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Wendall Horton Professor Rand ENGL 1103 11 November 2013 Dont Bump, Dont Speak, Dont Look: The Impersonal American Public Rollo May once said, Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. Without communication, any desire for community, understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing within American society is an unattainable dream. Humans are naturally social creature; however, Americans in recent decades have developed patterns of behaviors that vary in response to various social situations. Most striking is the lacking degree of interaction between individuals in public. As I sat in the Student Union at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I observed students, faculty, and visitors as they traveled through the public space. One prominent pattern of behavior was how individuals would travel with varying degrees of haste or urgency and with different amounts of interaction with others in their surroundings. This is a behavior I have noted in my own patterns of travel. When focused on a destination or task, I will unintentionally disregard people or happenings in my surroundings in order to not be interrupted. When I am engaged by someone while Im focused on traveling to my destination, I struggle with shifting my attention to that person instead of my destination. As a result, I often remind myself to slow down and actively engage people and my environment while I travel. Being aware of this habit of movement, piqued my interest into

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what causes the formation of such behaviors. To properly analyze those causes, we must explore the history and factors of interpersonal relationships and nonverbal communications in American society. The birth of American society was in the context of colonial settlements along the Atlantic coast. These early communities were highly homogenous and centralized. They consisted of a couple of families that decided to live within a community and support each other with food, goods, and services. Such colonies were highly centralized to provide security and to conserve resources. As more colonist entered America, these colonies transformed into forts, villages, and then towns; yet, cultures were generally divided with the French settling in Canada, the British and Northern Europeans colonizing the Mid-Atlantic States, and the Spanish and Portuguese claiming Florida and the Caribbean. Fast forward about a century, and America entered a phase of westward exploration and expansion in the 1800s. Just like early settlements, survival during exploration depended upon unity between families as they traveled. Because mostly brave and adventurous families decided to take the risk of moving, the result was a subtly homogenous population of settlers. The greatest defining factor of these settlements were their decentralized nature as they settled since families separated to claim their plots of land. As time progressed, the United States filled with various communities with specialized industries and products. In the 1900s America entered the Industrial Revolution. The transition from the Industrial revolution to the Information Revolution of the 21 st century marks the final stage of American society. The industrial revolution was characterized by the creation of highly

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centralized cities focused on industry that attracted many individuals from various cultures in search of employment. The result was the formation of a new, heterogeneous society. Modern American society is a product of the consequences from a heterogeneous culture being confined into highly centralized centers of activity. America is often described as a large mixed salad, and the honest truth is that the individual piece will never naturally unite into a single homogenous mixture. That means that the different cultures and lifestyles within American society present barriers and confines on acceptable public behavior. Earlier in 2013, Richard Renaldi, a photographer, introduced a new project titled Touching Strangers. Renaldi fights the patterns of insensitivity and distance between passing strangers in American cities by photographing strangers in intimate poses with one another (Frank). This project is so effective because in towns and cities, a large emphasis is placed on the maintenance of personal space according to predefined levels of intimacy between two individuals. In addition, one persons gaze can alter perceptions of and reactions to another individual in public. Intimacy levels, personal space, gaze, and walking speed are four major factors of interpersonal relationships and nonverbal communication within the American public. The core factor of interpersonal relationships is an individual s understanding and perception of intimacy levels. Intimacy levels pervade daily interactions both in private life and in public life. The equilibrium theory asserts that there is a comfortable or appropriate level of intimacy (Patterson 107) between any two individuals in a given situation. Should one individual increase the level of intimacy beyond the acceptable threshold, the other individual will compensate by looking away or turning his body effectively returning the intimacy level back to equilibrium (Patterson 108). In regards to the equilibrium theory, the manner in which a

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person reacts to an increase in intimacy depends on the arousal-labeling process. When the increase is associated with positive feelings, such as with the embrace of a close friend, the natural response is to reciprocate the increase of intimacy; however, the opposite applies to uncomfortable situation, such as a close interaction with a stranger, in which the common reaction is of compensation to decrease the intimacy to a comfortable level (Patterson 109). In both public and private relationships, intimacy is an individually determined concept, so conflicting levels may be daily occurrences. In public, most Americans do not want to be the person causing the increase of intimacy because that risks embarrassment. Instead, Americans attempt to proactively adjust their behavior to maintain a sense of social control and personal space. In America, interactions involving personal space can be very uncomfortable. Each individual has that one invisible sphere in which certain individuals are expected to never enter; however, Edward Hall discusses a hierarchy of four concentric spheres concerning interpersonal space. Each region denotes a level of intimacy and relationship type. The four regions are: public, social, personal, and intimate, with intimate being the smallest (Hall 220-221). The range of these sectors vary according to an individuals preferences in order to properly regulate intimacy and avoid unwanted sensory stimulation (Matsumoto 84). As discussed earlier, differences in understood intimacy levels may result in an imbalance of the intimacy equilibrium often in the form of invading personal space. Americanstend to value some degree of personal space even when among crowds of strangers and are offended or insulted if people invade that space (Matsumoto 85). In America, unlike in many Arab countries, invasions of personal space are not socially acceptable. One experiment documented by Kleinke

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studied how individuals reacted to an invasion of personal space. One experimenter sat close to his subjects while the other experiment gave a comfortable between himself and his subjects. The result was that the individuals whose personal space was invaded stood-up and left much sooner than the individuals whose personal space was not invaded (Kleinke 37). Because invasions of personal space are common occurrences in public, one would think Americans are becoming more accustomed to that type of encounter; however, I see American becoming more callused and frustrated towards people that interfere with their path or interrupt them. This American sentiment against interpersonal relationships in public is observed even in the simple form of an individuals gaze. The fourth smallest organ in the body holds the portal to the soul and the power to communicate without words (Top). In nonverbal communication, the eyes and their gaze can influence people and communicate positivity or negativity. A great amount of intimacy in public relationships can be observed through the effect of gaze. Kleinke dedicated many of his studies to the observation of how gaze affects individuals behaviors and perceptions of the gazer. A direct gaze can communicate dominance or threat. As a result, an uncomfortable situation involving direct eye-contact from a stranger can result in the recipient shifting his gaze away to lower the level of intimacy (Kleinke 22-23). Exline found two schools of thought on the effects of gaze, or a mutual glance. According to Simmel, the mutual glance signifies unionwhether we seek or avoid such visual contact depends upon our desire for union with each other (Exline 67). On the other hand, Sartre believes mutual glances present a threat to individual autonomy (Exline 67). A mutual glance expressing union serves its purpose in familiar and intimate relationships, but in public relationships, communicating a desire for union would

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increase the intimacy level above an acceptable, comfortable level. The second observed effect of gaze aligns with Kleinkes observations of eye-contact with a stranger. Americans try to avoid making eye contact by looking at a specific point, distracting themselves with a phone or tablet, or even altering their gate. Gate, or the pace of walking, is the final factor involved with interpersonal relationships and nonverbal communication. According to Matsumoto, being in different emotional states can affect the gait patterns of individuals. Another study found that observing an individuals gait can offers clues to his or her personality characteristics. A couple of study have been conducted to observe how individuals from various cultures, including Americans, generally travel through their cities. They show that gait is associated with punctuality, cor onary heart disease, and a variety of attitudinal and personality traits (Matsumoto 98). However, the lack of studies connecting culture, posture, and gait show that there is much room to grow in understanding this subject. Combining the findings of human behavior within society, many connections can be found between intimacy, personal space, gaze, and gait. Myers-Briggs personality type test determines an individuals temperament in four dichotomies: Extroversion or Introversion, iNtuitive or Sensory, Feeling or Thinking, and Judging or Perceiving. The two dichotomies that play a role in interpersonal relationships is Extroversion/Introversion and Judging/Perceiving. The first category is how an individual gains energy: extroverts are energized by interacting with people while an introvert gains energy by spending time alone (Friedman). In regards to interpersonal relationships, an extrovert is more likely to engage people visually and tactually in public than an introvert is. As is the case with both Andrika Rikochev and Tanya Jackson. They

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are both extroverts, and when asked if a friend was approaching them that did not notice them there, both women expressed using an elevated voice and touch to get their attention (Rikochev). When asked how they would engage a stranger in a close encounter, they both detailed extending a greeting and making eye-contact as they person passed (Jackson). Judging and Perceiving relates to decision making. A judger likes to quickly reach a final decision and not waver, whereas a perceiver like to keep his or her options open until a decision is absolutely necessary. In my personal experience as a judger, I tend to become tunnel-visioned as I focus on reaching my destination. As a result, I miss opportunities to engage people in conversation. Myers-Briggs Personality Types can correlate and predict certain behaviors on public. Personality traits are intrinsic characteristics; however, regional stereotypes illustrate learned behaviors that still affect interpersonal relations. In the North, the stereotype is that they are not friendly and focus on their own lives. The weather in the north can be a huge factor affecting how people interact in public. For a large portion of the year, the North is affected by harsh winter weather. Because of this, people try to spend as much time within buildings and not exposed to the weather. In the daily routine, that means walking quickly when outside or going between buildings, keeping conversations short and concise, and prioritizing who to talk with. These behaviors become habit and carry-over into other aspects of their lives. They end-up traveling quickly to destinations and missing chances to converse, especially is they are not familiar with that individual. Americas history formed a society in which many people of different cultures are placed into centralized areas. As a result natural borders of communication exist. The main factors of interpersonal relationships and nonverbal communication are: levels of intimacy, personal

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space, gaze, and walking speed. Altogether these factors are subject to personality types and regional learned behaviors that manipulate how those factors are expressed. These are not deterministic; the American public can become a more unified, personal country by defamiliarizing itself with the habits of society in the past and recreating the prospects of the future.

Horton 9 Reflection I enjoyed learning about the patterns behavior within interpersonal relationships, especially about the intimacy level equilibrium theory which is why people look away when you make eye contact. It showed me the background psychology to many behaviors I have observed in myself and others throughout my life. I struggled with changing my topic. I was focused the journey vs. destination topic, but as I began researching, I found so much information beyond just walking. The knowledge was so interesting, but I didnt know how to fit it inside my topic of the journey and destination. Finally, on the night before this paper was due, I laid out a plan using index cards that incorporated all of my research. Looking at the overall scheme, and the desperation of needing to finish my paper, I was able to make sense of my research. My inquiry question changed not too much, but in a very dramatic timing. It began as the Journey vs destination, but that topic was based solely on walking speed. As I found more research I need to change the topic but was reluctant to. Finally on the night before my paper was due, I changed my topic to why Americans are so impersonal in public. It changed because there was such a great breadth of research available that covered a wider topic than journey vs. destination. A historical view of this topic is important because society is constantly morphing and changing. What was socially acceptable a century ago is not necessarily socially acceptable today. The same goes for social behavior patterns. The actions and choices of society in the past may have repercussions that are currently affecting how the public interacts with each other. I am more comfortable working with books now. I wanted to find only peer-reviewed articles because they are shorter and I could use ctrl+f to search the document. Books are not the easier option but they offered a variety of information within one publication. I am much better at reading quickly to find the main idea and gleaning the details from the most important parts of the book.

Horton 10 I am most proud of my ability to find connections between so many types of behavioral patterns and their various causes or implications. Although my communication of this understanding is not very well expressed in my paper because I limited myself into only a few hours to write my paper. I still want to know what factors such as personality type or regional learned behaviors affect walking speed. That was my original question and it was the one least answered because of the lack of research.

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Works Cited Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. Brainy Quotes. Book Rags Media Network, n.d. Web. 10 November 2013. Exline, Ralph V. Visual Interaction: The Glances of Power and Preference. Nonverbal Communication. Ed. Shirley Weitz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974. Print. Frank, Priscilla. Richard Renaldi's 'Touching Strangers' Brings Intimacy To Portraiture. The Huffington Post. 16 July 2013. Web. 29 October 2013. Friedman, Harley. MBTI Personality Type Test. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. 2007. Web. 5 November 2013. PDF File. Hall, Edward T. Proxemics. Nonverbal Communication. Ed. Shirley Weitz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974. Print. Jackson, Tanya. Personal Interview. 11 November 2013. Kleinke, Chris L. First Impressions: The Psychology of Encountering Others. Englewood Cliffs: Prentince-Hall, 1975. Print. Matsumoto, David and Hyi Sung Hwang. Body and Gestures. Nonverbal Communication: Science and Applications. Ed. David Matsumoto, et al. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2013. 75-96. Print. Patterson, Miles L. Intimacy, Social Control, and Nonverbal Involvement: A Functional Approach. Communication, Intimacy, and Close Relationships. Ed. Valerian Derlega. Orlando: Academic Press, 1984. 105-132. Print. Rikochev, Andrika. Personal Interview. 8 November 2013. Top 10 Smallest Body Organs. HealthFiend. n.d. Web. 11 November 2013.