Proxemics and Chronemics

Overview

Humans rely on communication to organize and make all social structures function. When it comes to face-to-face communication, the oldest of all communication systems, people must rely on a series of biological, cultural, and psychological factors to get their message across fluently. More than just exchanging messages back and forth through words and signs, human communication is supported and modified by a complex array of nonverbal acts, all of which are as important as what is being said and, in some cases, even more so. These nonverbal acts include facial expressions, tone of voice, eye contact, posture, use of time and space, and many more. There are three general types of human communication: (1) visual, (2) auditory, and (3) invisible.

Visual nonverbal communication includes a set of sub-areas known as proxemics, kinesthesia, and artifacts, while invisible communication includes physical contact and chronemics. Two of these are considered culturally bound: proxemics and chronemics, because they deal with perceptions of time and space, which are notions that vary across cultures. In these, signs are used to modify or support the meaning conveyed in nonverbal communication. Other elements associated with human communication include language, paralanguage—elements that accompany speech, such as tone, pitch, facial expressions—and kinesthetics, or body positioning. Finally, the auditory elements are the sounds created by speech. Although all these elements can be studied separately, they usually work in tandem to create a whole, nuanced communicative act.

Proxemics, which derives from the term "proximity," is an area that studies the distance or proximity between communicators and, in relation to distance, their postures, gestures, tone, context, and so on. In relation to context, for example, one does not sit and gesture the same way in a job interview that one does at a party, nor does one act in the same manner when having a conversation with a relative stranger as with a person with whom there is an intimate relationship. Proxemics, however, transcends examining the ways people communicate when face-to-face. It also considers the distribution of space people make in their environment, including the configuration of furniture, cities, streets, homes, and so on. The distribution of space has a strong impact on people's behavior and, by extension, the ways they interact with each other. In their relation to each other as they communicate, and the relation to the spaces in which the communication occurs, culturally ingrained notions of personal space, intimacy, cultural context, and territoriality are sure to have an impact. One of the most common and popular areas of study in proxemics, however, is how notions of personal space vary across cultures. In Portugal, for example, notions of bodily contact and personal distance are different from those in neighboring Spain

Chronemics is the area of communication that focuses on time. Time is used in very concrete ways during a communication act; it can be used passively, by implicitly sharing cultural information, or actively, by modifying or emphasizing the meaning conveyed by other communication systems. Chronemics studies how time is structured across cultures. In all cultures and even across social class, gender, and age within a specific culture, non-verbal communication plays a fundamental role. In conjunction with proxemics, chronemics is used to interpret human communicative behavior in relation to time. Three main types of time are used in chronemics: (1) interactive, (2) conceptual, and (3) social.

Interactive chronemics refer to the length of time that communicative signs last, such as a greeting, a hug, a kiss, a handshake, or any other sign that accentuates or changes what is being said. Interactive time also refers to the duration of signs in other communicative systems, such as computer-mediated communication (e.g., the length of time an email recipient takes to reply to the email). In face-to-face communication, however, chronemics is related to the time taken to answer a question or the pauses within a speech, or the length of human touch between individuals, which might reveal to an observer the level of intimacy between them.

Conceptual chronemics is tied to culture, as the perception of time varies across cultures and social environments. Different cultures have different concepts of time, which inevitably impact habits, behavior, and beliefs. A common example is the importance of the division of time in numerical and linear time—minutes, seconds, days, years—in Western cultures, whereas Eastern cultures tend to divide time by cycles.

Such understandings of time shape how different people and organizations across cultures organize and plan their time. Therefore, the cultural weight given to concepts such as "punctuality" or "lateness" is also different in each society. To better define this cultural phenomenon, experts distinguish between monochronic and polychronic cultures. Further, although the area of chronemics is important for organizational communication, the area of social chronemics is linked to behaviors related, for instance, to social meetings. In every culture, there is a specific idea of what is appropriate for "social time," which determines the proper time and duration for a social visit or a meal. For these reasons, social time also depends upon conceptual time.

Experts highlight the importance of teaching proxemics and chronemics in intercultural communication across a diversity of fields, from teaching a multicultural student body to international relations and international business. Moreover, experts extend the importance of chronemics in speech when teaching foreign languages. Understanding these dynamics across cultures is very helpful to avoid misunderstandings and stereotyping. For example, if people are chronically late for meetings, it may be because they are from a polychronic culture, rather than because they are being disrespectful. On the other hand, people adapt to other cultures. For example, after spending time in a monochronic culture, people from polychronic cultures usually become more monochronic.

Further Insights

Edward T. Hall, an American cultural anthropologist, is considered the founder of the academic field of intercultural communication (Rogers, Hart & Miike, 2002), a concept he introduced in The Silent Language (1959). He is also considered the founder of the field of anthropology of space. Hall became one of the foremost experts in the understanding of monochronic/polychronic time. Monochronic time is most prevalent in Northern European cultures as well as in the United States and Canada—in these cultures, time and activities are strictly segmented by time. In other words, there is a specific time for each activity, and during that time, it is only right to perform that one. Other cultures, such as Latin American cultures, abide by polychronic time, meaning they often do several things at the same time. Hall argued that in polychronic cultures, the perception of how time is used is flowing and continuous, which allows the performance of simultaneous tasks at the same time. He also argued that these time perceptions can lead to misunderstandings, with some Latin Americans perceiving Northern Europeans as rigid and inflexible, whereas to Northern cultures, Latin Americans may seem disorganized and unpunctual.

The basis of Hall's findings improved the training of diplomats and foreign officers in the US Foreign Service Institute in the early 1950s, as the postwar United States became a major international player (Rogers, Hart & Miike, 2002). Hall identified three academic fields as his major influences: linguistics, Freudian psychoanalysis, and ethology. He also built upon the work of anthropologists Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Franz Boas. As opposed to them, however, Hall focused on small one-on-one interactions between people of different cultures. From ethology, the science of animal behavior, Hall gleaned his notions of space, crowds, and behavioral reaction chains between two or more participants, known as "action chains." Psychoanalysis provided him with the underpinnings to study the unconscious elements of communicative acts and linguistics the drive to illuminate how language influences meaning-making and thought; all of these appear in his writings on proxemics..

Intercultural communication expanded to other countries; proxemics soon became an important area of interest in Japan, after Hall's book was translated into Japanese. Japanese scholars explored at length proxemic elements such as silence, personal space, hierarchical relationships, bowing, and eye contact. They also entered the field of chronemics by becoming interested in notions of the sense of time. Among the many contributions of Japanese scholars to the field is the understanding of how Japanese can adapt the interior home environment according to what they are doing, something alien to Western culture, where each area of the house has a concrete purpose.

Among Hall's contributions to proxemics is his definition of interpersonal distance into four specific zones: (1) intimate space, (2) personal space, (3) social space, and (4) public space. Personal space is the area immediately surrounding a person that they consider "their" territory and, with some variations, is usually about an arm's length away. When others violate personal distance, it can lead to a surge in discomfort and anxiety in the person whose space has been "invaded." Closer than personal space is intimate space, the area reserved for those with whom a person has a close personal relationship. Social space, defined as any space between 4 and 8 feet (1.2 and 2.5 meters), is reserved for friends and social events. The last dimension is typically reserved for large audiences or spaces, such as when giving a speech at an auditorium. It is defined as any space farther than 8 feet away.

Personal space is defined both culturally and psychologically and may vary according to life experiences. People with more intercultural exposure, for example, tend to be more capable of adjusting their sense of personal space according to cultural relevance. Moreover, there are social reasons why some people need more space. A Japanese person tends to need less space, and this is partly the result of the limited space available in Japan. Therefore, they will stand closer to others. An American, who is used to a wider personal space, may feel uncomfortable and perhaps even threatened.

Other important concepts in proxemics are high territoriality and low territoriality. Some people are more territorial than others. They seek to mark "their" areas and are more prone to having boundary conflicts with others. Low territoriality, on the other hand, describes people who place less importance on ownership of space and boundaries.

These concepts are used in complement with the notions of high context and low context cultures. In high-context cultures, people depend upon contextual factors to understand the rules. In such societies, much is implicit, that is, unexplained and taken for granted. This can lead to misunderstandings for people who do not understand the implicit rules of that culture. In a low-context culture, on the other hand, not much is taken for granted. More explicit rules and explanations are required for everything, but the chance of misunderstandings is less. A common example is contrasting French contracts with American contracts. In France, a high-context culture, contracts are short because many things are implicitly understood in the agreement. In the United States, a low-context culture, contracts are more detailed and longer; everything must be carefully spelled out and itemized.

Finally, people are adaptable to some specific situations, such as in crowds, when their personal space is violated continuously and unavoidably. As psychologist Robert Sommer, author of Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design(1969) explained, one way in which people deal with the inevitable violation of personal space in crowds, i.e., airplanes or the subway, is that they learn to dehumanize others; that is, they see them as inanimate beings, tuning out their humanity in order to keep calm.

Issues

The fields of proxemics and chronemics have expanded to others beyond cultural anthropology and interpersonal communication. Experts began to understand public spaces as areas that led people to certain behaviors and to explore how to design spaces to encourage desired behaviors. The relationship of proxemics to interior architecture and to urban design became key. For example, when designing spaces that will serve as a pedestrian throughway, designers calculate a distance of about 9 feet (2.7 meters) to facilitate the comfortable flow of movement. These calculations can also be applied to restaurant design or student lounges and other public places where managers want to connect the spaces to create a greater sense of easy comfort and even intimacy.

When experts do not fully understand people's need for space, it can impede the design of a better urban space, one that encourages conviviality and positive social exchange. The field of urban studies has developed modern guidelines for urban planning and design, based on early notions of proxemics. In his work The Hidden Dimension (1966), Hall argued that people do not just react to their physical surroundings, but also use them for social interaction and communication.

In 1970, sociologist William H. Whyte and his research group, called the Street Life Project, studied small plazas and parks of New York City to determine how and why some public spaces serve social needs better than others. Their findings were published in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980). In 1984, Julienne Hanson published her research in The Social Logic of Space, in which she argued that cities that develop organically develop similar street patterns, based mainly on how people prefer to utilize public space.

From the field of proxemics, there are many ways to understand the impact of space and culture on human behavior, from small-scale interpersonal communication to large-scale urban space analysis. Spaces induce people to socialize or interact with one another in myriad communicative ways; if properly designed, they can help these interactions to be positive rather than dehumanizing.

Finally, chronemics has also been a field of new research and how perceptions of time are processed in digital and computer-mediated communication (McArthur, 2017). The delay in replying to an email is often interpreted as a power play or a way to signal status and hierarchy; in fact, delays are deemed more acceptable if the behavior is from someone in a higher level of an understood hierarchy—say, a professor's delay in replying to a student (Tatum, Martin & Kemper, 2018). Furthermore, promptness to respond can indicate how serious one is about communicating. A delay in a job applicant upon replying to a follow-up communication after a job interview may give a negative impression, regardless of the reason for the delay. In general, however, a delay or failure to respond can create uncertainty, confusion, and frustration, even though the acceptable time frame for responding may vary across social and business contexts.

The study of chronemics and of proxemics has transcended its initial purpose, that of improving international relations; it has stretched into arenas far beyond those of cultural space and time in interpersonal communication. It is, to date, considered a field that continues to expand.

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