Proxemic Behavior Categories

Proxemics has eight dimensions of behavior.  The eight dimensions are posture-gender identifiers, the sociopetal-sociofugal axis, kinesthetic factors, touching codes, visual codes, thermal codes, olfactory codes, and voice loudness.  The posture-gender identifiers are the gender and postural status of the interactants; the sociopetal-sociofugal axis refers to face to face versus back to back positioning of shoulders.  Kinesthetic factors are the difference distances between persons that provide a capability for touching one another; touch codes refers to how the interactants are touching one another.  Visual codes denote the amount of eye contact between the participants; thermal codes refer to the amount of body heat that each participant receives from each other.  The olfactory codes refer to the degree or odor detected by the other interactant; voice loudness deals with the vocal effort used in speech (ciil-ebooks.net).  These behaviors happen in interpersonal communication within the intimate, personal, and the social distances.  Many of the dimensions encompass aspects of the other nonverbal behaviors considered separately such as the voice, kinesics, and visual behaviors.  However, all of these factors depend on the physical distance which, other things being held constant, will determine how much we hear, see, feel, smell, etc. Distance meaning the manipulation of distance, can be considered a necessary but not a sufficient condition for nonverbal communication itself (ciil-ebooks.net).

            The first of the eight dimensions is posture-gender identifiers.  There are six primary sub -categories are defined as man prone, man sitting or squatting, man standing, woman prone, woman sitting or squatting, and woman standing (websters-online-dictionary.org).  Proxemic behaviors depend mostly on our culture, and they way we grew up.  During the posture-gender identifiers, people who are closer in relationship and better know each other tend to interact more closely.  An example of this would be a baby girl lying flat or prone. 

Prone-Female

The next dimension is sociopetal-sociofugal axis.  The axis of this dimension denotes the relationship between the positions of one person's shoulders and another person's shoulders.  There are nine orientations which are face-to-face, forty-five degrees, ninety degrees, 135 degrees, 180 degrees, 135 degrees, ninety degrees, forty-five degrees, and back-to-back (websters-online-dictionary.org).  Osmond stated, "That when space is organized so that it is conductive to communication between people it is referred to as sociopetal, and when space is organized to produce solitary behavior it is referred to as sociofugal." (Khan and Kamal 2010).  Sociopetal environments are thought to be in closer proximity which it makes conversation easier and more inviting.  Sociopetal environments have long rows of unmovable chairs all facing the same direction which makes communication difficult and awkward. 

Sociopetal

Sociofugal

The kinesthetic factors refers to the different distances between participants that provide the capability of touching one another (ciil-ebooks.net).  In general, male-male relationships have the furthest distance between them, next is female-female relationships are closer than males but not as close as male-female.  Of course, male-female relationships are the closest and the most intimate type of relationship. 

Male-Female Relationship

The fourth dimension is touch code refers to how the participants touch each other and how long the touch is whether it is caressing, holding, feeling, prolonged holding, spot touching, pressing against, accidental bump in, or not touching at all.  Culture plays a major factor in this dimension because one might feel threatened, and they may respond as either fight or flight.  This also depends on the person as well whether they are male or female; they might respond differently.  

Striking in response to threat

Visual code is the next dimension.  In this dimension it refers to the amount of eye contact between the participants.  There are four sub-categories which are defined as ranging from eye-to-eye contact to no eye contact at all (websters-online-dictionary.org).  This is another dimension that people need to pay close attention when in different cultures because in different cultures there are different behaviors.  In some cultures staring is normal, but in different cultures staring can be considered rude and uncomfortable.   

Eye Contact

 
The thermal code denotes the amount of body heat that each participant perceives from one another.  There are four sub-categories that thermal code refers to which are conducted heat detected, radiant heat detected, heat probably detected, and no detection of heat (websters-online-dictionary.org).  The amount of heat detected depends on how close the interactants are to each other; the closer they are the more heat and further away the less amount of heat. 

Conducted Heat Detected

Olfactory code refers to the kind and degree of odor detected by each participant from each other (websters-online-dictionary.org).  It is a fact that the better a person smells they are usually are more attractive, but if they wear too much perfume or cologne then they become less attractive.  

Nasty smell makes skunks unattractive

The last dimension is vocal loudness.  This dimensions deals with the volume of the speech used.  There are seven sub-categories defined as silent, very soft, soft, normal, normal+, loud, and very loud (websters-online-dictionary.org).  The volume that a person uses usually corresponds with their attitude and behavior.  A loud spoken person is usually out-going, spontaneous, but sometimes can be considered aggressive and/or annoying.  A soft spoken person is usually is timid, shy, and weak.

Football games are loud which can get aggressive

Each of the eight behavior dimension plays a vital role in whether communication begins, continues, or never starts.  If each behavior is appropriate then the participants will have a successful conversation with no problems.  People need to take in to consider that different cultures have different views and behaviors on each of these dimensions.  It is their responsible when visiting a different place not to misjudge someone's behavior because they are acting differently from which they are normally do.

References:
-Khan, A., & Kamal, A. (2010). Exploring the Maintenance of Spatial Zones by Male and Female Studentsin Four University Environments. Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 8(1),39-53. Retrieved from http://www.gcu.edu.pk/FullTextJour/PJSCS/2010/39.pdf

-Thirumalai, M. S. Silent talk: Nonverbal communication. CIIL Printing Press. Retrieved from http://www.ciil-ebooks.net/html/silent/foreword.htm

-Webster's Online Dictionary. (2006). Proxemics. Retrieved from http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Proxemics