Mapua
| Ong | Poon | Ramos | Tai | Valencia | Vinuya
SA 21 – K
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=-Rd75YDDXdM&app=desktop
In our experiment, the group decided
to violate the personal space of our “subjects”. People, in general, value
their personal space of “one to two feet.”1 A person’s “personal
space” refers to the area a person considers his own space or an area of his
own comfort that nobody should enter2. For this experiment, the
group will use the term “violate” as to connote that we or any one of us has
entered the “personal space” of the subject in question. Violating another
person’s personal space may cause that person to react in different ways,
depending on the person. The group is also strangers to the subjects; thus, the
subjects are more protective of their personal space. According to a study by
Sanchez and Gaw, a person may smile inappropriately as an effect that could be
a sign of “nervousness or embarrassment or may reflect personal mannerisms.”
They pointed that “head wagging,” in this case, should not be confused with
shaking one’s head in disagreement1. As such, the group’s main focus
is to study the reactions of different students walking around the Ateneo and
to take note of any pattern or unusual behavior that different students show.
To violate the personal space of
students, we hugged random people that were walking around campus. Before
hugging someone, one or two people would act inconspicuously so as to not
attract attention. If two people were going to do the experiment, they had to
be positioned on opposite sides of the road or pathway. This is done so that
these two people could come from opposite sides of the victim, and pretend that
they just didn’t notice that person. The true motive, though, is to get the
victim in the middle of the hug. If only one person was to do the experiment,
that person would just go up to the victim and ask for or to suddenly hug the
victim, then say hi and walk away.
We did the experiment in three different
locations: Red Brick Road, Zen Garden, and Sec Walk. We also decided to do the
experiment at different times during the day to see if the reaction of people
would be different if it was done during rush hour (where people are hurrying
to get to their class).
The reactions of the people we hugged
were as follows:
1.
Try
to move away upon seeing one of us running towards him
2.
Ignore
us and leave after we let go of the hug
3.
Let
the person hug him, but keeping a “what’s going on” face
4.
Pushing
away the hugger
5.
Try
to move away from huggers, but smiling
6.
Run
past the hugger
7.
Hug
back
The experiment resulted in
multiple different ways on how the subjects reacted to their personal space
being violated by hugging. The reason for why the subjects reacted the way they
did could be inferred. Some of the subjects' reactions would be to move away
from the experimenter's attempt to hug him or her. From this, it could be that
these certain people are very defensive when it comes to their own personal
space. They are very much aware of their surroundings as to avoid any close
calls with other people being too close, even from a distance. Other subjects
would ignore the hug that they experience, and ignore the person as well. These
people could be the types that are indifferent to anything that might come at
them, no matter how strange it may be. Another inference would be that these
subjects actually care with what's happening to them and could have a more
interesting reaction to the unexpected physical contact, but try to hide them
behind a facade of expressionlessness as to try and not be 'deviant' themselves
in other people's eyes when they show their true reaction.
It is common for people to
suddenly become confused after unexpectedly experiencing an event that most
would think as strange. And this is what can be observed from subjects who put
on a face full of questions and confusion after having their personal space be
invaded. Once an action takes place that deviates from the normal flow of
routine, people might have questions suddenly occupy their heads, asking as to
why or even how could something this strange be taking place? They try to find
a logical reason to make what is different fit into normality, but in the short
seconds that they do this and do not come to a fine conclusion, they just ask.
Women are more open to
showing their affection by hugging or holding hands, while guys are less
affectionate. We were able to observe that girls were more likely to try to
shove off the huggers. Although most of the guys tried to escape the hugs, some
of them hugged back. It was observed in our experiment that some guys allowed
the hug to happen, but the girls did not. By looking at this, we could say that
this was breaking the norm that women are more affectionate than men. We could
say, though, that the men were only hugging back because another man was
hugging them, unlike the women, who were hugged by people of the opposite
gender.
At the beginning of the experiment,
nobody in our group wanted to be the ones to do it first. All of us were pretty
hesitant in hugging strangers, probably because not only will we violate their
personal space, but also allow our own personal spaces to be breached by the
other person. Also, there were a lot of people walking along the path, making
it more uncomfortable for us to do the experiment. We had to eventually do it
though, and so we did. The first tries of the experiment were deemed a failure
because we were backing out when we got near the person, but we eventually got
used to it. We took turns trying out the experiment, so all of us could have
our own experiences of violating another person’s personal space.
Sources:
1.
Sanchez,
Francis, and Albert Gaw. Mental health care of Filipino Americans, 2007.
2.
Sanchez, Francis,
and Albert Gaw. "CME Activity." PsychiatryOnline.
N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
.
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