A Descriptive Study on the Personal Spacing Behavior of College of Arts and Sciences Students who are Passengers of the Light Rail Transit (LRT)

Abstract

Personal space is the “space immediately surrounding an individual which he feels to be personal, to belong to himself’(Dosey & Meisel, 1969). In addition, it is also considered as an “individual border beyond which no stranger can penetrate without making us uneasy. (Rice & Dyson, 2000). In relation to this, the present study measured the personal space of UP Manila CAS students through their behavior in the Light Rail Transit (LRT). Moreover, the degree by which gender, intraspecific competition and impression of other passenger affects one’s personal space perception was also tested along with the consequent effects of violation. There are a total of ninety-four valid respondents who participated in the study through selfadministered questionnaires in a form of Verbal Frequency Scale. In addition, observations were conducted at different density situations, in order to supplement the data. Findings show that personal space mostly depends on the impression of other passengers and that females maintain smaller personal space when in the company of same sex passengers while for males, the opposite holds true. Moreover, among the ways in which individuals maintain personal space, increasing interpersonal distance is mostly practiced. Consequently, violation of personal space can lead to stress and deterioration of social relations.