Interpersonal Communication Essay

The results I received from strangers were quite different from the results I received from my family and friends. When manipulating spatial zones with family and friends most of the time they just told me to go away or stop being annoying. When manipulating spatial zones with customers they didn’t know how to react, because they still wanted to be polite, but they were obviously uncomfortable or annoyed with me. For instance when I was watching a movie with my good friend Kelsey I kept stretching out onto her side of the couch into her intimate space, as Edward T. Hall calls it, putting my feet in her lap even though there was plenty of room for me to stretch out on the other end of the couch. The first few times I did this she just told me to move over and get out of her space but after a while she started pushing me over and telling me to stop being annoying. However, at the fabric store where I work, when working with customers I would invade their personal space the whole time I was helping them by getting to close to tell them something like the price of the fabric or how much they would need for their project, something that should be communicated in social space. Unlike my friends and family who just told me out right to go away, my customers didn’t want to be rude and

Breaking social norms is something I shy away from. I refrain from breaking social norms because I know what it can do to a person’s reputation, but also because I was taught not to. Those are the reasons this assignment was particularly challenging for me, so I kept it small and just chose to sit next to people. To get various reactions I sat next to my family, friends, and finally strangers. Each group reacted differently to me sitting next to them and only the strangers reacted the way I thought they would. I started by first sitting next to family members as they were the easiest to reach.

Most of the time it’s just human nature to give someone so much room and when someone violates that space it just feel extremely awkward.  Most people don’t think about personal space it just happens and they only tend to think about is when people invade that space and then it becomes a problem.  After doing this I am really going to make it priority to give people their space I never really thought about it till now.  I learned that personal space is really important because it gives some one room to breathe. After doing this experiment I am really going to look at how much space people give me because with that space I am able to tell what kind of relationship the other person thinks we have and I will be able to act

Violating line etiquette has several reactions based on the circumstances. Reactions to violating this social norm can range from surprise to confrontation. In some instances, violating line etiquette does not always have a negative reaction. While standing in line at the grocery store, I allowed someone that had one item to check out before me. While I violated the social norm, the person behind me was appreciative and took advantage of the offer. Waiting in a long line requires patients, I believe some individuals behind me will explain where the line begins as a polite reaction. Others will be surprised, but

I took the only table available at that time, unfortunately the localization of this table was not appropriate enough for the purpose of observing people greeting each other. I was not able to see people at my back. I needed to change the original position that I chose at the beginning of my observation in order to have a better control of the environment I would like to observe. I was quite far from the cashier, one of my ideas to observe is how the cashier in the cafeteria greets her costumers, and if costumers greet back.

I have had jobs where I have had to wait on very rude customers. I worked at Cara, a salon. I remember this one time where i had wait on this one rude lady. I was polite, like I always am. I first asked her if she wanted any water, she responded with “If you don’t touch the glass, I would like some.” I’ve run into rude people about my race, but the fact that she told me only if I don’t

While conducting my field research at the entrance to the Union Square subway, I found that most of the interactions that took place were unintentional ones such as brushing shoulders or bumping into each other followed by apologies such as “sorry” or just apologetic

In one ride that I did, most of the observers were so busy at their phones that they did not even look at me at all including nurses and doctors. I guess that technology is getting an impact in some experiments that make people indifferent to some norms by the effect that they are busier in their phone rather than be aware of what it is going on around them. There was only an old woman probably on her 60s that my partner and I noticed she was looking at me and trying to figured out, why I was doing the opposite of the rest of the people that was inside the elevator, but she never say anything she was only observing at

I noticed a woman in the seafood department looking over the selection of first. I walked toward here and got within one foot of touching her and said, “Hello” even though she saw me approaching, she jumped back as if she was startled. I continued to try to get closer to her as I asked which fish her thought was good. She walked to the other side of the shopping cart and put it between us. While I tried to be courteous and cheerful and non-threating, I couldn’t help but feel as though this woman was a little bit scared. She didn’t know how to react to my actions of wanting closes and closer proximity for our conversation. I also tried this experiment at my apartment complex. I went outside to the courtyard this afternoon and walked by a line of par benches. An older lady, perhaps someone’s grandmother, was sitting and watching the kids play in the sand box. I purposely sat down right beside this woman, almost touching her leg with mine. She jumped up and let out a small scream. I had frightened her. I slide over and apologized for my action. I went on to comment on “What a gorgeous day it was and how cute the kids were. This was a hard experiment to perform. People naturally want to keep their “Me space.” I found it hard to violate this space on both

The norm I decided to violate was a simple one, yet it makes many others feel uncomfortable. At the local Walmart which is always busy with people, I took the opportunity to position myself rather closely (less than a foot between us) to others as they walk down the aisles, while pretending to not notice the proximity the I was in with them.

Several of the people had no reaction at all, probably numbed by the often encountered with such behaviour in large busy cities; many people however greeted me with impolite glances and confused expressions. Through the scrunching of their brows this confusion and annoyance was portrayed. A few elderly people were even quite shocked, conveying this through startled wide-eyed expressions and open mouths. These facial expressions were what allowed me to understand how the passenger were feeling and what they were thinking without them having to say a word, showing that non-verbal communication is much harder to control as it is a continuous

Growing up in my household I have always been expected excel in every single class. This installed this fear of failure in me whenever my upperclassmen friends told me how hard physics would be, because I did not want to disappoint my mother. However, when I finally began to take the class I had the opposite impression than my uupperclassmen friends had, physics was really easy.

From what I experienced doing this to other people, most behaved like the two girls mentioned. There would be a few stares that led to confused questioning about what I was doing and if I needed something. After the questioning, I found that people would resort to joking about what I was doing to ease their tension, especially if there were in a group of people. If there were walking alone they would try and get me to say something to them. Me not talking or saying anything was probably the most confusing element about me violating their personal space. After all of this people would just walk into store to get me to stop walking with them. There were not mad, just mostly confused and slightly annoyed.

Other than having to raise my voice when the distance was about 12 fee, it was uncomfortable when the person sat at least 3 feet away from, which overstepped personal space by a foot.

Some greeted you in a formal manner, some tried to court you (but you ended up politely rejecting them), and some were trying to converse with you.