BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES - Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie

music affect the behavior of communicators during interaction.
Environmental conditions can alter the choices of words or actions that
communicators use to accomplish their communicative objective.
The space language.
Proxemics is the study of how people use and perceive the
physical space around them. The space between the sender and the
receiver of a message influences the way the message is interpreted.
Proxemics was first developed by Edward T. Hall during the 1950s and
60s. Hall's studies were inspired by earlier studies of how animals
demonstrate territoriality. The term territoriality is still used in the study of
proxemics to explain human behavior regarding personal space. There are
identified 4 such territories:
1. Primary territory: this refers to an area that is associated with
someone who has exclusive use of it. For example, a house that
others cannot enter without the owner’s permission.
2. Secondary territory: unlike the previous type, there is no “right” to
occupancy, but people may still feel some degree of ownership of a
particular space. For example, someone may sit in the same seat on
train every day and feel aggrieved if someone else sits there.
3. Public territory: this refers to an area that is available to all, but only
for a set period, such as a parking space or a seat in a library.
Although people have only a limited claim over that space, they
often exceed that claim. For example, it was found that people take
longer to leave a parking space when someone is waiting to take that
space.
4. Interaction territory: this is space created by others when they are
interacting. For example, when a group is talking to each other on a
footpath, others will walk around the group rather than disturb it.
Consequently space in nonverbal communication was devided into
four main categories: intimate, social, personal, and public space.
Intimate space (Distance: Touching to 11/2 feet). This is the
distance of lovemaking, wrestling, comforting, and protecting.
Personal Distance (Distance: 11/2 feet to 4 feet). This distance is
reserved for more than just a casual friend or fleeting encounter; however,
it is a no-contact distance. Where people stand in relation to each other
signals their relationship, or how they feel toward each other, or both. A
wife can stay inside the circle of her husband's close personal zone with
impunity. For another woman to do so is an entirely different story.
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