Psychiatria Danubina, Vol. 25 No. 2, 2013.
Original scientific paper
DIFFERENCES IN THE SIZE OF PERSONAL SPACE BETWEEN PERSONS WITH ANXIOUS AND PERSONS WITH PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS
Vildana Aziraj
orcid.org/0000-0003-1044-2112
; Department of Psychiatry, Cantonal Hospital “Irfan Ljubijankić”, Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Spasenija Ćeranić
orcid.org/0000-0002-7226-3809
; Faculty of Philosophy in Banja Luka, Department of Psychology, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Background: Personal space is the area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without
arousing discomfort. The purpose of this study was to establish whether patients with anxiety disorder and patients with psychotic
disorder differ in personal space preferences according to experimenter sex.
Subjects and methods: 82 patients who met the ICD- criteria for psychotic and anxiety disorder participated in the study.
Personal space was assessed using stop-distance method in which all subjects were approached by female and male experimenter
from four directions.
Results: Personal space zone was significantly larger in the patients with anxiety disorder than in the patients with psychotic
disorder.
Conclusion: The results of this research can be seen as possible tendencies, rather than firm indications; it is necessary to make
a further research, on a larger sample, of different aspects of psychotic and anxiety patients’ personal spaces in a quest for the
significances in their behavior in space.
Keywords
personal space - psychotic disorder - anxiety disorder - stop-distance method
Hrčak ID:
161175
URI
Publication date:
10.6.2013.
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