Impact of Physical Disability and Gender on Personal Space

Abstract

Persons with physical disabilities have experienced a long history of stigmatization and (Rubin & Roessler, 1995). This stigma has become intimately linked to persons having physical disabilities thus creating attitudinal barriers that make it extremely difficult for these people to lead productive lives. For Hahn (1987), the major obstacles for persons with physical disabilities included bias, prejudice, and discrimination (p, 182). Larson (1986) stated that this social stigma tends to isolate a person with a disability to a much greater degree than the disability itself. Prejudice towards persons with physical disabilities has been well documented (e.g., Gellman, 1959, Goffman, 1963; Schneider & Anderson, 1980). Wright (1983) suggested that negative attitudes and perceptions about people with physical disabilities are held tenaciously and are therefore extremely difficult to change. Gender differences in this attitudinal research (e.g., Chesler, 1965: Fonosch & Schwab, 1981; Roush & Klockars, 1988) have been reported with men demonstrating more negative attitudes than women toward persons with physical disabilities. Prior social contact with people with physical disabilities (Chesler, 1965; Fichten & Amsel, 1986) and social desirability (Feinberg, 1967; Fichten & Amsel, 1986) have also been shown to be positively correlated with attitudes toward persons with physical disabilities. One behavioral index of these negative attitudes is the tendency for individuals with disabilities to be physically avoided by persons who are not disabled. Kleck (1968) believed that one way to operationalize this concept of avoidance was to examine the personal space given to persons with physical disabilities. Personal space was systematically studied and popularized by anthropologist Edward T. Hall. Hall (1966) described four distinct areas of personal space associated with social interaction: intimate space (0-1.5 feet), casual personal space (1.5-4 feet), social consultant space (4-12 feet), and public space (12 feet and beyond). Many researchers have analyzed the relationship between the stigma of physical disability and the personal space given to individuals. In general, Kleck's (1968) belief that people with physical disabilities are given more personal space in social interactions than their peers without disabilities has been confirmed. For example, Langer, Fiske, Taylor and Chanowitz (1976) and Stephens and Clark (1987) reported that college students chose to sit significantly closer to a peer with no apparent physical anomaly than to the same person wearing a leg brace or using a wheelchair, respectively. Similarly, Worthington (1974) found in a field study that people would approach significantly closer to a man without a physical disability who was asking travel directions than to the same individual using a wheelchair. Little attention, however, has been directed at examining potential gender differences that might exist since only men were used as the confederates with disabilities in the above studies (Langer et al., 1976; Stephens & Clark, 1987; Worthington, 1974). Other research has confirmed gender differences in attitudes toward individuals with disabilities (Somerville & Anderson, 1987) and personal space for persons without disabilities (Sommer, 1967). The purpose of the present study was to systematically examine the effect of gender and physical disability on personal space. Specifically, the following three research questions were addressed: 1. Will the personal space given to an individual differ as a function of that person's disability status (i.e., absence versus presence of a physical disability)? 2. Will the personal space given to an individual differ as a function of the research participant's gender? 3. Will the personal space given to an individual differ as a function of that person's gender? Method Participants. …