No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)(Hons)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-145). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2006. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 19, 2007). Advisor: James A Tyner. Keywords: involuntary migration, space, gender, discourse analysis, Sardar Sarovar project, tribals. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-171).

Expectations about interpersonal distance during social encounters (distance schemata) and body orientation (orientation schemata) were investigated among White English-speakers and Xhosa groups which included illiterate traditionalists (Reds), poorly educated urban dwellers, and highly literate students and nurses. In a series of six experiments a doll placement task was used in which subjects represented dyadic encounters by placing pairs of standing dolls. For each situation represented the responses of each group of subjects were summarised in the form of a profile which showed the mean of the distance and three angle measures (IPOS profile). Independent variables included culture of subject, type of situation represented (friendly encounter, quarrel, accusation and denial, request) and the sex, age or relationship of the persons represented. In the culminating experiment (Experiment 6), females from three Xhosa groups (Reds or XR, poorly educated urban or XU, and urban nurses or XN) made twenty-three placements. In some respects the schemata of the four groups were very similar, while in others both distance and orientation schemata were a function of cultural group. The experiments allowed an assessment of the validity of the doll placement method to be made, and results were discussed in terms of the effects on interpersonal distance and body orientation of cultural norms concerning the showing of respect and the nature and strength of the emotions present in the various types of situation. It was concluded that with cultural movement away from the traditionalist pattern the schemata of the urban Xhosa showed a transition towards those found among the Whites in some respects. However, while the schemata of the XN group showed features of both those of the XR and White groups, those of the XU group showed features found in neither which seemed to reflect the insecurity of the cultural milieu of the urban poor.

Traditionally, in the landscape profession, landscape analysis has been concerned with the physical aspects of place. Properties like shape, amount, use, colour and content have been surveyed, identified and classed in their various combinations to describe ' place character '. With few exceptions, (Appleton 1998), the psychological aspects of place as criteria for classification have been largely ignored. One of the reasons for this, has been the argument that such data are' subjective' and personal, when what is required is,' objective', verifiable and subject to 'constancy'. Another equally valid objection has been the difficulty in defining and identifying the psychological properties of place. The proposed method of analysing places by their psychological properties depends on people being able to verbally describe their feelings and states of mind. To define the survey parameters, these personal, emotional and mental properties have been identified and arranged in spectrums. By selecting the appropriate terms to describe their feelings in place, psychological profiles can be prepared, describing person-place relationships. With many such profiles, linked to personal details, like age, activity, sex and culture, factor analysis allows statistical examinations to be made of these person-place relationships. These reveal consistent patterns, relating particular combinations of feelings to particular combinations of perceivable place properties. Language is the medium of analysis and a linguistic examination of the data allows its classification into different types of place property. Those which are tangible, nominals and nouns, like apples, beds and chairs, and those which are intangible and descriptors, like abnormality, banality and chaos. Linguistics also offers, through concepts like antonymy, the ability to express opposites or contrasts in design terms, like, alien-friendly, bold-weak, chaotic-ordered. Certain combinations of emotions and perceivable, intangible place properties indicate places of particular significance. These are defined as archetypes. Thus, Arcadia is emotionally peaceful, restful and tranquil, and perceivably fertile, productive and beautiful. Battlefield is tense, shocking, stressful and perceivably brutal, chaotic and dramatic. CG Jung, (1968) asserted that anthropomorphic archetypes exist in the 'collective unconscious' of society and that this innate knowledge prepares the mind for future encounters. His archetypes included concepts like Mother and Father, Superman and Hero. By extension, it is postulated that places are also archetypal. To relate people to places objectively, the concept of 'objective relativity' is evoked ( G H Mead. 1932), allowing personal properties like awe, beauty and calmness to be logically attributed to place, relative to particular people. The main concept on which the thesis is based, is 'Psychospace', a linguistic model of the total psychological experience of place. New concepts are created to describe further people-place relationships. Prattles are property feelings of people attributed to place and Percies are properties of place perceived by some people and not others, and therefore 'subjective', like order, chaos and formality. Also included in 'subjective' judgements are those of assessment. Procons are personal properties, like quality and value, good, bad and satisfactory, but also objectively relative. Methods are proposed for the analysis of places and people and the identification of concepts which are employed in the processes of design. Examples are shown and discussed of how the formulated principles work in practice.

This report is the result of an empirical investigation of everyday life in Victory Square, Vancouver, British Columbia. Three months of intensive, scheduled observation and participant observation were planned in order to investigate the hypothesis that there was a regular and meaningful organization, both spatially and socially, to the use and control of park space. The exploration was guided theoretically and methodologically by the research of human spatial behaviour at other spatial scales, from the indoor built environment to the scale of urban communities. Both systematically retrieved demographic statistics and spatial habits of park users, and more subjective anecdotal accounts of people's perceptions and specific behavioural episodes were gathered. This provided a well rounded statistical and phenomenological data bank from which to generalize. An instrument for objective assessment and classification of park users as to life style affiliation, a systematic schedule of information retrieval, and a 'behavioural map' on which to record unobtrusively derived data were central to a research strategy that did not impinge upon the natural, real life setting. The park was found to host a number of socially marginal life style groups who, as powerless outcasts of wider affluent society, coexisted, as a separate social world, in social and spatial harmony. Through the behavioural processes of tolerance, non-involvement, and passive readjustment, a parochial moral order existed which was demonstrated in rituals of interaction and collective patterns of spatial dominance. This socio-spatial order accorded incompatible life style groups a means of peaceful coexistence in a place of limited space and resources. Spatial behaviour in micro-scale outdoor public space has not previously been intensively investigated. This exploration, as a case study of one such environment, supports the hypothesis that, at all levels of social encounter, and at all spatial scales, available space is organized, used and controlled in a regular, ordered, and meaningful way to accommodate and integrate the social gatherings it hosts. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Humans are social beings whose interaction with others constitutes an important part of our well-being. In these social interactions there are certain factors that are essential for us to feel comfortable. One of these factors is to keep a proper “breathing space”. A physical distance to whom we interact, to not have our personal space violated. This space we keep to others is called interpersonal distance (IPD) and might be altered depending on the situation. In the recent decade the neural correlates of IPD have been investigated. The current systematic review aimed to investigate the existing literature on the neural correlations of IPD and how it relates to IPD-behaviour. A systematic search was made in the electric databases Scopus and PubMed. Nine articles remained to be reviewed after screening and selection was done.The results showed the superior parietal cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex, motor areas, occipital areas, and the amygdala to be the most prominent structural brain areas to be involved in IPD. Some functional connections between mentioned brain areas were found but needs to be replicated for better knowledge. The review provides insight into the neural nature of IPD and its behavioural basis.

No description available.