Psychological Tension and Closeness to Others: Stress and Interpersonal Distance Preference

Abstract

The prediction that increased tension would lead to a preference for greater distance from others was tested on 40 male and 40 female Ss approached in eight natural settings of high or low tension and their distance preference measured. Ss in the four higher-tension situations indicated a preference for significantly more distance. Self-reported tension was correlated significantly and positively with the distance preferred across all eight situations. There was no effect of sex.

The effects of social support, life events, and demographic factors on depression among Maori and Europeans in New Zealand rural, town, and urban environments

“…Social ties can be a source of stress, especially in close relationships (Belle, 1982;Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Schilling, 1989;Bruhn & Phillips, 1984;McGonagle & Kessler, 1990;Rook, 1984Rook, , 1990. Individuals differ in their tolerance of proximity and the number of persons around them (Burgess, 1983;Insel & Lindgren, 1978;Long, 1984;Salzinger, 1982). Warheit et al (1982) found that among various racial and ethnic groups, the use of familial and friendship networks did not appear to ameliorate mental health symptoms.…”

The effect of gender, religiosity and personality on the interpersonal distance preference: a virtual reality study

“…Withingroup interactions also take place in closer IDs than between-group interactions (Novelli, Drury, and Reicher, 2010). Other factors that may affect IDP include stress (Dosey and Meisels, 1969;Hayduk, 1983;Long, 1984), status (Gifford, 1982), size of the room and height of the ceiling (Madanipour, 2003), outdoor or indoor environment (Cochran, Hale and Hissam 1984), clothing (Workman, 1987), attachment style (Bar-Haim, Aveizer, Berson and Sagi, 2002), and social stigma (Madanipour, 2003).…”

How Far Is Far Enough? A Measure of Information Privacy in Terms of Interpersonal Distance

“…The previous studies showed that there were many variables that had an influence on interpersonal distance, such as density (Kaya & Erkíp, 1999;Rüsteml, 1992;Sinha & Mukherjee, 1996), heat and noise (Bell & Barnard, 1984), culture (e.g., Barry, 2002;Beaulieu, 2004;Huff, 2001;Li, 2001), sex (Baxter, 1970;Evans & Howard, 1973;Fisher & Byrne, 1975;Gifford, 1982), attraction (Allgeier & Byrne, 1973;Michinov & Monteil, 2002), relationship (Aiello & Cooper, 1972), age (Naus & Eckenrode, 1974;Webb & Weber, 2003), mood states (Long, 1984;Yamaguchi & Suzuki, 1996), personality (Kaitz, Bar-Haim, Lehrer, & Grossman, 2004;Ray, 1984), etc.…”