UNIT 12

1	Thousands of books and articles have been written about the staking out and guarding of territories by animals, birds, fish and primates, but only in recent years has it been discovered that man also has territories.  When you understand the implications of this, you can gain enormous insights into your own behavior, and the face-to-face reactions of others can be predicted.
2	Most animals have a certain air space around their bodies that they claim as their personal space.  How far the space extends depends mainly on how crowded the conditions were in which the animal was raised and the local population density.  So personal territory can expand or contract depending on the local circumstances. 
3	Like most animals, each human has his or her own personal portable eair bubble,f which they carry around with them; its size is dependent on the density of the population in the place where they grew up.  Personal Space is therefore culturally determined.  Wefll now discuss the radius of the eair bubblef around suburban middle-class people living in places such as Australia, Great Britain, North America or anywhere a culture is eWesternisedf such as Singapore.
4	1.The Intimate Zone between 6 inches and 18 inches (15-45 centimetres).  Of all the zone distances, this is by far the most important, as it is this zone that a person guards as if it were his or her own property.  Only those who are emotionally close to us are permitted to enter.  These include lovers, parents, spouse, children, close friends, relatives and pets.  There is a sub-zone that extends up to 6 inches (15 cm) from the body that can be entered only during intimate physical contact.  This is the close Intimate Zone.
5	2.The Personal Zone between 18 inches and 48 inches (46 cm-1.22 m).  This is the distance that we stand from others at cocktail parties, office parties, social functions and friendly gatherings.
6	3.The Social Zone between 4 and 12 feet (1.22-3.6 m).  We stand at this distance from strangers, the plumber or carpenter doing repairs around our home, the postman, the local shopkeeper, the new employee at work and people whom we donft know very well. 
7	4.The Public Zone is over 12 feet (3.6 m).  Whenever we address a large group of people, this is the comfortable distance at which we choose to stand.
8	If you want people to feel comfortable around you, the golden rule is eto keep your distance.f  The more intimate our relationship is with other people, the closer they will permit us to move within their zones.  For example, a new work employee may initially feel that the other staff members are cold towards him, but they are only keeping him in the Social Zone until they know him better.  As he becomes better known to them, the distance between them decreases until eventually he is permitted to move within their Personal Zones and, in some cases, their Intimate Zones.