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An Experimental Study Of The Effects Of Personal Proximity Upon Selected Aspects Of Conversational Content, Ronna S. Loewen

Dissertations and Theses

Proxemics is an area of study devoted to the interrelated theories of man's use of space as a special elaboration of culture. Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist, has begun to draw these theories together in his work dealing with proxemics.

It is the purpose of this study to determine whether certain dimensions of interpersonal conversations vary with the distance between the conversants. Three distances were used as experimental variables. Intimate distance was set at nine inches, personal distance at three feet, nine inches, and social distance at eight feet. A total of fifty-four subjects was used with nine pairs situated …