Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale Research Articles

Relationships among self‐construal, gender, social dominance orientation, and interpersonal distance

AbstractThe present research focuses on the cognitive embodiment of physical proximity, through interpersonal distance’s relationship with self‐construal, gender, and social dominance orientation. Previous work showed that more independent self‐construal was associated with higher distancing preferences of participants, and that females tend to have higher interdependent self‐construal that lead them to prefer less interpersonal distance. We expected to replicate these findings. However, due to the relationship between power and interpersonal distance, it was argued that gender and perceptions regarding the social hierarchy would also play a role in predicting interpersonal distance. More specifically, it was predicted that while females who accept social hierarchies between males and females would prefer more distance when interacting with males, males would not differ in their preference for social distance. One hundred participants (67 female) completed the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale, Independent and Interdependent Self‐Construal Scales and the Social Dominance Orientation Scale. Interdependent self‐construal was negatively correlated with overall preferred interpersonal distance. Moreover, females high on social dominance orientation preferred larger interpersonal distance from male adult strangers than from female adult strangers. The findings provide further support for the embodiment of self‐construal by showing that psychological closeness and heteronomy are related to physical closeness. The findings also highlight the importance of investigating communal sharing and authority ranking dimensions simultaneously when focusing on interpersonal distance as well as differentiating females’ interpersonal sensitivity due to low power with their high affiliation.

Interpersonal distance in schizophrenic patients: relationship to negative syndrome.

Personal space is the area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort. We tested the hypotheses that psychological distancing of patients with schizophrenia would be a characteristic of 1) diagnosis and/or 2) syndrome. For this aim, 30 schizophrenic and 30 age matching normal males established comfortable interpersonal distances for 20 word-stimuli representing family members, significant others, self-images, emotionally neutral and threatening surroundings. The distances were assessed by a paper-and-pencil projective measure, the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale and the patients' psychopathological symptoms were quantified by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. t-tests and correlational analyses were employed to examine the relationships between the parameters of interest. The rank order (hierarchy) of preferable interpersonal distances of patients with schizophrenia was similar to that of normal subjects. At the same time, psychological distance from family members and themselves was substantially larger among the patients. There were no significant correlations between any kind of interpersonal distance and positive syndrome of schizophrenia, while negative syndrome showed significant inverse association with distances from emotionally neutral and threatening figures and positive correlation with family member and self-image distances. The results suggest that the negative syndrome of schizophrenia attenuates the differences between interpersonal distances from generally close and distant persons.

Investigating Ethnic Prejudices among Boys and Girls in a Therapeutic Community for Maladjusted Children and Modifying Some Prejudices

The present study replicates that carried out at the Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York. Here ethnic prejudices are studied between black, white and hispanic boys aged 8 to 13, using the Comfortable Inter-Personal Distance Scale (CID). A similar but shorter scale, the Lowenstein Inter-Personal Tolerance Inventory (LITI), is constructed from 10 items. The scale measures racial and other tolerance levels. The test was administered four times to 40 children (20 boys and 20 girls), aged 9 to 16, to discover whether inter-personal tolerance increases, decreases or remains stable following a period of inter-racial contact in a paternalistic but quasi-democratic regime based on a high degree of individual justice and racial tolerance. The experimental group increased in racial/ personal tolerance in general, and this was maintained and increased as the period of assessment continued. It was also indicated by the small number of children leaving the community and returning for assessment. Strong leadership, staff backing and warm but firm treatment of the children, while modifying prejudices and including the children in regular formal and informal discussions, were seen as the primary reasons for greater changes in the experimental than in the control groups.

Hierarchical Grouping of Personal Space Zones

Personal space was measured along 8 dimensions of approach, using the body-boundary instructions of the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale. There were 4 imaginary stimulus persons: same-sex friend, opposite-sex friend, same-sex stranger, and opposite-sex stranger. Mutually exclusive groups of subjects, maximally similar with respect to distances others were allowed to approach, were formed, using Ward's hierarchical grouping procedure. Subjects with larger zones in relation to strangers of the opposite sex were more emotionally stable and astute, while a curvilinear relation was found with expediency versus conscientiousness. For same-sex friend, subjects with larger zones scored higher on an intelligence factor. Demographically, number of siblings and density of house were significant factors.

Personal Space Methodology: Relation between Felt-Figures and Scores on Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale

24 males and 24 females paired a self-figure with 8 stimulus figures using both the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale and the Felt-figure Free-placement Technique. The two measures were strongly related although the magnitude of relationship varied by stimulus figure and sex.

Personal Space Measurement: A Validational Comparison

The study was designed to intercorrelate three classes of personal space measures: a naturalistic measure in which persons did not know personal space was being measured; two role-played measures in which participants approached or were approached by a stimulus person; and the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale (CID), a series of four paper and pencil measures of personal space. Results showed significant correlations within each class of measurement but negligible correlations between classes. The lack of overlap in assessment techniques calls into question the validity of measures other than those obtained naturalistically.

Use of An Auditory Technique in Personal Space Measurement

Summary Personal space was examined in 50 male and female college students by means of a newly developed auditory technique which was validated against simulated and behavioral measures. A multiple regression analysis showed the auditory technique to be a better predictor of behaviorally measured personal space than the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale, a simulated measure. The major advantage of the auditory technique over the simulated measure is its perceived realism.

Convergent validity of personal space measures: Consistent results with low intercorrelations

Low correlations among personal space measures have been used as evidence against their convergent validity. This argument is analyzed and found limited to personality trait assumptions. Convergent validity more generally concerns whether findings from one measure generalize to other measures. In the present study 91 subjects completed three measures (a disguised interaction distance, figure placement distances, and the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale) under different conditions of subject sex, sex of the other person, and acquaintance with the other person. The three measures showed an average intercorrelation ofr = .034, but consistent significant effects of acquaintance. These findings demonstrate that convergence of findings may be obtained even when measures are not highly correlated. The search for convergent validity should concentrate on the generalizability of findings rather than correlations among measures.

EFFECTS OF CONGRUENCE-INCONGRUENCE BETWEEN LOCUS OF CONTROL AND FIELD DEPENDENCE ON INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIOR

Lefcourt and Telegdi's concepts of congruence and incongruence between perceptual skills and expectancies were examined with respect to interpersonal behavior. Four groups of subjects were formed using a portable rod-and-frame device and Rotter's locus of control scale. As predicted the two congruent groups used significantly less interpersonal distance with each of four different social stimuli as measured by Duke and Nowicki's comfortable interpersonal distance scale. There was no difference between congruent and incongruent groups on a self-report measure of interpersonal needs.

Relationship of personal space to body-image boundary definiteness

The role of body-image boundary definiteness as a mediating personality variable in interpersonal spatial behavior under conditions of perceived threat was investigated in this study. It was hypothesized that personal space would be positively correlated with body-image boundary definiteness. The Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale and the Holtzman Inkblot Technique were group administered to 34 male and 43 female college students. Significant positive correlations were obtained for both sexes when approached by a male stranger but not when approached by a female stranger. Results were discussed in terms of level of perceived threat.

A Note on the Reliability and Validity of the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale

A Note on the Reliability and Validity of the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale

A note on the relationship between the comfortable interpersonal distance scale and the sociometric status of emotionally disturbed children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two measures of social attraction or status: namely, the recently developed Comfortable Interpersonal Distance (CID) Scale and a traditional measure of sociometric status. Both measures were recorded for a sample of emotionally disturbed, preadolescent boys who were in residential treatment. The results indicated that the two measures were very highly correlated. This finding means that the more a boy was liked by his cottage peers, the closer these peers indicated that they would like to sit next to the boy in a room. In other words, physical interpersonal distance seems to be nonverbal way of communicating liking for a person.

Use of Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale in High School Students: Replication

To study the developmental aspects of psychological distance or personal space (2, 3, 4), the present authors developed a paper-and-pencil technique to assess the effects of differential stimuli on preferred interpersonal distance (1). Results indicated that persons of different races were always kept at greater distances than stimulus persons of the same race and that opposite-sex stimuli, in the adolescent population, were permitted to come closer than stimuli of the same sex. These sex differences, using the group-administered Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale, were not unlike those previously reported (4). The present paper reports a replication using a different population of high school students. It was expected that findings would be repeated. Ss were 31 males and 31 females, aged 14 and 15 yr., from the student body of a suburban high school in the Southeast. The method was that described by Duke and Nowicki (1). Stimulus persons were black and white and male and female. Ss were required to indicate the distance at which they would feel comfortable with a stimulus person's closeness. Analysis of variance of distances indicated that, as in the first study, stimulus type significantly affected Ss' distance (P = 84.87, df = 3/180, p < ,001). When Neuman-Keuls' analyses were applied to these data, same sex-same race stimuli were held significantly farther away than stimulus persons of opposite sex but same race (M of 45.29 mm. and 15.87 mm. respectively); blacks of the opposite sex were held farther away than blacks of the same sex (M of 57.67 mm. and 46.43 mm. respectively, p = .05). These results replicate those observed in the original sample. Also, the interaction of sex of S by race was also significant (F = 5.21, df = 3/180, p = .01) . Males tended to keep aU stimuli farther away than females with the exception of persons of opposite sex-same race, i.e., white females. Again, this replicates an earlier result. The only finding which did not hold was direction of approach. In the initial sample, Ss preferred significantly greater distances when the stimulus persons approached from behind them and out of their field of vision. This effect did not occur for the present sample. Meisels and Guardo (4) have reported that this is a developmental phenomenon which begins to appear in adolescence. It may be that the variance of differences in developmental levels in the present sample washed out any consistent effects. Generally, the Comforrable Interpersonal Distance scale produced reasonable data from this sample. Study of different age groups may help determine whether the stability and validity of the measure makes it tenable for more extended use.