstrated the impact of ethnicity and culture on various nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, gestures, and personal space. The term “personal space” was introduced by Sommer (1959) to denote the area that separates ourself from others. The size of this area varies with situations and contexts. Hall (1969) delineated four zones of interpersonal distance that characterize Western culture: intimate (up to 18 inches), personal (18–48 inches), social (48 inches to 12 feet), and public (greater than 12 feet). Extensive research into proxemics has revealed that conversational distances vary cross-culturally and that these differences have an impact on formal and informal counseling interactions (Wolfgang, 1985).

Ramsay (1979) examined the studies that evolved from the proxemic inventory described by Hall (1959). These studies examined Arabs, Latin Americans, southern Europeans, northern Europeans, Indians, Pakistanis, east Asians, and Puerto Ricans. This body of literature served to illustrate that different cultures have different culturally determined ideas of appropriate social distance. Hanna (1984) studied the interactional distances between blacks and whites in the USA and discovered substantial variation in conversational distance. Jensen (1985) discovered smaller acceptable conversational distances for Latin-Americans, Africans, African-Americans, Indonesians, Arabs, and South Americans than Anglos.

Some studies have extended the investigation to include cultural attitudes toward crowding and its resultant effect on intimacy (Altman, 1975; Altman & Chemers, 1980; Pandey, 1978, 1990, 1996; Worchel & Teddlie, 1976). These studies illustrate that attitudes towards crowding differ around the world with respect to individual comfort level, as every culture has different tolerance levels for personal space. Further research is needed to clarify the relationship of these findings to the dynamics of interviewing.

3 Specific Areas of Significance in Architectural Psychology

As indicated above, a number of specific fields of psychological study have been seen to have potential value for architects. The most obvious are:

(a)

Perception/cognition;

Color;

Proxemics (the study of people spacing, and including studies of crowding and privacy);

Wayfinding;

Affect (the relation of emotion and/or mood to variations in physical environment).

These fields are not autonomous. Color is widely believed to influence emotional response (and there is some experimental support for this view). Perception is involved in establishing whether one feels crowded. Some studies attempt to consider the complexity of environments in social terms as well as physical. The variations in the literature are significant. Nonetheless, the five fields listed provide a simple taxonomy which includes a very large number of reported studies and texts.

Nonverbal communication

In nonverbal communication, information is transmitted by means other than words. This can involve many behaviors, including proxemics, kinesics, eye contact, paralanguage, silence, and directness. Proxemics, or the use of personal space and conversational distance in communication, differs across cultures. Kinesics, or the use of body movements (e.g., facial expressions, smiling, head positioning and nodding, hand shaking, and eye contact), has also been shown to differ across cultures (Battle, 1997). In addition, paralanguage variables such as silence, loudness, inflection, and stress vary across cultures and can affect the clinical relationship.

2 Anthropology of the Body

In later decades, attention to the body largely took the form of studies of gesture, nonverbal communication, kinesics, and proxemics (Benthall and Polhemus 1975). In these studies, interest in the body in its own right was subordinated to interest in communication as a cultural process, with the body serving as the means or medium of communication. In other words, rather than beginning with a concern for bodiliness per se, these analyses took language as their model, using a linguistic analogy to study various types of languages of the body. Perhaps for this reason, they are rarely cited in the literature on the body and embodiment that has appeared in abundance since the late 1980s.

Two books by Mary Douglas define the threshold of a true anthropology of the body. In ‘Purity and Danger’ (1966), she made her famous argument that the dietary rules in the biblical book of Leviticus summarized the categories of Israelite culture, and made the general claim that social system controls induce consonance between social and physiological levels of experience. In ‘Natural Symbols’ (1973), Douglas made her equally famous argument that the bodily state of trance in different societies corresponds to the state of social organization characterized in terms of the ‘grid’ of cultural classifications and the ‘group’ control over the ego as an individual actor. Building on Mauss, she rejected both Edward Hall's work on nonverbal communication and Claude Levi-Strauss' work on mythical thought, on the grounds that they lacked hypotheses to account for variation across cultures. In presenting such a hypothesis, she committed herself to understanding the body as a ‘medium of expression,’ arguing that a drive to achieve consonance across levels of experience requires the use of the body to be ‘coordinated with other media’ so as to produce distinct bodily styles, and that ‘The physical body can have universal meaning only as a system which responds to the social system, expressing it as a system’ (1973, p. 112). Overall, Douglas' legacy to the anthropology of the body is encapsulated in her conception of ‘two bodies,’ the physical and the social, ‘the self and society’ (1973, p. 112).

Blacking's (1977) introduction to his edited volume on anthropology of the body offers a programmatic outline that is both more concerned with the body per se and its contribution to social processes than with the manner in which it reflects or expresses those processes, and which is more explicitly concerned with the relation between the biological and the cultural. Its ‘chief concern is with the cultural processes and products that are externalizations and extensions of the body in varying contexts of social interaction,’ and it rejects the distinction between biological and cultural anthropology on the grounds that culture has shaped the physical body, while features of culture such as language are biologically based (1977, p. 2). Blacking sketches four premises for the anthropology of the body: that society is a biological phenomenon, that all humans possess a common repertoire of somatic states, that nonverbal communication is fundamental, and that the mind cannot be separated from the body (1977, p. 18). Blacking emphasized the liberatory potential in anthropology of the body insofar as it could contribute to de-alienation and ‘ownership of our senses.’

Once the body emerged from theoretical anonymity to become a recognized topic in its own right, its omnipresence in social life led to a multiplication of ways to organize its study. Following Douglas' inspiration to recognize ‘two bodies,’ Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Lock (1987) suggest we instead consider ‘three bodies,’ including the individual body, the social body, and the body politic. John O'Neill (1985) suggested thinking in terms of ‘five bodies,’ including the world's body (i.e., the anthropomorphized cosmos), the social body, the body politic, the consumer body, and the medical body.