Relationship between Sociability and Personal Space Preference at Two Different Times of Day

Abstract

Measurements of sociability and emotional adjustment were determined for 100 undergraduate college students by the Heron Two-part Personality Inventory. Three measurements of personal space preference—maximum, optimum and minimum distance for comfortable standing conversation—were obtained for each S between the hours of 8:30–9:30 A.M. and 2:30–3:30 P.M. Contrary to earlier studies, in this sample there was no relationship between the degree of sociability and preference for personal space. However, the amount of personal space preferred in the morning was significantly greater than the amount preferred in the afternoon for all Ss. Low sociability Ss did demonstrate a significantly greater variability in the amount of personal space preferred than did high sociability Ss in 4 of the 6 trials.