Personal Space Research Articles

What do States Recommend We Teach Adolescents about Sexual Consent? A Content Analysis of K-12 Health Education Standards in the US

ABSTRACT Although universities in the US commonly implement sexual consent education programs for students that focus on understanding how to communicate sexual consent, it remains unclear to what extent sexual consent education is taking place in grades K-12. The goal of this study was to assess K-12 health education standards recommendations for sexual consent education. We conducted a content analysis of health education standards from 43 states in the US to evaluate the guidelines provided to health educators across different grade levels. Using inductive and deductive coding, we identified six themes related to sexual consent. These themes were: 1) defining sexual consent, 2) explaining the legal standard of sexual consent, 3) defining personal space, 4) promoting healthy decision-making, 5) emphasizing good communication skills, and 6) defining healthy relationships. Fewer states directly focused on sexual consent education; instead, they provided information that could indirectly relate to consent, such as discussions on relationships and personal space. Across grade levels, topics related to sexual consent became more prevalent as adolescents progressed through school. While many states’ health standards do not explicitly discuss sexual consent, they may implicitly address consent through other topics. Educators and policymakers should advocate for more explicit and detailed education on sexual consent in the K-12 school system. This could help increase the number of students educated on sexual consent before entering higher education, potentially reducing rates of sexual violence, and promoting healthier sexual behaviors and attitudes.

From gamer niche to mainstream media: Twitch’s most popular media figures and content

This article presents the main features of the Spanish streamers with the most followers on Twitch, as well as their content. The aim of the research is to identify the streamers who hold the most appeal for young people on one of the social networks that has experienced the highest growth in recent years. To this end, based on the selection of the main profiles in terms of number of followers, along with other indicators that help to categorise the content, a portion of the platform’s most influential offering has been analysed. The results show that young people have created a personal space on this platform with features that belong exclusively to their age group, which are part of their youth culture. The streamers act as figureheads by offering spontaneous content to which young people can relate, and the interaction enriches the experience and reinforces a sense of community. Moreover, the latter aspect is essential to the success of the platform, as it occurs at a crucial moment when identity and relationships with peers take on special importance. Our analysis reveals a gender bias consistent with other international research. This is evidenced by the scarce presence of women as content creators, which is an unbalanced distribution that occurs on a national and global scale.

Hiding Away The Ghost of AMITY: The Narrator’s Fake Endings as Screen Memories in Andrea Levy’s The Long Song (2010)

Although studies on trauma have grown exponentially since 1990s with Trauma Studies, in different shapes and identities, trauma has been a part of personal and cultural space for much longer. After the formal recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder as an ailment that affects both the body and the mind, Trauma Studies has expanded to other fields of study including literature. Trauma studies in Literature is a movement that focuses on how trauma is handled in literature both thematically and functionally. Literature can play a performative role in its representation of trauma through literary and narrative devices. This essay aims to explore how Andre Levy imitates the effect of screen memories, which are a symptom of trauma, with her experimentation with metanarration in The Long Song (2010). Screen memories are essentially substitute memories which replace the traumatic events in memory. They are attempts of self-preservation of the mind. Levy’s narrator July tries to replace some traumatic parts of her life in her autobiographical story in order save herself the pain of reliving them through narration. This results in abrupt and unexpected endings to her story at two different parts of the novel, where she tries to break off the narration with a seemingly happy ending. However, her disputes with her son, Thomas, prove that there is more to the story as she picks the story back up only to reveal an increasingly painful and traumatic proceeding. Therefore, this makes her attempts to end the story prematurely screen memories that hide the traumatic truth, not from the reader, but from July herself through a self-imposed alienation from her previous life as a slave in a Jamaica sugar plantation.

Assessing school evacuation movement characteristics: Children and adolescents speed and flow over stairs and through exit doorways

AbstractThe available theories of evacuation movements are primarily founded on data gathered from adults, making them potentially unsuitable for children, especially in schools. Consequently, it is necessary to undertake further research to collect data on how children move during evacuations to understand their unique characteristics and disparities compared to adults. In this context, this paper aimed to explore the movement of school children and adolescents as they moved over stairs and through exit doorways during evacuations. The evacuation drill involved 295 school children and adolescents, whose behavior was closely monitored using a series of cameras. During the drill, their movement patterns, including flow and speed, were analyzed over stairs and through doorways. The observations revealed that children exhibited frequent interactions and contact with one another, unlike adults, who tend to maintain personal space. The findings of this study indicated that the average traveling speed over stairs was comparable to previous research, although female adolescents had a lower average speed compared to other groups. The speed and flow of participants passing through doorways were found to vary depending on their age and differed from estimates based on adult data. This study highlights that existing evacuation models fall short of adequately accounting for the dynamics of children, indicating the need for further research to improve the generalizability of evacuation models.

Conceptualisation of Kurt Levin’s Field Theory in the Transactional Analysis Paradigm

The development of personality psychology requires solving a number of methodological problems, one of which is the need to create a unified model of motivation behind the behavior of individuals. Thus, the ideas of Kurt Lewin have been becoming more and more popular these days, as he was the one who set himself the task of creating and proving the existence of the “Field Theory”, a unified theory of motivation that takes into account not only the internal factors behind behavior, but also the entire complexity of the sociocultural dynamics of reality that influences the individual in a moment. Within the framework of modern transactional analysis as a theory of personality, similar attempts are also made. This article aims to conceptualise the phenomenon of Kurt Lewin’s “field theory” in the paradigm of transactional analysis to describe the main theoretical approaches to understanding the phenomena included in the “field theory”, and compare these elements with selected psychological concepts of the school of transactional analysis. This study examines and compares such phenomena as: communication of charged systems and hidden ulterior transactions, personal life space and structural and functional models of the ego, existence within the field state and temporary symbiosis. This research paper also proposes an analogue of a psychotherapeutic plan based on the model of field change, constructed by Kurt Lewin. Understanding the field theory within the framework of selected TA concepts described in this article can allow transactional analysts to use the ideas of K. Lewin as a basis for developing and creating new theoretical models of motivation for individuals and groups.

Reduced Visuospatial Attention in Personal Space is Not Limited to the Affected Limb in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Alterations in spatial attention have been reported in people with chronic pain and may be relevant to understanding its cortical mechanisms and developing novel treatments. There is conflicting evidence as to whether people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) have reduced visuospatial attention to their affected limb and/or its surrounding space, with some evidence that these deficits may be greater in personal (bodily) space. We aimed to test the competing hypotheses of whether the visuospatial attentional bias is specific to the personal space of the affected limb or generalizes to the personal space of other parts of the affected side of the body. Using visual Temporal Order Judgement tasks, we measured spatial attention in the personal space of the hands and feet of patients with upper (n=14) or lower (n=14) limb CRPS and pain-free controls (n=17). Participants judged the order of two light flashes presented at different temporal offsets on each of their hands or feet. Slower processing of the flash on one side relative to the other reflects reduced attention to that side of space. Controls prioritized stimuli on the non-dominant (left) relative to dominant side, consistent with the well-documented normal leftward bias of attention (ie "pseudoneglect"). Regardless of the location (upper or lower limb) of the pain or visual stimuli, people with CRPS showed no such asymmetry, representing reduced attention to the affected side (compared to the greater attention of controls to their non-dominant side). More severe CRPS symptoms were associated with a greater tendency to deprioritize stimuli on the affected side. Our findings suggest that relative visuospatial bias in CRPS is generalized to the personal space of the affected side of the body, rather than being specific to the personal space of the CRPS-affected limb.

IDENTITY AND INFINITY: ALTERNATE MODES OF SCRIBING THE SELF: A COMPARISON OF MARIO VARGAS LLOSA’S AUNT JULIA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER AND YANN MARTEL’S LIFE OF PI

An active engagement with the notion of the ‘self’ in modes of confrontation, contestation and conjuration has been an important tropological concern of fictional narratives, especially of an autobiographical intent and tone. Any coherent and significant concept of the ‘self’ entails a conglomeration of conscious and subconscious indices of subjectivities, intellectual sensibility, emotional drives and epistemological orientations, all of which are ideally conducive to artistic or material creativity. And, in life as well as in literature, it inevitably determines the ways and the extent to which the individual is capable of transcending the ‘personal’ to connect with the ‘other’ in varying degrees of empathetic identification. Literature is a terrain where one can encounter, on the one hand, protagonists who cross the confines of their self and feel one with the whole cosmos, and on the other, those who fail miserably in transcending the anxieties and fears of the personal, and recede into self-imposed reticence and insularity. The former is usually seen undertaking a self-chosen or imposed journey in which their inner psychic resources are unearthed and are ultimately traced to the vast eternity of cosmic energies. The latter is representative of the tragic consequences of the ruthless encroachment of normative social forces upon the personal space and the resultant subjugation of the individual self. There is also an in-between category of individuals who can strike a fine balance between their self and the social mores, through an ironic process of competitive negotiation. They consolidate their selves through the calibrated transgressions they perform upon the rules and rigours of social institutions and ethics, only to be re-inducted after a brief interregnum of ostracized animation.

Anthropometric analysis of wooden architectural heritage based on a historical system of measures

The paper examines the historical Russian system of measures and its significance for the study of monuments of Russian wooden architecture. The basis of the research is the work of Russian scientists on metrology in construction, as well as research in the field of anthropometry. Continuing the idea of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” this study formulates the hypothesis of a person’s “personal space” in Russian folk architecture. A conclusion is drawn about the modular structure of “spheres of comfort”, which are based on values associated with human growth. “Spheres of Comfort” are used to analyze the plan and facade structures of an archaic peasant building in the Sverdlovsk region. The arrangement of the spheres demonstrates a logical, “organic” composition of the modules. At the same time, numerical analysis of the plan and facade in vershok units is used. Analysis of numerical chains shows that the basis of a series of increasing quantities is the ratio of the diagonal of the square to its side (i.e. √2). The conclusion states the general and specific features of Russian house construction inherent in each specific building. The question is raised about the need for further statistical research and the compilation of regional tables based on anthropometry.

Biophilic Experience in High-Rise Residential Areas in China: Factor Structure and Validity of a Scale

The increasing popularity of high-rise, high-density residential areas in urban environments has brought about problems such as isolation from nature and increasingly depauperate ecological conditions, and consequently, adverse effects on residents’ health and environmental sustainability. Therefore, creating a high-quality biophilic living space environment is key to solving this conflict, considering the health benefits that nature brings to people. However, there are currently no appropriate assessment tools to measure the biophilic living environment of high-rise residential areas. In response, we have developed an environment assessment scale for measuring the Biophilic Experience in High-Rise Residential Areas (BornA) based on resident experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the measurement items relevant to their biophilic living experiences and behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to identify the scale’s structure and examine its reliability and validity. The study resulted in the development of an 18-item BornA, comprising five dimensions: natural landscape, natural interaction, cultural identity, neighborhood interaction, and personal space. The BornA contributes to the assessment of the biophilic living space environment in high-rise residential areas from the perspective of resident behavior and perception, identifying health intervention environments for sample populations and understanding how the residential environment affects residents’ health.

Measuring the auditory bubble: How mobile music listening affects personal space

Research on mobile music listening (through headphones while on the move) revealed that people use music to create an imaginary space around themselves that cannot be breached by others. This concept recalls the zone around each person called personal space. Thus, the questions posed in this exploratory study were as follows: How does music listening through headphones influence personal space? Is there a difference between air-conduction and bone-conduction headphones? Thirty people (M_age = 34.6, SD_age = 15.4; 11 male, 19 female) took part in the experiment. They were each approached by either a female or male assistant while listening to self-chosen music and were instructed to ask them to stop at two points: firstly, when an ideal conversation distance had been reached, and secondly, when the assistant should not come any closer. The distances between assistant and participant were measured first without music and then randomly while listening through air-conduction or bone-conduction headphones. Results indicate that listening to music influences personal space: when music was listened to through headphones, the ideal conversation distance was smaller, whereas the second distance measurement was only affected by air-conduction headphones. Apart from music, no other factor was found to influence the size of personal space. The findings of the present study reveal that listening to music and even the kind of headphones used have a measurable influence on personal space. The smaller personal distance required when listening to music can be explained by the fact that the listener is distracted from unpleasant situations and can instead focus on something positive.

The dawn of personalized multi-omics: Detecting disease before you know it

Recent advancements in omics techniques have enabled deep profiling of an individual’s molecular makeup. The wealth of data produced offers insights into genetic predispositions, early disease markers, and personalized treatment strategies. However, the full potential of omics data emerges when combined into longitudinal and personal multi-omics space. Another interesting venue is the inclusion of continuous monitoring of physiological parameters through wearable technology. Wearable health devices, including smartwatches and biosensors, provide real-time data on heart rate, oxygen saturation, sleep patterns, activity levels, and much more. By integrating with omics data, wearables offer a comprehensive view of an individual’s health, allowing for early detection of deviations from normalcy. This convergence allows for the prediction and prevention of diseases at the individual level and provides a powerful monitoring tool in clinical and drug developmental settings. This review explores the fusion of omics and wearable technology, envisioning their synergy as a catalyst for a transformative shift in modern healthcare. Their merging enables predictive and personalized medicine. As these technologies continue to evolve, their translation into routine clinical practice holds the promise of a healthier future for all. Provided herein is a step-by-step vision for how longitudinal personalized multi-omics, combined with wearable devices, will guide proactive healthcare and transform drug discovery in translational medicine.

Репрезентация личности и трансформация культурного пространства в век постмодерна

<p>The article considers some current trends in the transformation of human personality and socio-cultural space in the postmodern context. In the author's opinion, the most important changes that determine the shape of postmodern society and culture include, firstly, the loss of certainty inherent in the process of the symbolic communication, secondly, the fragmentation of cultural space, which includes very heterogeneous and often inconsistent components, and, thirdly, the crisis of human personality representation. The above trends are core in terms of the general characterization of those crisis phenomena that affect the state of postmodern culture. The paper concludes that the most important means of overcoming the existential crisis is to restore the lost integrity of human personality on the basis of a new (or revived) metanarrative, which, in turn, will ensure the coherence of cultural space in the new historical situation.</p>

Estimation of Object Handover Position Using Human-Robot Proxemics and Unsupervised Pattern Recognition

The increasing elderly population presents significant challenges in terms of the meeting of their daily care needs. Cognitive decline and reduced arm reflexes following balance loss impede the elderly’s execution of activities of daily living. To address these challenges, robots have emerged as valuable assistants for elderly individuals in their daily activities, including object manipulation, and have the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for the aging population. However, no research has been undertaken to enhance the selection of object handover locations in human-robot interactions by merging topology mapping with both parties’ range of motion, based on personal space. Based on the idea of personal space within human-robot proxemics, this research presents an alternative approach that makes use of topological mapping while taking into account the range of motion of both humans and robots. This research aims to minimize the expenses related to human-robot proximity and to determine the best locations for item handovers in order to discover which locations are optimal. In order to improve object handover locations, this work is a groundbreaking attempt to combine growing neural gas and human proxemics inside a robotic framework. Furthermore, it implies the creation of robot behaviors that resemble human proximity by estimating personal distances and incorporating rule-based requirements for item handover locations by taking into account the mobility ranges of both humans and robots. The simulation findings reported in this work show the ability of the suggested methodology and offer interesting information and prospects for further developments in the area of object handovers by robots.

Kłopotliwa wielka płyta. Sąsiedzkie i artystyczne praktyki transformowania przestrzeni sofijskich kompleksów mieszkaniowych

The aim of the article is to show social practices (neighbourly and artistic) activated around the example of Sofia’s dissonant heritage, which is the space of a housing complex. The author interprets the capital’s block housing estates as zones of transition between what is public and what is private, where specialized urban planning meets the everyday experience of residents, and the dehumanizing uniformity of the landscape clashes with the effects of amateur activities aimed at personalizing the environment. Using the methodological tools of anthropology of visual culture and arts and cultural studies, the author considers grassroots ways of adapting housing estate space to the residents’ needs, as well as attempts towards its visual revitalization using street art. The analysis shows that apartment blocks — as dissonant heritage, and at the same time a personal space — are today a field of activities of local communities and the artistic community, exploring the aesthetic and social potential of housing complexes.

Dimensionless numbers reveal distinct regimes in the structure and dynamics of pedestrian crowds.

In fluid mechanics, dimensionless numbers like the Reynolds number help classify flows. We argue that such a classification is also relevant for crowd flows by putting forward the dimensionless Intrusion and Avoidance numbers, which quantify the intrusions into the pedestrians' personal spaces and the imminency of the collisions that they face, respectively. Using an extensive dataset, we show that these numbers delineate regimes where distinct variables characterize the crowd's arrangement, namely, Euclidean distances at low Avoidance number and times-to-collision at low Intrusion number. On the basis of these findings, a perturbative expansion of the individual pedestrian dynamics is carried out around the noninteracting state, in quite general terms. Simulations confirm that this expansion performs well in its expected regime of applicability.

Renovation in St. Petersburg as a field of power-civil relations: Approaches to analysis

The article is focused on the analysis of the reaction of the population of St. Peters burg as a field of power-civic relations. A comprehensive approach is used, including both the tools of sociology of social movements and the model of citizens’ behavior in the space of normative coordinates. Attention is paid to the inconsistency of the adopted legislation. Emphasis is placed on the use of digital platforms to coordinate protest activity and protect their personal space.

Gender Equality and Work-life Balance in the Digital Era: A Bibliometric Analysis

The impact of digitalisation on work-life balance stemming from flexible working arrangements, which have blurred the boundaries between one’s profession and personal space, has heightened in the face of modern technological advancements. Unlike males, females are the most disadvantaged when it comes to gender norms and formulation of institutional policies as most of the existing policies have been clearly oriented on men as compared to women. The study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the relationship among evidence regarding gender equality and work-life balance in the era of digitalisation. VOSviewer is used to present data obtained from the Scopus database. Articles retrieved were critically appraised and presented in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart. The study finds that the number of publications on the topic of gender equality, work-life balance, and digitalisation has seen a steady increase (47 in 2023 from 4 in 2017). The West and Europe dominate when it comes to contributions made to publications on digitalisation, gender equality, and work-life balance, only one paper is from South Africa and there are no publications contributed from Ghana. The study further reveals that though Germany has the highest number of publications, the United Kingdom and the United States have the highest collaboration and impact (citations). This indicates the gap in literature requiring empirical research on the effect of digitalisation on gender equality and work-life balance in the Ghanaian and developing countries context.

Personal space invasion to prevent cyberbullying: design, development, and evaluation of an immersive prevention measure for children and adolescents

The previous work on cyberbullying has shown that the number of victims is increasing, and the need for prevention is exceptionally high among younger school students (5th–9th grade). Due to the omnipresence of cyberattacks, victims can hardly distance themselves psychologically, thus experience an intrusion in almost all areas of life. The perpetrators, on the other hand, feel the consequences of their actions even less in cyberspace. However, there is a gap between the need and the existence of innovative prevention programs tied to the digital reality of the target group and the treatment of essential aspects of psychological distance. This article explores the design space, feasibility, and effectiveness of a unique VR-based cyberbullying prevention component in a human-centered iterative approach. The central idea is reflected in creating a virtual personal space invasion with virtual objects associated with cyberbullying making the everyday intrusion of victims tangible. A pre-study revealed that harmful speech texts in bright non-removable message boxes best transferred the psychological determinants associated with a personal space invasion to virtual objects contextualized in cyberbullying scenarios. Therefore, these objects were incorporated into a virtual prevention program that was then tested in a laboratory study with 41 participants. The results showed that the intervention could trigger cognitive dissonance and empathy. In the second step, the intervention was evaluated and improved in a focus group with the actual target group of children and adolescents. The improved application was then evaluated in a school workshop for 5 days with 100 children and adolescents. The children understood the metaphor of virtual space invasion by the harmful text boxes and reported the expected psychological effects. They also showed great interest in VR. In summary, this paper contributes to the innovative and effective prevention of cyberbullying by using the potential of VR. It provides empirical evidence from a laboratory experiment and a field study with a large sample from the target group of children and adolescents and discusses implications for future developments.

Research on the Cultivation and Introduction of Talents for Rural Revitalization in the New Era

As one of the four important aspects of rural revitalization, rural talent revitalization focuses on the combination of human elements and rural development. In the new era, combining talent cultivation and promotion with rural development can not only enhance the richness of personal development space but also shape human resource potential for the countryside. This article aims to explore the importance of rural talent revitalization and its implementation path.

The Open Space Office and the Relationship with the Shift in Social Meaning

The development of the organizational structure is necessitating additional office space. However, not all offices are inclined to expand their spatial resources. Those designed with a closed layout face challenges in meeting the spatial demands posed by the evolving organizational structure. In such cases, transitioning to an open-space office design presents a viable solution. On the other hand, the transition often gives rise to issues pertaining to the social dynamics between leaders and employees, as it disrupts established traditions, leading to a shift in the perceived significance of office space. Understanding this shift within the workplace requires an effective examination of the empirical phenomenon. Moreover, it demands a strong theoretical foundation to develop a precise conceptual framework. Design science serves as a problem-solving approach, addressing the physical elements of structural organization systematically to achieve desired outcomes. This problem-solving process is intricately connected to how individuals respond to their workspace. One of the key design challenges revolves around spatial users and their proximity. The proximity is closely intertwined with the requirements for personal spaces, which significantly impacts privacy. Achieving this balance is accomplished through the application of ergonomic principles and the understanding of proxemic distances. This study used the design method and integrated design thinking theory into the strategic process. The primary objectives of the analysis were twofold, including (1) to reconsider traditional design approaches based on absolutes of right or wrong, likes or dislikes, suitability or unsuitability, and precision or imprecision, and (2) to embrace changes aimed at enhancing the existing workspace without expanding the spatial area while ensuring a seamless workflow for employees.