Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
For a school project I would like to research 'Does your gender affect your personal space?' But I don't know how to test it as I can't say to people that I am going to step near them and they need to lift their hand when they feel uncomfortable as the results would be bias. The only way I can think of is by videoing me asking a person non-related questions and stepping closer every so often. This way I could then watch the footage back and see when the subject takes a step back or look alarmed. However I don't think this is very precise so I was wondering if you have another advice or another way to test it.

Thanks.

Hi tofle 106,

What a great project idea! Did you see the Science Buddies project about personal space? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p053.shtml In the Background for that project, there are references that could help you develop your procedure.

You can also do some research by looking for published articles on Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). Although scientific articles can sometimes be difficult to read, you can take a look at their methods to see if there is a good way to conduct your experiment. I found some good hits by searching "personal space" and "development of personal space" on Google Scholar.

Try looking at those resources, and then post back (in this same thread) if you have more questions or want more help with your experimental design.

Best,
Heather

Thanks Heather but I couldn't find a method which suited the way we wanted to carry out the experiment.
I was thinking that we could question some students, move occasionally towards them and just video their responses to this.
Have you got any advice on this?
Thanks

Hi tofle106,

tofle106 wrote:I was thinking that we could question some students, move occasionally towards them and just video their responses to this.
Have you got any advice on this?

This method could work for you. Make sure that you control as many other variables as possible, including the questions asked and the person asking the questions (since both of those things could affect the subject's sense of personal space). The other important thing is to have something in the video that you can use for scale, so you can go back and measure the actual distance between the interviewer and the subject. An easy way to do this would be to have the interviewer hold a clipboard while asking the questions. The clipboard can hold the questions and also serve as an object of known size. Then, when you analyze the videos for distance, you can use the clipboard as a reference for scale. If you want to be extra careful, you can mount a ruler on the side of the clipboard that will face the video camera (or both sides, just in case).

I recommend looking up some information about how to analyze video clips for distance. If you look at methods for studying kinematics, you will find suggestions for programs that can help you analyze your data. One free program for image analysis is ImageJ, which you can download at no charge from NIH.

I hope this helps! Please post again (in this same thread) if more questions arise.

Heather